I Can't Stop Wearing It: My New Watch

I'm the last person you'd expect to buy a solid gold watch, and yet here I am with a yellow gold Rolex President, or the Day-Date Reference 1803, which is from 1970. On paper, it's the watch that you wear when you wanna draw a little bit of attention. It's the watch known for being on presidents, on CEOs, but the twist is, that I think makes this one work, is that I have it here on the strap rather than on the gold President bracelet. The strap here, I think, makes it a lot less loud than it would be on the bracelet itself. The bracelet's called the Presidential Style Bracelet. The watch itself is the Day-Date. To kinda separate those two, if you're used to calling this the President Watch, it's the President Bracelet. That's at least the names around this watch. It is a absolutely stunning watch. I have it right now on a Fluco blue suede strap. I don't have the matching buckle yet because I keep swapping it on different things for the strap video that I've been working on. I have 100, at least over 100 straps in here. I'm making a five-part series. We're talking about straps, leather straps, fabrics, rubbers, what to buy, what not to buy, differences between brands. All that stuff is coming next month, so subscribe down below if you wanna see that. I'm also on a journey to 100,000 subscribers, as you guys know, so if you hit that down below, it would help me on that journey, and I would be very appreciative of that. However, when it comes to this watch itself, I think the reason why I was drawn to it is because of the icon status. I've talked about that with the Submariner, with the Explorer, with my Rolex Explorer here and the Explorer II. I have definitely an interest and a draw to Rolex, and I think that that is twofold, and I'll explain both of those as we get on in this video, but more on this watch here. It's a reference 1803. It's a third-generation Day-Date. It ran for nearly two decades, from around 1960 to 1978. It's the reference that defined the classic Day-Date look, and the 03 in that reference tells you specifically why, and that's the fluted bezel variant. The last two digits encode the bezel. 02 is smooth, 03 is fluted, 04 is diamond set, 06 is Florentine, and 07 is bark finish. Lastly of 11 is moiré. The fluted bezel, or the 1803, is the iconic president silhouette. It's the one everyone pictures when they think Day-Date, and the people who wore it are the entire mythology of this watch. Lyndon B. Johnson wore a Day-Date. He actually is the reason for the whole president nickname, and Rolex leaned right into it, as they tend to do. They tend to capitalize on any marketing opportunity that they can find. Warren Buffett famously wears his Day-Date to this day. Countless heads of state and titans of industry. The president bracelet was designed specifically for this line, and that nickname that was given to the bracelet obviously then stuck. In 1978, the 1803-8 replaced the 1803 with a sapphire crystal and quick-set date. But for a lot of collectors, the 1803 is the last true old classic president-style watch. This is when Rolex really made their shift from the everyday watch to more of this huge luxury end with a watch like this. And obviously, this was defined a lot in the 80s as well as that luxury look, or flashy look. Now, this version that I have here is 36 millimeters across. The entire 1803 run is 36 millimeters, no exceptions. And I think, quite frankly, it's perfect for my standards, even for modern vintage standards. It's about 12 millimeters thick, 20 millimeter lug width, which matters because it lets me run any sort of strap on here. Solid 18-karat yellow gold case, fluted gold bezel, acrylic crystal on the top. And it's a flat plexiglass crystal here. And then it's got just a flat champagne dial underneath. And you've got these big, fat indices at each of the markers around the outside of the dial, with the exception of three and 12, where the day and date are. Now, mine is obviously from 1970, like I said, so it's running the caliber 1556. This does not have hacking. It does not have quick-set date. It's beating at 19,800 vibrations per hour, 26 jewels, COSC certified. It's even superlative chronometer certified back in the day. It's built on Rolex's 1500 series architecture with the microstellar regulation and the power reserve is about 44 to 48 hours. Now, two critical things about my specific watch that I mentioned briefly, it doesn't hack. So the seconds keep running when you pull the crown out and there's no quick-set. So to change the day or date, you have to advance back and forth in this like dance, running the hands backward past midnight and then all the way back to nine o'clock and then past midnight and then back to nine o'clock. And what that does is advance the date. The day only advances through a full 24-hour circle of the hour hand, which means basically you should set the day one day prior to today. So if today was Monday, for example, you would set the day to Sunday and then you would advance that date in that little dance until you get to the date before today and then you would advance all the way through. It would fully advance the day and then it would advance the date to today and then you would set the time. It's a little arduous and for me, it's not that big a deal only because when I do use this, a lot of times I've actually been trying to keep it on all the time to keep it wound. Moments like this with the lack of quick-set, if you find yourself not wanting to wear it because it doesn't have quick-set, is one of the opportunities where I think people do consider watch winders. Something people get into a lot. We can have a full video talking about watch winders later if you want, but basically if you have it on a winder, it's as if you wore it every day so it would get all the same wear as if you wore it every day versus letting it die. You can extend the life of the oils inside of the watch. Up to you on how often you want to service the watch. Now, as I said, I bought this without the bracelet, one, because the flashiness. I didn't want the flashiness and two, because you're buying a solid chunk of solid gold bracelet, so it's heavy and as a result, a lot of weight of gold means it's gonna be more expensive. I think the bracelet for this watch is usually around eight grand or more and so there's a lot of money in the bracelet itself and for me, I think having it on the strap is one of the classiest, most understated looks in watch collecting, particularly if you look at images from the 70s. It's just, I think, a beautiful aesthetic without calling too much attention to yourself. Nothing wrong with wearing the full bracelet if you're comfortable with it, but I am definitely not at my point in my life and so I figured I would buy it like this and if I ever did feel comfortable, I would then buy the bracelet later. Now, as I have mentioned before, this is the perfect size for my wrist. I knew that already because I own the Rolex Explorer. Right now, I have it on a Uncle Straps executive bracelet here, so it's basically like a fluted bracelet. This is part of the whole strap series I was talking about when I get into bracelets. So I knew that the 36 millimeter size fit my wrist really, really well, so it was very easy for me to know that if I bought this version of it, I knew that it would fit exactly how I want it to fit and so that was a lot of the reason why I considered it. The second reason I considered it is because I wanted a vintage aesthetic, but I didn't want the sort of concerns that come with vintage watches. I have a Speedmaster right here that's from 1969 and I love it and I wear it a lot, but I find myself every so often not wanting to wear it because of the water resistance that it does not have because it's a vintage watch. It's decent. I think the Speedmaster has like a 30 meter, old version of 30 meter water resistant, meaning that it's like kind of splash resistant. Most of the watches in the 50s, 60s and 70s, you're gonna find that humidity is one of the concerns. If you ever notice that there's any moisture underneath the dial, that's when you know you've got a water resistance problem. You should set it on the face of the dial, let all the water drain to the bottom of the crystal and then take it like that to get it serviced to make sure that there's no water on the inside of the movement. For a watch like this, because I wanted that aesthetic, but I didn't want the water resistance problem, this is where Rolex really fills in the gap outside of just the marketing that comes with wanting a Rolex watch. If you're gonna buy a watch in general, I do think a lot of us consider Rolex or you might be some of the people that hate Rolex because the name's out there so often, but I'm certainly someone that has seen the marketing a lot. I talk about it a lot. I know that that marketing has influenced me to want a watch like this and I don't care. That's what I wanted to buy. I like the brand primarily for water resistance and it's rugged nature of the movement on the inside. And so if I'm gonna get a watch that I kind of wanna consider wearing most days and I wanna vintage aesthetic, like Rolex is just the brand that hits both those nail on the head. It's an iconic design and it has the water resistance. Now that I'm with my kid all the time, especially here in the summer, I find myself around water a lot, whether it be a small little water table or near-ish a pool or near a lake or just like having to wash his hands for him. I find myself near water so often that having it with some water resistance is kind of a necessity if I'm going to wear it relatively regularly. So that's a lot of the logic that went into me buying this watch. But the real reason I bought it is emotional. All our purchases are emotional. We buy these watches because they make us feel a certain way and that is really the reason why I bought this. I knew at some point I was gonna buy this watch. I think I bought this because I know I'll never really feel like I've made it. I think the watch is just one of those things you should enjoy in life. And if you have the ability to do it, like if I already have this watch right here, the Speedmaster is the exact same price as this watch right here. And the only difference between the two is one is gold and one is steel. And I think if you put that in perspective, it maybe changes the equation a little bit. If you want to buy a watch that you like and you have the budget for it, whether it looks gold or doesn't look gold, I don't know if that should factor as much in if you're comfortable wearing it. I will say as a note to those out there who are like me and don't think you're comfortable wearing a solid gold watch, you get over it pretty fast. I never thought I would be someone who'd wear a gold watch because it, again, is loud and I've talked about that on the channel before. But if you wear it, if you just put it on and force yourself to do it for a few days, I find now I have absolutely no problem doing it. And so I enjoy it. It draws my eye more, and I think I enjoy it for that reason. And again, the vintage aesthetic, I think, undercuts the sort of flashiness that can come with buying a modern version of it, at least for me. It undercuts that a little bit, adds a little extra layer that makes it feel a little bit more reasonable to own it, and a little bit more interesting than just like a brand new 40 millimeter Day-Date with the solid gold bracelet, versus this, I feel like have two very different aesthetics and different messages, at least in my mind. And so that is why I bought this one. I thought it was as much as I was willing to stretch at the time. I am now that I've been wearing this so much considering more gold, which is different for me. So it'll be interesting to see, as we continue doing this, it's fun to document my collection in this sort of way through YouTube. I'll be interested to see what your guys' opinions are of me having bought this watch right here. I absolutely have really enjoyed it. It is weird that it comes with solid gold spring bars, which I never really considered, but it does. They're really heavy, like almost a gram for two of them, spring bars, which is really heavy compared to standard spring bars. I was really surprised by that. I guess I'd never really researched that portion of it, but I think that it's gonna be fun to wear this on different straps, and it's gonna be fun to show how gold watches can look different on strap videos. I also am planning to use this to sort of use as a comparison for PVD-coated gold watches so I can show the difference between what is a gold tone from a PVD-coated or a gold-plated, and then a gold watch like this, and whether or not the gold matches correctly in tone and color, which will be really fun when I look at more affordable watches. I wanna have a Tissot PRX in here, but now I have something to reference it against. I never really had that much gold anywhere in my house, in my life, and so as a result, I never really had a good comparison, but now I do. I think that'll really help me, and hopefully it helps you guys as well to do that sort of comparison. So would I recommend the 1803 to a brand-new collector? Maybe not, only because vintage, I think, is a little concerning for most people. I definitely think you need to get Authenticity Research. I bought it with its service papers. It had just been serviced two months ago from Rolex, and that is what gave me the confidence to make this purchase. Serial numbers matched, service matched, everything matched, and so because it had that service recently and I was buying it from a reputable seller, that's why I went for the purchase. But for someone that's deep in the hobby and wants to buy a vintage Rolex, 1803 is a great option. Without the bracelet, it comes at a really decent price point in the landscape of modern watches. It's definitely something to consider. So what do you guys think about the new thing in my collection? I've definitely been spoiling myself lately, so we'll see how the collection goes over the next few months. Subscribe down below, and I'll see you in the next one. Take care.