Vintage Rolex is a catalogue problem as much as a collecting one. A single reference can carry a dozen dial variants across a twenty-year production run, with movement and case changes overlapping them, and placing a specific watch in its generation matters before anything else about it does. BezelBase is the archive that answers those questions, reference by reference.
Pages are indexed by reference number, the way collectors already think about these watches. The 5512 before the phrase "four-line gilt." The 1680 before "Red Sub." Each entry documents a reference's dial variants and production years, then maps the movement and bracelet fitments that travelled with them. Sources are named. Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than smoothed over. Scope is everything Rolex no longer makes, from the earliest bubbleback Oysters through the last five-digit Submariners. About →
Submariner
| Era | References |
|---|---|
| Pre-five-digit 1953–90 |
6204 · 6205 · 6200 · 6536 · 6536/1 · 6538 · 5508 · 5510 · 5512 · 5513 · 5514 · 5517 · 1680 |
| Five-digit 1979–2010 |
14060 · 14060M · 16800 · 16610 · 16610LV · 16803 · 16808 · 16613 · 16618 |
Explorer
| Era | References |
|---|---|
| Vintage 1952–89 |
6150 · 6350 · 6610 · 1016 |
| Modern 1989–2021 |
14270 · 114270 · 214270 |
GMT-Master
| Era | References |
|---|---|
| Vintage 1955–99 |
6542 · 1675 · 16750 · 16753 · 16758 · 16700 |
| GMT-Master II 1983–2007 |
16760 · 16710 · 16713 · 16718 |
Oyster & Bubbleback
| Era | References |
|---|---|
| Pre-Oyster & Oyster 1922–37 |
3666 · 2136 · 3003 · 3004 |
| Bubbleback era 1933–45 |
1858 · 3131 · 3372 · 3525 |
| Datejust / Padellone / Super Oyster 1945–53 |
4467 · 5030 · 5031 · 6031 · 6075 · 6105 · 8171 · 6098 |