Reference:1807

Day-Date -> 1807

The 1807 is the bark-finish Day-Date. It shares the 4-digit President's case, movement and dial catalogue with the fluted 1803 and differs in one thing: the gold carries a coarse vertical "bark" texture, écorce in French, across the bezel and the bracelet's center links. Rolex sold it through the 1960s and into the 1970s as one of a small group of decorated 4-digit references, next to the Florentine 1806 and the Morellis-finish 1811. The finish drew few buyers when new. It reads very differently now.

The 1807 in yellow gold: bark finish on the bezel and the President bracelet's center links, champagne stick dial.

Core facts

detail	value
reference	1807
family	Day-Date
production	1960s into the 1970s (4-digit era)
movement	caliber 1555 (to c. 1965), then caliber 1556 to the end of the run; hacking from 1972; no quickset
case	36mm 18k gold President — yellow, white, pink/rose gold
crystal	acrylic
bezel	bark (écorce) finish
bracelet	President with bark-finished center links
dial	the 4-digit Day-Date catalogue (champagne and silver stick the volume choice; the same special dials offered on the 1803)
crown	Twinlock screw-down
sibling references	1803 (fluted), 1804 (gem-set), 1806 (Florentine), 1811 (Morellis moiré)
predecessor	originals-era 6610 / 6611 / 6612 cluster
successor	5-digit 18078, which carries the bark finish forward

Where it sits in the line

The 4-digit Day-Date split by finish on a shared case and movement. The 1803 took the fluted bezel, the 1804 a gem-set one, the 1806 the fine Florentine hand-engraving, the 1811 the Morellis moiré, and the 1807 the coarser bark. Florentine and bark are the pair most often confused, and the 1807 is the easier of the two to call, since its bark runs across the bezel and onto the bracelet's center links.

Everything else is 1803. The 36mm gold case, the President bracelet, the caliber 1555 and 1556 movements, and the dial catalogue are shared, and the bark is the only thing that makes an 1807 an 1807. The 1803 entry carries the full dial taxonomy, the movement transition, and the President bracelet history for the whole 4-digit group.

Production outline

The bark finish ran through the 1960s and into the 1970s alongside the plain 1803. No Rolex production figure has surfaced. The texture sold slowly when new, which is why bark and Florentine examples are scarcer in the record than the fluted 1803. Documented examples cover the span, from silver- and champagne-dialled yellow-gold pieces in the mid-1960s on the caliber 1555 to later ones into the early 1970s on the hacking caliber 1556.

Movement notes

The 1807 uses the same movement as the rest of the 4-digit Day-Date, caliber 1555 from the start of the run and caliber 1556 from around 1965. The 1556 raised the beat to 19,800 vph through a gear-train change, carrying over the free-sprung Microstella balance of the 1555; hacking seconds were added to the caliber mid-production in 1972. No 4-digit Day-Date has quickset, so the date and day advance only by running the hands through midnight. The Reference:Movements page holds the caliber lineage, and the 1803 entry covers the 1555-to-1556 transition in detail.

Dial map

The 1807 came with the standard 4-digit Day-Date dials, champagne and silver with applied gold stick markers most common, and as a catalogue sibling of the 1803 it could be ordered with the same special dials. Documented bark examples include linen-textured Sigma dials and darker grey and Havana-brown dials set against the gold bark. The bark is what defines the reference; dial choice is shared across the group, and the 1803 entry carries the variant taxonomy.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown

The bark texture up close on a grey-dial 1807, running across the bezel and the bracelet center links.

The case is the 36mm three-piece gold Oyster shared across the 4-digit Day-Date, with a Twinlock screw-down crown, screw-down caseback and acrylic crystal. The defining feature is the bezel. In place of the 1803's fluting the 1807 carries a bark finish, a coarse vertical texture deeper and more irregular than the engine-turning on a Datejust and meant to resemble tree bark. It was made in yellow, white and pink gold to match the case.

Bracelets, end links, and clasps

The 1807 wears the President with the bark carried onto the bracelet's center links, so the texture runs from the bezel all the way down the bracelet. That full-length bark is what separates an 1807 from a watch that simply has a textured bezel. As with any vintage President, a clasp date code dates the bracelet, which may be older or newer than the head, and the Reference:Bracelets page holds the cross-family bracelet detail.

Special branches

The bark family

The 1807 belongs to a small group of textured 4-digit Day-Dates: the Florentine 1806, the bark 1807, and the Morellis 1811. These were a 1960s fashion, and Rolex let them go as taste returned to polished and fluted gold. Survivors are comparatively scarce and now wanted precisely because the texture is unusual. The bark itself outlasted the 4-digit era and returned on the 5-digit 18078.

Auction record

Bark 1807s surface mainly through the dealer market and rarely at the major auction houses, which reflects the reference's modest standing rather than any great rarity. Documented yellow-gold examples run from mid-1960s silver-dial pieces to early-1970s examples on the hacking caliber 1556. An original bark bracelet carries much of the value. Decades of servicing often swapped bark center links for plain ones, so an example that keeps its full bark commands a clear premium over one that does not.

Related references

• Day-Date 1803 — Fluted President (1960–1977)
• Day-Date 1804
• Day-Date 1806
• Day-Date 1811
• Day-Date 1831
• Day-Date 6510 — 1956–1957

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
• 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
• Fratello editorial, "Rolex Day-Date — Historical Overview Of Rolex's Flagship", Fratello Watches
• WatchBase editorial, "Rolex Day-Date History", WatchBase, 2015-02-21
• Italian Watch Spotter editorial, "The History of the Rolex Day-Date", Italian Watch Spotter
• The Beautiful Watch editorial, "A Brief History of the Rolex Day-Date", The Beautiful Watch
• Jake Ehrlich, "1956 — The Very First Rolex Day-Date", Rolex Magazine (Jake's Rolex World), 2010-09
• Ottuhr editorial, "Rolex Day-Date 1803 Reference Report", Ottuhr
• Rolex Forums community, "Rolex Forums — 1803 Presidential Unusual Finishes", Rolex Forums