Rolex Day-Date 36 118388

Day-Date -> 118388

The 118388 is the yellow-gold high-jewellery Day-Date 36, the one where Rolex sets the lugs as well as the bezel. Underneath the stones it is an ordinary 118238: the same 36mm case, the same caliber 3155, the same President bracelet. What separates it is a double row of brilliants around the bezel and a further run of stones down the lug flanks, so the diamonds wrap the case instead of sitting in a ring on top of it. That single detail is also what distinguishes it from the 118348, its plain-lugged sibling, and the two get confused constantly. The dial catalogue is the other reason to look: the gem-set references carry configurations that never appear on the plain Day-Dates, including jade carousel dials in green and lavender.

Core facts

detail	value
reference	118388
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 yellow gold, diamond-set lugs
crystal	sapphire
bezel	factory diamond-set
bracelet	President, diamond-set President, or Oyster
dial	champagne Roman, champagne "computer", black, white, silver diamond, mother-of-pearl, meteorite, Bull's Eye, green and lavender jade carousel
crown	Twinlock screw-down
close siblings	118389 (white gold, same gem-setting), 118348 (yellow gold, diamond bezel only), 118346 (platinum)
plain-bezel equivalent	118238

Where it sits in the line

Rolex has always run a gem-set branch alongside the plain Day-Dates. In the 4-digit era that was the 1804, a diamond bezel on the same case as the fluted 1803. The 6-digit generation splits that branch further, by metal and by how far the setting goes, and the result is four references that look alike in a listing photograph and are not the same watch:

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

Set a 118388 next to a 118348 with the same dial and the same bracelet and the difference is obvious: the 118348's lugs are polished gold, the 118388's carry stones running down the flank on both sides. In a cropped dealer photograph it is easy to miss, which is why reference numbers on these get transposed so often. Anyone valuing one should confirm the lugs, not just the bezel.

Against the 118238 the 118388 is the same watch with a jeweller's brief. Nothing mechanical changes.

Production outline

The 118xxx series arrived in 2000, carrying over the caliber 3155 and the 36mm Oyster case from the preceding 182xx references while the bracelet and clasp were reworked. Monochrome's history records the President bracelet moving from hollow links to solid, which accounts for most of the weight the generation gained, and the rehaut picking up the engraved ROLEX ROLEX ROLEX ring with the serial number.

Dating the end of the run is messier. Monochrome closes the 118238, and with it the generation, at 2009, a date that is hard to reconcile with the same article's account of the caliber 3155 being re-regulated in 2015 to Rolex's Superlative Chronometer standard. The gem-set references ran alongside the plain ones through the 2010s until the caliber-3255 Day-Date 36 took over, around 2019.

Gem-set references also complicate their own chronology. Rolex has always set stones to order as well as to catalogue, and dealers have set plenty more after the fact. Factory setting is the whole value of a 118388, so provenance matters more here than on a plain President.

Movement notes

Caliber 3155: 31 jewels, 28,800 vph, roughly a 48-hour reserve, double quickset so day and date both index from the crown. Monochrome describes it as up from 27 jewels over the outgoing 3055, with a double bridge for the escapement and a slightly slimmer profile.

Two changes land mid-run and both apply here. The blue Parachrom hairspring rolls across the catalogue from 2005, so late examples carry it. Then in 2015 Rolex re-regulated the 3155 from the COSC standard of −4/+6 seconds a day to its own Superlative Chronometer rating of −2/+2. The caliber lineage sits on Reference:Movements.

Dial map

The green jade carousel dial — segments of jade laid around a diamond-set centre, a configuration confined to the gem-set references.

Sixty configurations are catalogued for the 118388, and the interesting half does not exist on the plain Day-Dates at all. The gem-set references are where Rolex put the hardstone and the decorated dials.

The Bull's Eye dial, a banded brown hardstone with diamond markers.

dial	description	bracelets
champagne Roman	champagne ground, applied Roman numerals	President
champagne	plain champagne, applied batons	Oyster
champagne "computer"	champagne ground with the circuit-board motif	President
black	glossy black, applied batons	President
white	white ground, applied batons	Oyster, President
silver diamond	silvered ground with diamond hour markers	Oyster, diamond-set President
mother-of-pearl	white mother-of-pearl with diamond markers	Oyster, President
meteorite	meteorite slice with crystalline banding, diamond markers	President
Bull's Eye	banded brown hardstone, diamond markers	President
green jade carousel	jade segments laid around a diamond-set centre	President
lavender jade carousel	same construction in lavender jade	President

The jade carousels are the ones worth going out of the way for. The dial is built from cut segments of stone arranged around a diamond-set inner ring, so it reads as marquetry rather than as a single slab, and the green and lavender versions are the most decorated dials Rolex catalogued on a 36mm Day-Date. Meteorite and Bull's Eye cover the harder-edged end of the same idea. The broader hardstone story across the Rolex catalogue 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

Meteorite dial. The stones running down the lug flank are the 118388's identifying feature against the 118348.

The case is the 36mm yellow-gold Oyster of the 6-digit generation, with a sapphire crystal and Cyclops, a Twinlock screw-down crown and a screw-down caseback. The bezel carries a double row of round brilliants. The lugs are set along the flanks, which is the reference's identifying feature and the thing to check before paying gem-set money for one.

Serial placement dates an example the same way it does across the generation: early production carries the serial between the lugs at six o'clock, later production moves it to the engraved rehaut, and from 2010 the letter-prefix serials give way to random alphanumeric strings. On a 118388 the lug engraving sits among the stones, which makes an unset or re-set lug easier to spot than it would otherwise be.

Bracelets, end links, and clasps

The diamond-set President, with stones carried down the centre links — the top of the catalogue.

Three bracelets appear against this reference. The standard President with solid centre links and the concealed Crownclasp is the common one. Above it sits the diamond-set President, with stones running down the centre links so the setting continues from bezel to lugs to bracelet without a break. Below both, and the surprise, is the plain Oyster: a flat three-piece bracelet under a diamond bezel and set lugs, which is an odd combination and a genuinely catalogued one.

Mother-of-pearl on the Oyster bracelet — the gem-set case on the plainest bracelet Rolex offered for it.

As with any President, a clasp date code dates the bracelet and not the head, and this matters more than usual here: a gem-set bracelet is expensive enough to be added later, and a swap between a plain and a set President changes the value of the watch far more than it changes the look. The cross-family detail sits on Reference:Bracelets.

Market

The 118388 trades through the jewellery and dealer market rather than the catalogued watch auctions, and it is valued differently from a plain Day-Date. Two things drive it. The first is whether the setting is factory, since aftermarket stones are common on Day-Dates and carry a fraction of the value; Rolex paperwork and the quality and regularity of the setting are what settle it. The second is the dial, which is the pattern 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 several multiples over a plain-dial equivalent of the same reference. On the 118388 the jade carousels, the Bull's Eye and the meteorite occupy that position, and a champagne Roman on a plain President sits at the other end.

Related references

Day-Date 118389 — white 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