Rolexopedia

Reference:1802: Difference between revisions

[checked revision][checked revision]
← Older edit
VisualWikitext
Fix empty SEO meta description (leaked blank from batch generation)
Correct 1800 designation and Christie’s catalogue dates
 
(10 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{#seo:
{{#seo:
|title=Rolex Day-Date 1802 — The Smooth-Bezel President, Stella & Omani Dials | BezelBase
|title=Rolex Day-Date 1802 — Smooth-bezel Day-Date | Rolexopedia
|description=The Rolex 1802 is the smooth-bezel 4-digit Day-Date President — same 36mm case and caliber 1555/1556 as the fluted 1803, in yellow, white, pink gold and platinum. Pie-pan and lacquered Stella dials, plus the Omani commissions that carry its top auction results.
|description=The Rolex 1802 is the smooth-bezel 4-digit Day-Date, using calibers 1555 and 1556 in a 36mm case. This guide covers its dials, Omani commissions, case details and auction records.
|image=Ref 1802 hero.webp
|image=Ref 1802 hero.webp
|image_alt=Rolex Day-Date reference 1802 in yellow gold with a smooth polished bezel and silvered dial
|image_alt=Rolex Day-Date reference 1802 in yellow gold with a smooth polished bezel and silvered dial
Line 10: Line 10:
|robots=index,follow,max-image-preview:large
|robots=index,follow,max-image-preview:large
}}
}}
<small>[[Reference:day-date|Day-Date]] › '''1802'''</small>
<div class="rp-lead">
[[File:Ref 1802 hero.webp|thumb|center|640px|alt=Yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date 1802 with a smooth polished bezel and silvered dial|Yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date 1802 with a smooth polished bezel and silvered dial]]
</div>


{{DISPLAYTITLE:Rolex Day-Date 1802}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Rolex Day-Date 1802}}


The 1802 is the smooth-bezel Day-Date, the plain polished member of the 4-digit President group. Everything behind the bezel is [[Reference:1803|1803]]: the same 36mm case, the same caliber 1555 and later 1556, the same quickset-free day-and-date mechanism and the same President bracelet. What changes is the ring around the crystal, which on the 1802 is left smooth and gently domed instead of fluted. Rolex offered it in yellow, white and pink gold and in platinum. It was always the minority choice against the fluted 1803, and two things carry the reference today: the dials, which run from early pie-pan silver through tropical black and lacquered Stella colours, and the Omani commissions, which is where the 1802 reaches serious money.
The 1802 is the smooth-bezel member of the four-digit Day-Date family. It shares the 36mm case, calibers 1555 and 1556, non-quickset calendar and bracelet options with the fluted [[Reference:1803|1803]]; the reference difference is the plain, gently domed bezel. Rolex made it in yellow, white and pink gold and platinum. Surviving examples include early pie-pan dials, lacquered Stella dials, tropical black dials and watches made for the Sultanate of Oman.


[[File:Ref 1802 hero.webp|thumb|right|340px|alt=Rolex Day-Date reference 1802 in yellow gold with a smooth polished bezel and silvered dial|The 1802 in 18k yellow gold. The smooth, gently domed bezel is the only thing separating it from the fluted 1803.]]


==Core facts==
==Core facts==
 
{| class="wikitable rp-facts"
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|-
! detail
! detail
Line 58: Line 62:
|-
|-
| predecessor
| predecessor
| originals-era 6510 / 6511 / 6611 / 6612 cluster
| earlier Day-Date references 6510 / 6511 / 6611 / 6612
|-
|-
| successor
| successor
Line 65: Line 69:


==Where it sits in the line==
==Where it sits in the line==
The four-digit Day-Date references are distinguished largely by bezel treatment. The 1802 has a smooth bezel; the [[Reference:1803|1803]] is fluted; the [[Reference:1804|1804]] is gem-set; the [[Reference:1806|1806]] has a Florentine finish; the [[Reference:1807|1807]] has a bark finish; and the [[Reference:1811|1811]] has a Morellis finish. The last digit is a useful guide, but the number between the lugs remains the reference check.


The 4-digit Day-Date splits by bezel, and the last digit of the reference is what carries the distinction. The 1802 takes the smooth bezel, the [[Reference:1803|1803]] the fluting that became the Day-Date's signature, the [[Reference:1804|1804]] a factory diamond set, the [[Reference:1806|1806]] the Florentine cross-hatch, the [[Reference:1807|1807]] bark and the [[Reference:1811|1811]] the Morellis moiré. Read the group that way and the 1802 is the one that does nothing to the gold at all.
The smooth bezel gives the watch a different profile from the fluted 1803. Published production totals for the two references are not available, so claims about relative scarcity should be treated as unverified. The same bezel choice continued with the five-digit [[Reference:18028|18028]].


That restraint is the whole proposition. A fluted President announces itself from across a room; a smooth-bezel one reads as a plain gold watch until someone looks at the dial. Rolex sold far more fluted examples, so the 1802 is the scarcer watch in production without ever having been rare in the collectible sense, and for decades it traded at a discount to the 1803 for exactly the reason that now makes it interesting. The same logic repeats one generation later on the [[Reference:18028|18028]], the smooth-bezel 5-digit successor.
Rolex reference guides use 1800 for the four-digit Day-Date generation; the individual references include 1802 with a smooth bezel and 1803 with a fluted bezel. Auction catalogues have also used “ref. 1800” for individual watches. Christie’s called a 36 mm blue-dial Day-Date “ref. 1800” in its 2009 Hong Kong sale, while describing a fluted bezel. Its 2004 London catalogue used the same designation for a 1965 Omani-dial watch with a textured bezel and recorded case number 18078. These listings document Christie’s use of 1800, while its status as a separate bezel reference remains unresolved; neither catalogue shows the number between the lugs. For an individual watch, check the number between the lugs; caseback markings alone may refer to the broader case family.
 
A note on the number 1800 itself, since it turns up in searches and in older catalogues. Rolex used 1800 as the root of the series rather than as a bezel variant of its own, in the same way that 18000, 18200 and 118000 later stood for whole generations. A small number of watches were catalogued as "ref. 1800" by the auction houses in the early 2000s, among them a 1965 yellow-gold example at Christie's in London in 2004 and a 1973 blue-dial example at Christie's in Hong Kong in 2006. Those attributions have not been repeated since, no editorial source describes a distinct 1800 bezel, and the number does not appear in the marketplace reference indexes that carry 1802, 1803 and 1811. Treat a watch offered as a 1800 as a 180x-series Day-Date whose specific reference needs checking between the lugs.


==Production outline==
==Production outline==
 
The 1802 runs with the rest of the 4-digit group from around 1960 to the 1977–78 changeover, and it shares the family case-serial stream rather than carrying a sequence of its own. Documented examples span most of that range: case numbers around 497,000 and 1,014,000 on early watches, 1,183,000 and 1,634,000 through the middle 1960s, 2,612,000 by the end of that decade, and 3,781,000 and 3,795,000 on the Omani watches of about 1974, reaching roughly 4,176,000 on late examples. When the 5-digit references took over, the smooth bezel split by metal into the [[Reference:18028|18028]] in yellow gold, the 18029 in white gold and the 18026 in platinum. No Rolex production figure has been published for the 1802, and the available records do not establish its production relative to the 1803.
The 1802 runs with the rest of the 4-digit group from around 1960 to the 1977–78 changeover, and it shares the family case-serial stream rather than carrying a sequence of its own. Documented examples span most of that range: case numbers around 497,000 and 1,014,000 on early watches, 1,183,000 and 1,634,000 through the middle 1960s, 2,612,000 by the end of that decade, and 3,781,000 and 3,795,000 on the Omani watches of about 1974, reaching roughly 4,176,000 on late examples. When the 5-digit references took over, the smooth bezel split by metal into the [[Reference:18028|18028]] in yellow gold, the 18029 in white gold and the 18026 in platinum. No Rolex production figure has been published for the 1802, and as with the other non-fluted siblings it sold in modest numbers against the volume 1803.


==Movement notes==
==Movement notes==
 
The 1802 uses the standard 4-digit Day-Date movement. Caliber 1555 from the start, replaced by caliber 1556 around 1965 with the 19,800 vph rate, the additional jewel and the free-sprung Microstella balance. Hacking seconds arrived across the 1500 family in 1972. No 4-digit Day-Date has a quickset, so both day and date advance only by running the hands through midnight, which distinguishes it from the later five-digit quickset references. There is no 1802-specific caliber; the bezel changes the look of the watch, not the mechanism. The [[Reference:Movements]] page holds the caliber lineage, and the [[Reference:1803|1803]] entry covers the 1555-to-1556 transition in detail.
The 1802 uses the standard 4-digit Day-Date movement. Caliber 1555 from the start, replaced by caliber 1556 around 1965 with the 19,800 vph rate, the additional jewel and the free-sprung Microstella balance. Hacking seconds arrived across the 1500 family in 1972. No 4-digit Day-Date has a quickset, so both day and date advance only by running the hands through midnight, which is the single biggest practical difference between owning one of these and owning a 5-digit President. There is no 1802-specific caliber; the bezel changes the look of the watch, not the mechanism. The [[Reference:Movements]] page holds the caliber lineage, and the [[Reference:1803|1803]] entry covers the 1555-to-1556 transition in detail.


==Dial map==
==Dial map==
The dial range includes early pie-pan profiles, usually silvered or champagne with applied baton markers. The term “doorstep” is used for dials with elongated rectangular markers at six and nine that step in from the outer edge. The label is collector terminology rather than a separate reference.


[[File:Ref 1802 stella.webp|thumb|right|250px|alt=Yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date 1802 with a black lacquered Stella dial on a Jubilee bracelet|A 1970 yellow-gold 1802 with a black lacquered Stella dial and French day disc, on its Jubilee reference 6311, shown with the chronometer attestation that came with it.]]
Lacquered dials are another documented branch. Phillips sold a 1970 yellow-gold example with a black lacquered Stella dial, still accompanied by its punched Attestation de Chronomètre Officiel, and the Stella colours reach the 1802 as they do the other 4-digit references, burgundy and oxblood among the documented examples. Christie's catalogued a platinum 1802 with a turquoise lacquer dial and diamond markers. Age then does its own work: Antiquorum and Phillips both catalogued the same yellow-gold watch with a tropical black "spider" dial, the lacquer crazed into a fine web, and tropical browns turn up across the reference as they do on any black-lacquered Rolex dial of the period. Diamond-set indices appear on gold and platinum examples throughout.


The plain bezel keeps the eye on the dial, and the 1802's variety lives there. Early examples carry the pie-pan dial, the shallow faceted profile that drops away at the outer track, usually silvered or champagne with applied baton markers. The doorstep dial is the configuration collectors chase hardest among the standard faces, named for the elongated rectangular markers at six and nine that step in from the edge.
Calendar discs are a separate variation axis. Documented 1802 examples carry several language options. Beyond English, documented examples carry French, Italian, Spanish and Eastern-Arabic day discs, and the Arabic-calendar watches overlap with the Gulf commissions below. The deeper dial taxonomy that spans the whole President line sits on the [[Reference:1803|1803]] entry.


Lacquer is the other half of the story. Phillips sold a 1970 yellow-gold example with a black lacquered Stella dial, still accompanied by its punched Attestation de Chronomètre Officiel, and the Stella colours reach the 1802 as they do the other 4-digit references, burgundy and oxblood among the documented examples. Christie's catalogued a platinum 1802 with a turquoise lacquer dial and diamond markers. Age then does its own work: Antiquorum and Phillips both catalogued the same yellow-gold watch with a tropical black "spider" dial, the lacquer crazed into a fine web, and tropical browns turn up across the reference as they do on any black-lacquered Rolex dial of the period. Diamond-set indices appear on gold and platinum examples throughout.
[[File:Ref 1802 stella.webp|thumb|right|250px|alt=Yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date 1802 with a black lacquered Stella dial on a Jubilee bracelet|A 1970 yellow-gold 1802 with a black lacquered Stella dial and French day disc, on its Jubilee reference 6311, shown with the chronometer attestation that came with it.]]
 
Calendar discs are their own axis, and the 1802 shows the range better than most references in the group. Beyond English, documented examples carry French, Italian, Spanish and Eastern-Arabic day discs, and the Arabic-calendar watches overlap with the Gulf commissions below. The deeper dial taxonomy that spans the whole President line sits on the [[Reference:1803|1803]] entry.


==Case, bezel, crystal, and crown==
==Case, bezel, crystal, and crown==
The case is the 36mm gold or platinum Oyster shared across the 4-digit Day-Date, with a Twinlock screw-down crown, a screw-down caseback and an acrylic crystal with Cyclops. The bezel is the reference: a plain polished ring, gently domed, with none of the worked surface of its siblings. On a polished-out case that smoothness can be hard to read, which is part of why the reference gets miscatalogued.
The case is the 36mm gold or platinum Oyster shared across the 4-digit Day-Date, with a Twinlock screw-down crown, a screw-down caseback and an acrylic crystal with Cyclops. The bezel is the reference: a plain polished ring, gently domed, with none of the worked surface of its siblings. On a polished-out case that smoothness can be hard to read, which is part of why the reference gets miscatalogued.


That miscataloguing is worth knowing about, and the caseback is the trap. Phillips catalogued one yellow-gold 1802 as "Ref. 1802, stamped 1803 inside the case back" and, three lots later in the same sale, a platinum one as "Ref. 1802, stamped 1804 in the caseback". Two watches, two different sibling references stamped inside, both genuine 1802s. Antiquorum hedges the same problem from the other direction, listing several watches as "Ref. 1802/1803" rather than committing.
That miscataloguing matters because the caseback can mislead. Phillips catalogued one yellow-gold 1802 as "Ref. 1802, stamped 1803 inside the case back" and, three lots later in the same sale, a platinum one as "Ref. 1802, stamped 1804 in the caseback". Two watches, two different sibling references stamped inside, both genuine 1802s. Antiquorum hedges the same problem from the other direction, listing several watches as "Ref. 1802/1803" rather than committing.


The explanation is mundane. The 4-digit Day-Dates share a case, a caseback and a movement, Rolex stamped casebacks in lots that did not track the bezel fitted, and a replacement bezel is a straightforward service part, so a watch that left Geneva as one reference can be wearing another's bezel decades later. Attribution rests on the number engraved between the lugs, read against the bezel actually fitted. The caseback stamp dates the caseback lot and nothing more.
The explanation is mundane. The 4-digit Day-Dates share a case, a caseback and a movement, Rolex stamped casebacks in lots that did not track the bezel fitted, and a replacement bezel can change the appearance, so a watch may carry a different bezel from the one fitted at delivery. Attribution rests on the number engraved between the lugs, read against the bezel actually fitted. The caseback stamp dates the caseback lot and nothing more.


==Bracelets, end links, and clasps==
==Bracelets, end links, and clasps==
The 1802 wears the President, with end links stamped 53 and the concealed deployant clasp on documented examples. The Jubilee is not a substitution to be suspicious of on this reference: Phillips catalogued a 1970 yellow-gold 1802 on a Rolex Jubilee reference 6311 with end links stamped 53 and a folding deployant clasp stamped 4.69, all of it signed and consistent with the watch. Rolex supplied the Day-Date on the Jubilee from the originals era onward, and the 1802 is one of the references where that fitment is documented rather than assumed.
The 1802 wears the President, with end links stamped 53 and the concealed deployant clasp on documented examples. The Jubilee is not a substitution to be suspicious of on this reference: Phillips catalogued a 1970 yellow-gold 1802 on a Rolex Jubilee reference 6311 with end links stamped 53 and a folding deployant clasp stamped 4.69, all of it signed and consistent with the watch. Rolex supplied the Day-Date on the Jubilee from the originals era onward, and the 1802 is one of the references where that fitment is documented rather than assumed.


Line 105: Line 103:


==Special branches==
==Special branches==
===The Omani Day-Dates===
===The Omani Day-Dates===
Omani commissions form a documented branch of the reference. Two emblems recur. The first is the signature of Sultan Qaboos bin Said, applied in green on silvered dials; Christie's catalogued a white-gold example with the Qaboos signature, case number 3,795,515, dated to about 1974, and further Qaboos examples in yellow and pink gold. The second is the red Khanjar, the crossed-daggers emblem of the Sultanate.


[[File:Ref 1802 khanjar.webp|thumb|right|250px|alt=Platinum Rolex Day-Date 1802 with a blue dial and the red Khanjar emblem of Oman|The 1975 platinum Khanjar 1802: blue dial, red Khanjar at six, diamond markers, Asprey-signed case. The reference's highest confirmed result.]]
A well-documented Khanjar example is the one Phillips sold in 2015: a 1975 platinum example, case number 3,856,081 repeated inside the caseback, with a blue dial carrying the red printed Khanjar at six o'clock and round-cut and baguette diamond markers, on a platinum President. Its case is signed Asprey. Phillips describes Asprey as the London retailer through which the Sultan’s early Rolex watches were supplied; that catalog text supports the retailer link, but does not establish that Asprey applied every emblem. Khimji Ramdas is also named on period Gulf Day-Date records. The lot sold for CHF 131,000 in 2015, the highest result in the cited list.
 
The Gulf commissions are where the 1802 leaves the ordinary market behind, and the smooth bezel appears to have been the preferred canvas for them. Two emblems recur. The first is the signature of Sultan Qaboos bin Said, applied in green on silvered dials; Christie's catalogued a white-gold example with the Qaboos signature, case number 3,795,515, dated to about 1974, and further Qaboos examples in yellow and pink gold. The second is the red Khanjar, the crossed-daggers emblem of the Sultanate.
 
The best-documented Khanjar 1802 is the one Phillips sold in 2015: a 1975 platinum example, case number 3,856,081 repeated inside the caseback, with a blue dial carrying the red printed Khanjar at six o'clock and round-cut and baguette diamond markers, on a platinum President. Its case is signed Asprey, which is the hard evidence for how these watches reached Muscat. The London retailer applied the emblems for the Omani court, and the Muscat distributor Khimji Ramdas is the other name that recurs on Gulf Day-Dates of the period. It sold for CHF 131,000, the highest confirmed result for the reference.


The same commissions run across the [[Reference:1803|1803]], the [[Reference:1804|1804]] and the platinum [[Reference:1831|1831]], so an Omani dial is a branch of the whole Day-Date line rather than a quirk of this one reference. What the 1802 contributes is volume: it is among the more frequently documented references in the group for Qaboos and Khanjar dials.
The same commission practice appears on the [[Reference:1803|1803]], [[Reference:1804|1804]] and platinum [[Reference:1831|1831]]. The records cited here show that the 1802 was used for both Qaboos and Khanjar dials; they do not establish how its volume compares with other Day-Date references.


==Auction record==
==Auction record==
The listed results show a wide spread by configuration. Plain yellow-gold examples sold for USD 8,925 at Bonhams in April 2023, CHF 9,375 at Antiquorum in November 2019 and CHF 12,500 at Antiquorum in May 2019. These individual results do not establish a general price guide for the smooth bezel.


The 1802's market is bimodal, and the gap between the two halves is wide. A plain yellow-gold example with a standard dial belongs in the same band as any honest 4-digit President, from under ten thousand dollars to the low teens: Bonhams sold one for USD 8,925 in April 2023, and Antiquorum sold yellow-gold examples for CHF 9,375 in November 2019 and CHF 12,500 in May 2019. Nothing about the smooth bezel commands a premium of its own.
Omani examples in the listed records reached higher results: the platinum, diamond-set Khanjar sold by Phillips in 2015 brought CHF 131,000, while a second platinum Khanjar at Christie’s in 2023 brought CHF 113,400. Qaboos-signature examples brought USD 44,100 in Dubai in 2022 and CHF 43,750 in Geneva in 2021. These results reflect the documented dial, commission and provenance details of each lot.
 
The Omani watches sit in a different market entirely. The platinum diamond-set Khanjar example Phillips sold in 2015 reached CHF 131,000, the reference's high-water mark, and Christie's sold a second platinum Khanjar for CHF 113,400 in 2023. Qaboos-signature examples have carried USD 44,100 in Dubai in 2022 and CHF 43,750 in Geneva in 2021. The pattern is consistent across the group: the case and movement are ordinary, and the dial is the entire proposition.


The Stella dials are the third tier, between the two. Phillips sold a 1970 yellow-gold black-lacquer example on its Jubilee, with the original chronometer attestation, for CHF 43,750 against a CHF 15,000–30,000 estimate — roughly four times what the same watch would bring with a silvered dial.
Phillips sold a 1970 yellow-gold black-lacquered example on its Jubilee, with the original chronometer attestation, for CHF 43,750 against a CHF 15,000–30,000 estimate. A comparison with a silvered-dial watch is not made here because the records are not matched pairs.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
Line 189: Line 182:
Phillips ran two further 1802 lots in the same 2015 Glamorous Day-Date sale, in white and yellow gold, and Antiquorum offered two in the 2006 sale of the Mondani collection. Results for those four are not recorded here, and they matter mainly as evidence of how broadly the reference was made across metals.
Phillips ran two further 1802 lots in the same 2015 Glamorous Day-Date sale, in white and yellow gold, and Antiquorum offered two in the 2006 sale of the Mondani collection. Results for those four are not recorded here, and they matter mainly as evidence of how broadly the reference was made across metals.


== Related references ==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Ref 1802 hero.webp|Yellow-gold 1802 with smooth bezel and silvered dial
File:Ref 1802 khanjar.webp|Platinum 1802 with red Khanjar dial, Phillips 2015 lot 10
File:Ref 1802 stella.webp|Yellow-gold 1802 with black lacquered Stella dial, Phillips 2015 lot 7
</gallery>


* [[Reference:1803|Day-Date 1803]] — Fluted President (1960–1977)
==Related references==
* [[Reference:1803|Day-Date 1803]] (fluted President, 1960–1977)
* [[Reference:1804|Day-Date 1804]]
* [[Reference:1804|Day-Date 1804]]
* [[Reference:1806|Day-Date 1806]]
* [[Reference:1806|Day-Date 1806]]
Line 197: Line 195:
* [[Reference:1811|Day-Date 1811]]
* [[Reference:1811|Day-Date 1811]]
* [[Reference:1831|Day-Date 1831]]
* [[Reference:1831|Day-Date 1831]]
* [[Reference:18028|Day-Date 18028]] — 1977–1988 smooth-bezel successor
* [[Reference:18028|Day-Date 18028]] (1977–1988 smooth-bezel successor)
* [[Reference:6510|Day-Date 6510]] — 1956–1957
* [[Reference:6510|Day-Date 6510]] (1956–1957)


See also the [[Reference:day-date|Day-Date family index]], [[Reference:Movements|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets|bracelet & clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers|serial numbers by year]].
See also the [[Reference:day-date|Day-Date family index]], [[Reference:Movements|movement reference]], [[Reference:Bracelets|bracelet & clasp guide]], and [[Reference:Serial-numbers|serial numbers by year]].


== Sources ==
== Sources ==
 
* [https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4314925 Christie’s, Day-Date catalogued as ref. 1800, London, 23 June 2004, lot 329]
* [https://www.christies.com/lot/rolex-day-date-ref-1800yellow-gold-automatic-wristwatch-5209613/ Christie’s, Day-Date catalogued as ref. 1800, Hong Kong, 27 May 2009, lot 2186]
* ''The Vintage Rolex Field Manual'' — Colin A. White, Morning Tundra
* ''The Vintage Rolex Field Manual'' — Colin A. White, Morning Tundra
* [https://www.puccipapaleo.com/bookstore/day-date ''Day-Date — The Presidential Rolex'' — Pucci Papaleo, Pucci Papaleo Editore, 2015]
* [https://www.puccipapaleo.com/bookstore/day-date ''Day-Date — The Presidential Rolex'' — Pucci Papaleo, Pucci Papaleo Editore, 2015]
Retrieved from "https://rolexopedia.net/wiki/Reference:1802"