Reference:5031: Difference between revisions

|description=An early date-equipped Oyster Perpetual. Auction records vary in dating, case size, materials and movement details; no single caliber or production span is established.

|image_alt=Rolex 5031 Bubbleback

|modified_time=2026-09-22T23:59:00Z

The 5031 is a date-equipped Oyster Perpetual that auction houses usually describe as a two-tone steel-and-gold watch. Published examples vary: catalogues give 34 or 36 mm, list different movement sizes and jewel counts, and date the reference from circa 1948 to the 1960s. Those records identify the watch, but they do not establish a production span or a single movement caliber.

| Auction catalogues range from circa 1948 to the 1960s; no factory production dates established here

| Published examples include 612990, 613514, 613853, and 613876; these are individual records, not a serial range

The date “circa 1948” appears on Sotheby’s 2020 and 2022 listings, Tennants’ 2026 listing, and Bonhams’ 2025 listing. Antiquorum’s 1999 catalogue calls its example a 1950s watch; its 1995 catalogue says 1960s. Keep those dates attached to the individual lots. The auction estimates do not show when Rolex began or ended production.

Four published case numbers are useful for identifying particular watches: 612990 at Bonhams, 613514 at Tennants, 613853 at Sotheby’s, and 613876 at Sotheby’s. They cluster closely, but four sale records cannot establish a production range or total. Repeated appearances of the same case number should not be counted as separate watches.

The auction records call the 5031 automatic and give a date, but they do not agree on movement details. Antiquorum’s 1999 lot describes a 9¾-ligne, 19-jewel movement without naming a caliber. Its 1995 lot gives a 12½-ligne, 26-jewel movement, also without a caliber. Sotheby’s 2020 and 2022 listings say only “automatic.” Tennants records a movement number, G67646, but no caliber.

Colin A. White’s ''The Vintage Rolex Field Manual'' maps the 5031 to Cal. 710 in a reference table. The same manual and Rolexopedia’s movement guide describe Cal. 710 as hand-wound and without a date, which conflicts with the automatic, date-equipped watches in the sale catalogues. The 5031 caliber therefore remains unresolved here. The available evidence does not support assigning A.295, 740, or 745 to every example.

Antiquorum describes a 36 mm pink-gold-and-steel example with a ribbed graduated bezel in 1999. Its 1995 steel-and-yellow-gold example is also 36 mm and has a graduated reeded bezel. Sotheby’s lists a pink-gold-and-steel watch at 34 mm in 2022. Tennants gives 36 mm for its steel-and-gold watch. These differences may reflect measurement or catalogue practice; the available records do not settle the nominal case size.

The 1995 and 1999 Antiquorum lots describe screw-down crowns and casebacks. Bonhams also describes a screw-down crown and back on its steel-and-chrome-plated example. The sources reviewed do not establish a universal “small Brevet” crown for the 5031, so that label should be checked against the individual watch rather than treated as a defining specification.

Bonhams catalogued case 612990 as stainless steel and chrome-plated. The same watch, identified by matching case and movement numbers, appeared twice in 2025: it passed at the first sale and sold at the later one. This is a documented catalogue description, not proof that Rolex made a chrome-plated 5031 variant. The record could reflect the watch’s present condition or a catalogue error; the available sources do not resolve it.

The cited examples do not establish a standard bracelet configuration. Sotheby’s 2020 listing describes a steel and pink-gold plated Rolex bracelet. Sotheby’s 2022 example had a stainless-steel Rolex buckle. Bonhams and Tennants describe leather straps; Tennants says its strap and buckle were later replacements and not by Rolex. These listings document what accompanied those watches at sale, not original delivery fitments.

==Source list==