Rolex 19028 Oysterquartz Day-Date "Egyptian"

Day-Date › 19028

The 19028 is the Day-Date Oysterquartz with the pyramid bezel. Underneath, it is the same watch as the 19018: an 18k yellow gold case built around the caliber 5055 quartz movement, the angular integrated-bracelet body Rolex introduced for the Oysterquartz line in 1977. What sets it apart is the finish. In place of the 19018's smooth fluted bezel, the 19028 carries a faceted, stepped bezel in the pattern Rolex catalogued as "Pyramid" or "Clous de Paris," repeated across the matching bracelet centre links. Collectors call it the "Egyptian," and Antiquorum has catalogued two separate 19028 examples under that exact title, not just internet shorthand.

It is a decorated step up from the plain fluted pair, not a showpiece. There are no diamonds and no coloured stones anywhere on the case, bezel or dial, just the faceted gold. It is a working quartz President with a bolder case, made in smaller numbers than the 19018 and 19019 and correspondingly harder to find today.

Core facts

detail	value
reference	19028
family	Day-Date (Oysterquartz)
production	documented examples 1985 through the reference's last appearance in Rolex's own 2001 US retail price list; no confirmed introduction date distinct from the Oysterquartz line's 1977 launch
movement	caliber 5055 quartz — thermocompensated, 11 jewels, 32 kHz, about ±0.7 sec/day, COSC; day and date quickset
case	36mm 18k yellow gold, angular integrated Oysterquartz case, about 13mm thick, tonneau-shaped, screw-down back
crystal	sapphire, cyclops lens over the date
bezel	faceted "Pyramid" / Clous de Paris, 18k yellow gold
bracelet	integrated pyramid-link Oysterquartz bracelet, concealed folding clasp
crown	Twinlock screw-down
nickname	"Egyptian" — collector and auction-house shorthand for the pyramid motif, not a Rolex catalogue name
sibling references	19018 (fluted, yellow gold) and 19019 (fluted, white gold) sit below it in the decorated hierarchy; 19038 (pyramid bezel set with diamonds) and 19048 (full diamond bezel and dial) sit above it
predecessor	none directly; a decorated variant of the same Oysterquartz Day-Date platform as the 19018/19019, introduction date undocumented
successor	none; no quartz Day-Date followed

Where it sits in the line

The Day-Date Oysterquartz roster runs, by decoration, from plain to fully set with stones, and the 19028 sits in the first rung above plain. It shares its case, dimensions and movement with the fluted 19018 and 19019 and adds nothing but the pyramid finish — no gemstones anywhere on the case or dial. Above it in the same hierarchy sit the diamond-bezel 19038, the full diamond-bezel-and-dial 19048, and the pavé-cased 19148, each adding stones the 19028 does not carry.

The "Egyptian" name is not unique to the 19028. Phillips catalogued a diamond-set 19038 under the same nickname at its Geneva Watch Auction: FIVE in 2017, and the epithet properly describes the pyramid case-and-bracelet treatment shared across several references in the family, not one number specifically. What is specific to the 19028 is that it is the plain version of that treatment — no diamonds anywhere on the case or bezel — which makes it the reference most collectors mean when they say "Egyptian Day-Date" without further qualification.

Production outline

Nothing in the documented record dates the 19028's introduction independently of the wider Oysterquartz Day-Date launch in 1977. Every example that has surfaced at auction carries a case number in a tight mid-1980s band — 9,154,024, 9,171,419, 9,174,370, 9,180,259 and 9,723,161 — and where a house gives a year, it lands at 1985 or 1986. The reference was still current in 2001: Rolex's own US retail price list for that year, the last one to include the Oysterquartz line, priced the fluted 19018 at $16,500, the fluted white-gold 19019 at $18,200, and the 19028 just above both at $18,500, ahead of the diamond-bezel 19038 at $21,250 and the full diamond-bezel-and-dial 19048 at $25,550. That gives a documented seventeen-plus years of catalogue life even without a confirmed start date. The wider Oysterquartz platform, Datejust and Day-Date together, wound down by about 2003 once COSC stopped certifying the calibers.

Movement notes

The 19028 runs the same caliber 5055 as the 19018 and 19019: an 11-jewel, 32kHz thermocompensated quartz movement, accurate to about ±0.7 seconds a day, quickset on both day and date from the crown and COSC-certified from launch. Nothing about the pyramid case changes the movement inside it. The 19018 entry and the Reference:Movements page carry the fuller caliber history and the reasoning behind Rolex building its own quartz instead of continuing with the Beta 21 consortium movement.

Dial map

The walnut wood-grain dial, the only documented example on a 19028. Antiquorum, case 9,171,419

Champagne is the default dial, and it turns up in two distinct hour-marker treatments. Some examples carry applied pyramid-shaped gold indexes that echo the bezel and bracelet, with a black radial Roman-numeral minute track running around the outside — the version Antiquorum has photographed on the same watch across two of its sales. Others carry plain applied circular gilt markers with baton quarters, no pyramid shaping on the dial at all, as catalogued by Bonhams on a separate example. The pyramid theme, in other words, does not automatically extend past the case.

Silvered-dial example, French day wheel — Sotheby's, 2021

Two further dials are documented, each on a single known example. Sotheby's catalogued a silvered dial in Geneva in 2021, on a watch described as the property of a European royal family. Antiquorum catalogued a walnut wood-grain dial in New York in 2012, the burr-grain finish Rolex used across its gold Day-Dates of the period, here behind the pyramid bezel instead of the fluted one it usually accompanies. Day discs follow standard Day-Date practice and were supplied to order in the buyer's language; German ("DIENSTAG") and English both appear on documented examples. Dials of the era carry tritium and the "T SWISS MADE T" line at six.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown

The case architecture is identical to the 19018's: a three-body, tonneau-shaped 36mm case, about 13mm thick, with a screw-down back and Twinlock crown, sapphire crystal and a cyclops lens over the date. What changes is the bezel. Where the 19018 and 19019 carry a smooth fluted bezel, the 19028 carries a faceted bezel cut into a grid of small raised pyramids, the pattern Rolex's own documentation and several auction catalogues call "Pyramid" and others render as "Clous de Paris" — two names for the same stepped, light-catching relief. Some catalogued examples also note hooded lugs, a detail not consistently called out across every lot description.

Bracelets, end links, and clasps

The bracelet carries the theme through: the same faceted pyramid pattern appears on the centre links, matching the bezel instead of the plain brushed-and-polished links of a fluted Oysterquartz. It is built into the case in the same integrated three-piece-link construction as every Oysterquartz bracelet and closes on a concealed folding clasp — one documented example stamps its clasp "H," though the single-letter code dates the bracelet component, not necessarily the watch head it is currently paired with. Because the pyramid bracelet is a matched part, a 19028 that has lost its original bracelet cannot simply be fitted with a spare fluted-family Oysterquartz bracelet without breaking the design. The cross-family bracelet and clasp detail sits on Reference:Bracelets.

Auction record

Case 9,154,024 with its box and a Bucherer-signed guarantee dated February 1987, photographed at its 2019 Antiquorum resale.

The 19028 reaches the major houses more often than the white-gold 19019 but still in small numbers, and one physical watch accounts for a disproportionate share of the record. Case 9,154,024 — the "Egyptian" example illustrated above — sold at Antiquorum in Geneva in March 2008 for CHF 8,400, resurfaced at Antiquorum Hong Kong in October 2019 and sold for HKD 87,500, and came up again at Sotheby's New York in 2024 with an estimate of USD 20,000–30,000. Three appearances across sixteen years is an unusually well-documented resale history for a reference this thin on published results.

Other examples are catalogued more quietly and without published results. Phillips offered one retailed by Bucherer at its Hong Kong Watch Auction: FIVE in November 2017 against an estimate of HKD 72,000–96,000. Sotheby's has catalogued three more: a champagne-dial example in New York in 2019 at USD 15,000–25,000, the silvered-dial watch from a European royal family in Geneva in 2021 at CHF 12,000–18,000, and the case-9,154,024 example noted above. Bonhams sold a champagne-dial 19028 in London in December 2014 for GBP 6,875 including premium, against an estimate of GBP 5,000–7,000 — the one hammer result in the group besides the two Antiquorum sales of case 9,154,024. Antiquorum's walnut-dial example made USD 11,875 in New York in 2012.

As with its plainer siblings, the integrated bracelet drives condition and value. A stretched or over-polished pyramid bracelet cannot be replaced with a fresh one from a fluted-family Oysterquartz, and a careless polish softens the faceting that gives the bezel its name faster than it would a plain fluted one. Full sets and crisp, unpolished pyramid facets carry the premium.

date	house	configuration	result
March 2008	Antiquorum, Geneva, lot 301	"Egyptian," champagne dial with pyramid indexes, case 9,154,024	CHF 8,400 (est. CHF 7,000–9,000)
June 2012	Antiquorum, New York, Important Modern and Vintage Timepieces, lot 107	"Egyptian Walnut Dial," case 9,171,419	USD 11,875 (est. USD 10,000–15,000)
December 2014	Bonhams, London, Fine Watches and Wristwatches, lot 158	champagne dial, circular gilt markers, serial 915****	GBP 6,875 inc. premium (est. GBP 5,000–7,000)
November 2017	Phillips, The Hong Kong Watch Auction: FIVE	"Pyramide" bracelet, retailed by Bucherer, case 9,180,259	est. HKD 72,000–96,000; result not published
2019	Sotheby's, New York, Important Watches, lot 98	champagne dial, case 9,174,370, c.1986	est. USD 15,000–25,000; result not published
October 2019	Antiquorum, Hong Kong, lot 334	same watch as the 2008 Geneva lot, case 9,154,024, full set	HKD 87,500 (est. HKD 64,000–80,000)
2021	Sotheby's, Geneva, Important Watches	silvered dial, case 9,723,161, "Property of a European Royal Family"	est. CHF 12,000–18,000; result not published
2024	Sotheby's, New York, Important Watches	same watch as the 2008/2019 lots, case 9,154,024	est. USD 20,000–30,000; result not published

Related references

Day-Date 19018 — Oysterquartz President, fluted bezel, yellow gold
Day-Date 19019 — Oysterquartz President, fluted bezel, white gold
Day-Date 18038 — Cal 3055 President (1977–1988)
Day-Date 18028 — 1977–1988
Day-Date 1803 — Fluted President (1960–1977)