Rolex 218239 Day-Date II

Day-Date -> 218239

The 218239 is the white-gold Day-Date II, made from 2008 to 2015 on the caliber 3156, with a fluted white-gold bezel and a solid white-gold President bracelet. It is the quietest reference in a generation that was not built to be quiet. White gold reads as steel at arm's length, so a 41mm President in this metal weighs like precious metal and looks like nothing in particular, which is the point of a white-gold Rolex and the reason the reference has always sold in smaller numbers than its yellow-gold and Everose siblings.

Core facts

detail	value
reference	218239
family	Day-Date (Day-Date II, 41mm)
production	2008 to 2015
movement	caliber 3156, 31 jewels, 28,800 vph, ~48h power reserve, double quickset, COSC chronometer
case	41mm 18k white gold Oyster
crystal	sapphire with Cyclops
bezel	fluted white gold
crown	Twinlock screw-down
bracelet	white gold President, three semi-circular links, concealed Crownclasp
water resistance	100m
dial	chocolate Roman, white Roman, factory silver diamond and black diamond, and a blue wave layout
siblings	218238 (yellow gold), 218235 (Everose), 218206 (platinum), 218348 / 218349 (factory diamond bezel)
diamond-bezel counterpart	218349, the white-gold factory diamond-bezel reference
successor	228239 (Day-Date 40, caliber 3255, from 2015)

Where it sits in the line

The 218239 is the white-gold member of the Day-Date II, the 2008 generation that pushed the President to 41mm. Its siblings are the yellow-gold 218238, the Everose 218235 and the platinum 218206, and it shares the fluted bezel, the caliber and the bracelet architecture with the two gold references. White gold and platinum are the two discreet metals in the generation, and they take opposite approaches: the platinum announces itself through the smooth bezel and the ice-blue dial that Rolex reserves for the metal, while the white gold hides inside the same fluted-bezel silhouette the yellow gold wears.

The reference to keep separate from it is the 218349, the white-gold Day-Date II with a factory diamond bezel. That is a different reference number, not a 218239 with stones added. Listings citing a 218339 are typing errors for one or the other; no such reference exists in the Day-Date II range.

Production outline

The Day-Date II launched at Baselworld 2008 alongside the Datejust II and ran seven years, the shortest life of any modern Day-Date, ending in 2015 when the Day-Date 40 replaced it at 40mm. The 218239 spans that whole window. Rolex switched to scrambled serial numbers across the catalogue in 2010, so the bulk of documented white-gold examples carry random serials; one dated 2014 example is representative of the later production.

No production figure has been published for the 218239, and the reference is thinner on the ground than the others. Searches of the dealer market return a handful of white-gold Day-Date IIs against many yellow-gold and Everose examples, which is consistent with how white-gold Day-Dates have always sold, though it is market evidence rather than a factory number and should be treated as such.

Movement notes

The caliber 3156 was built for the Day-Date II and used in no other model. It takes the caliber 3155 architecture and widens the main plate by roughly 2.5mm to suit the 41mm case, keeping 31 jewels, a 28,800 vph beat, about 48 hours of reserve, double quickset for day and date, and COSC certification. The balance is Glucydur with Microstella screws, the hairspring is the blue Parachrom, and Paraflex shock protection is fitted. The 3156 was introduced with the generation in 2008 and retired in 2015 and 2016, when the Day-Date 40 moved to the caliber 3255. There is no white-gold-specific movement; the 218239 runs what the 218238 runs, and the Reference:Movements page holds the caliber lineage.

Dial map

The documented white-gold dials divide into plain-marker layouts and factory diamond ones, with a wave-pattern dial sitting slightly apart.

dial	markers	code where documented	notes
chocolate	Roman	218239-0040	the brown dial that defines the generation, here against white metal
white	Roman	218239-0041	the most restrained configuration in the whole Day-Date II range
silver	diamond	218239-0006	factory diamond hour markers
black	diamond	not in the published roster	factory diamond markers on black, documented on the market
blue wave	Arabic	not in the published roster	wave-pattern ground, documented on a dated 2014 example with box and papers

Chocolate on white gold is the pairing worth seeking out. The dial arrived as a Day-Date II signature and is usually associated with Everose, where warm-on-warm is the obvious combination; against white gold the brown has to carry the whole watch, and it does. The white Roman dial at the other end is the most self-effacing Day-Date Rolex made in this period, a 41mm solid-gold President that could be read as a steel watch from across a table.

The blue wave dial deserves a note. Wave-pattern grounds appear across the Day-Date II range, including on the diamond-bezel references, and a dated 2014 white-gold example documents the texture on the plain fluted-bezel 218239 as well. It does not appear in the published dial-code roster, which lists seventeen codes across the generation and three for the 218239. Between the black diamond dial and the blue wave, at least two factory white-gold layouts sit outside that roster, so the codes are a starting point rather than a full accounting.

Aftermarket work is common on this reference and needs separating from factory configuration. White-gold 218239 cases turn up with diamond-paved Roman dials, custom-set diamond bezels, baguette dials and fully diamond-set President bracelets, none of it Rolex work. A factory diamond dial such as the silver or black layouts is a catalogue variant with a code behind it; an aftermarket paved dial is later jewellery. Stone cut, prong style and the regularity of the setting are what separate them, and the difference shows up in price on resale.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown

The case is 41mm in 18k white gold, with a sapphire crystal, a Cyclops over the date and a Twinlock screw-down crown, rated to 100m. Published thickness figures for the Day-Date II run between about 11.9mm and 13mm depending on whether the measurement is taken at the midcase or over the caseback. The bezel is fluted, the same format the yellow-gold and Everose references wear, and on white gold the fluting is the main thing that tells the watch apart from a large Datejust at a glance.

The 41mm case is the generation's defining choice and its most argued-over one. Contemporaneous coverage read the proportions as substantial, with wide lugs and a long profile, and Rolex answered the criticism by moving to 40mm in 2015. On white gold the effect is different from the gold references: without the visual warmth of yellow or Everose, the size registers as heft rather than flash, which suits some wrists and defeats others. The weight is not subtle either way, as solid white gold is denser than yellow.

Bracelets, end links, and clasps

The 218239 wears the white-gold President, three semi-circular links scaled to the 41mm head, closed by the concealed Crownclasp that leaves only the coronet visible. As on any President, a clasp date code dates the bracelet rather than the head, and service over a decade or more can put a later bracelet on an earlier case. The cross-family detail sits on Reference:Bracelets.

Special branches

The discreet President

White gold is the metal a Day-Date buyer chooses to avoid being read as a Day-Date buyer, and the 218239 is the most complete expression of that in the generation. The case, bezel and bracelet are solid 18k, the movement is chronometer-certified, and the whole thing passes for steel at conversational distance. The white Roman dial takes the idea furthest. Against the platinum 218206, which uses the smooth bezel and the ice-blue dial as a signal to anyone who knows what those mean, the white gold gives away nothing at all.

Factory diamond versus aftermarket stones

Two distinct things get called a diamond 218239. The factory versions are the silver and black diamond dials, standard fluted bezel, catalogue configurations. Everything else is added later: paved dials, set bezels, diamond bracelets. The gap shows in the asking prices, where aftermarket-set white-gold examples are offered well above plain factory ones, but that spread is the value of the stones and the setting work, not of the reference, and it narrows sharply on resale. For anyone wanting factory stones on a white-gold Day-Date II at 41mm, the reference to look for is the 218349 with its factory diamond bezel.

Market and auction record

The Day-Date II's auction record belongs almost entirely to the platinum 218206, where the commissioned and diamond-set examples have drawn saleroom attention. No 218239 lot turned up at the major houses in the searches run for this entry. The reference changes hands on the secondary market, and the absence of auction results says more about how modern gold Day-Dates are traded than about the watch.

On the secondary market in 2026, factory-dial 218239s on the standard fluted bezel ask roughly USD 38,500 to 39,500, with the chocolate Roman at the lower end of that narrow band and the factory diamond dials at the top. Dated examples with box and papers sit around USD 38,000. Aftermarket diamond-set examples are asked at USD 54,000 to 55,000, a figure that reflects the stones rather than the reference. The white gold sits below the Everose 218235 and close to the yellow-gold 218238 in the generation, which makes it, for anyone who actually wants the metal, the value entry into a 41mm President.

Related references

Day-Date 1803 — Fluted President (1960–1977)
Day-Date 1804
Day-Date 1806
Day-Date 1807
Day-Date 1811
Day-Date 1831

Sources