Reference:118389

Day-Date -> 118389

The 118389 is the white-gold gem-set Day-Date 36, the gem-set President that does not look like a gold watch. It carries the same setting as the yellow-gold 118388 — a double row of brilliants on the bezel and a further run down the lug flanks — but in white gold the stones and the metal sit at the same temperature, so the case reads as one continuous bright surface instead of gold-with-diamonds-on-it. That changes what the watch is. The 118388 announces money; the 118389 reads as jewellery. Under it all sits an ordinary 118239: 36mm case, caliber 3155, President bracelet.

Rolex Day-Date 36 118389 in 18k white gold — diamond bezel, diamond-set lugs, meteorite dial on the President bracelet.

Core facts

detail	value
reference	118389
family	Day-Date (Day-Date 36, 6-digit)
production	from 2000, through the 2010s to about 2019
movement	caliber 3155, 31 jewels, 28,800 vph, ~48h reserve, double quickset
case	36mm 18k white gold, diamond-set lugs
crystal	sapphire
bezel	factory diamond-set
bracelet	President, diamond-set President, or Oyster
dial	silver, silver Roman, silver "computer", blue, black diamond, Oxford mother-of-pearl, mother-of-pearl carousel, lapis lazuli, meteorite, paved, paved Arabic
crown	Twinlock screw-down
close siblings	118388 (yellow gold, same gem-setting), 118348 (yellow gold, diamond bezel only), 118346 (platinum)
plain-bezel equivalent	118239

Where it sits in the line

The 6-digit gem-set Day-Dates split by metal and by how far the setting runs. The 118388 and the 118389 are the same watch in yellow and white gold, both with the bezel and the lugs set. The 118348 sets the bezel and leaves the lugs polished. The 118346 is the platinum one.

reference	metal	setting
118348	yellow gold	diamond bezel, plain lugs
118388	yellow gold	diamond bezel plus diamond-set lugs
118389	white gold	diamond bezel plus diamond-set lugs
118346	platinum	diamond bezel

White gold does something specific to this design. On the 118388 the stones sit against a warm metal and the contrast does the work, so the eye reads bezel, then lugs, then bracelet as three separate decisions. On the 118389 the diamonds and the case are close enough in tone that the setting reads as texture rather than as ornament, and the watch ends up looking less decorated than it actually is. Whether that is the point or the problem depends on the buyer, and it is why white gold gem-set Presidents tend to be the ones collectors keep coming back to.

Against the plain 118239 nothing mechanical changes.

Production outline

The 118xxx generation arrived in 2000, carrying over the caliber 3155 and the 36mm Oyster case from the 182xx references while the bracelet and clasp were reworked. Monochrome's history records the President bracelet going from hollow to solid centre links and the rehaut picking up the engraved ROLEX ROLEX ROLEX ring with the serial number.

The end of the run is less clear than the start. Monochrome closes the 118238 and the generation at 2009, which does not square with the same article's account of the caliber 3155 being re-regulated in 2015 to the Superlative Chronometer standard. The gem-set references ran through the 2010s until the caliber-3255 Day-Date 36 replaced the line, around 2019.

As with any gem-set Rolex, catalogue dates only go so far. Rolex set stones to special order alongside the catalogue, and aftermarket setting on plain cases is common enough that factory origin is the first thing to establish about any example.

Movement notes

Caliber 3155: 31 jewels, 28,800 vph, roughly a 48-hour reserve, double quickset from the crown. Monochrome puts it at 31 jewels against the outgoing 3055's 27, with a double bridge for the escapement and a slightly slimmer profile despite the additions.

The blue Parachrom hairspring rolls across the catalogue from 2005, so late examples carry it and early ones do not. In 2015 Rolex re-regulated the 3155 from COSC −4/+6 seconds a day to its own Superlative Chronometer −2/+2. The caliber lineage sits on Reference:Movements.

Dial map

Lapis lazuli with diamond markers — the strongest colour Rolex put against this case.

Forty-three configurations are catalogued for the 118389, and the white-gold case pushes the dial selection somewhere different from its yellow-gold twin. Where the 118388 runs champagne and jade, the 118389 runs silver, blue, lapis and pavé.

The paved Arabic dial. Set against a set bezel and set lugs, the whole watch becomes one diamond surface.

dial	description	bracelets
silver	plain silvered ground, applied batons	President
silver Roman	silvered ground, applied Roman numerals	Oyster
silver "computer"	silvered ground with the circuit-board motif, diamond markers	Oyster, diamond-set President
silver diamond	silvered ground with diamond hour markers	diamond-set President
blue	blue ground, applied batons	Oyster
black diamond	glossy black with diamond markers	Oyster
Oxford mother-of-pearl	textured mother-of-pearl	President, diamond-set President
mother-of-pearl carousel	mother-of-pearl segments around a diamond-set centre	President, diamond-set President
lapis lazuli	deep-blue lapis hardstone, diamond markers	President
meteorite	meteorite slice with crystalline banding, diamond markers	President
paved	ground fully paved with diamonds	diamond-set President
paved Arabic	fully paved with applied blue Arabic numerals	President

Lapis is the one that gives the reference a colour. Everything else on the white-gold side is silver, white or grey, so a lapis dial in a bright case is the only configuration where the watch has a hue at all, and it works better here than the same stone does against yellow gold. At the other extreme the paved dials turn the whole watch into a single set surface, bezel and lugs and dial all stones, with the blue Arabic numerals on the paved Arabic version the only thing interrupting it. The broader hardstone story is set out in Italian Watch Spotter's stone-dial guide, and the cross-family dial taxonomy sits on the 1803 entry.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown

The case is the 36mm white-gold Oyster of the 6-digit generation, sapphire crystal with Cyclops, Twinlock screw-down crown, screw-down caseback. The bezel takes a double row of round brilliants and the lugs are set along both flanks, which is what separates the 118389 from the bezel-only references and what a buyer should confirm before paying for the setting.

Placing an example in the run works the same way as across the generation: serial between the lugs on early production, on the engraved rehaut later, and random alphanumeric strings from 2010. On a set case the lug engraving sits among the stones, so an unset or re-set lug tends to give itself away.

Bracelets, end links, and clasps

The diamond-set President. In white gold the setting runs unbroken from bezel to lugs to bracelet.

Three bracelets appear. The standard President with solid centre links and the concealed Crownclasp is the usual fitment. The diamond-set President carries stones down the centre links, and in white gold this is where the reference goes furthest, because there is no tonal break anywhere: bezel, lugs and bracelet read as one set surface. The Oyster is the third and least expected, a flat three-piece bracelet under a fully set case.

Silver Roman on the Oyster — a set case on the plainest bracelet in the catalogue.

A clasp date code dates the bracelet, not the head. That caution carries more weight on a gem-set reference than a plain one, since a set President is valuable enough to be swapped onto a watch that left the factory on a plain one. The cross-family detail sits on Reference:Bracelets.

Market

The 118389 moves through the jewellery and dealer market rather than the catalogued watch auctions. Factory setting is the first question on any example, because aftermarket stones on Day-Dates are common and worth a fraction of the original; Rolex paperwork and the regularity of the setting are what settle it. After that the dial does the work, which holds across the whole 6-digit generation — Christie's Hong Kong sold a coral-dial 118208 for HKD 525,000 in 2014 and a bloodstone example for HKD 225,000 in 2018, both well clear of a plain-dial example of the same reference. On the 118389 the lapis, the meteorite and the paved configurations sit at that end, and a plain silver dial on a standard President sits at the other.

Related references

• Day-Date 118388 — yellow gold, same gem-setting
• Day-Date 118239 — white gold, fluted
• Day-Date 118238 — 2000–2019
• Day-Date 118235 — 2005–2019
• Day-Date 118208 — 2000–2019
• Day-Date 1804 — the 4-digit diamond-bezel President

See also the Day-Date family index, movement reference, bracelet & clasp guide, and serial numbers by year.

Sources

• The Vintage Rolex Field Manual — Colin A. White, Morning Tundra
• Day-Date — The Presidential Rolex — Pucci Papaleo, Pucci Papaleo Editore, 2015
• Rolex Day-Date — Giorgia Mondani and Guido Mondani, Guido Mondani Editore
• Monochrome editorial, "In-Depth: The History of the Rolex Day-Date, The Presidential Watch", Monochrome Watches
• Sotheby's editorial, "The Rolex Day-Date: A Complete Collector's Guide", Sotheby's
• Italian Watch Spotter editorial, "The History of the Rolex Day-Date", Italian Watch Spotter
• Italian Watch Spotter editorial, "Watch Guide: Rolex Stone Dials", Italian Watch Spotter
• Fratello editorial, "Exploring Evergreens: The Rolex Day-Date 18238", Fratello Watches
• SwissWatchExpo editorial, "Generations of the Rolex President Day-Date", SwissWatchExpo, 2024
• WatchBase, "Rolex caliber 3155 (registry page)", WatchBase
• WatchBase editorial, "Rolex Day-Date History", WatchBase, 2015-02-21
• WatchBase, "Rolex Day-Date 36 118389 — factory configuration registry", WatchBase