Reference:4467

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Rolex 4467, the first Datejust (1945), 18K yellow gold, roulette date wheel. Case 518506 sold Phillips 2018 for CHF 33,750.

Bubbleback → 4467

The 4467 is the anchor. Launched in 1945 for Rolex’s 40th anniversary, it is the first Datejust and the first automatic wristwatch with a date window, a complication every mechanical Rolex with a calendar, from the 6305 through the current 126234, descends from. It debuts the Jubilee bracelet, introduces a reeded coin-edge bezel that becomes the Datejust’s fluted signature, and sells its first hundred units by newspaper subscription to buyers who did not yet know what a Datejust was. None of the later Datejust language is here yet: no Cyclops, no “Datejust” text on the dial, no instantaneous midnight jump. What exists is the concept, executed in 18K gold, in a 36mm Big Bubbleback case that Italian auction houses call the Ovettone.

Core facts

detail value
reference 4467
family Big Bubbleback / early Datejust
production 1945–1949 (some serialized examples appear into the mid-1950s)
total production approximately 1,000 units
case diameter 36mm (approximate; tonneau case, measurement varies)
case construction three-piece, screw-down caseback and crown
case materials 18K yellow gold (most common); 18K pink/rose gold (very rare, ~20 examples estimated)
bezel thin reeded/fluted coin-edge gold
crystal acrylic, domed, 30.9mm
crown screw-down brevet, marked “Rolex + Oyster” with cross-center
movement Cal. A.295 (listed as Cal. 740/745 in parts catalogs)
date complication yes — date at 3 o’clock, gradual change around midnight
Cyclops no (introduced on ref 6305 in 1954)
“Datejust” text on dial no (first appears on ref 6105)
bracelet Jubilee (debut reference)
launch price CHF 975 (1945)
italian nickname Ovettone (“big egg”), per Pandolfini and Aste Bolaffi

What the 4467 is

Rolex built the 4467 to mark 40 years since Hans Wilsdorf founded the firm in 1905. Launch in Switzerland coincided with the end of the Second World War in Europe, and Swiss press coverage read it in that light. Wilsdorf had been planning anniversary pieces since at least 1944, and the choice was deliberate: lead with a technically ambitious new complication, the world’s first automatic chronometer wristwatch with a date window in a sealed Oyster case, rather than a simple commemorative reissue.

Every design decision reflected the anniversary framing. The metal is 18K gold, never steel, never two-tone. The bracelet is new: the Jubilee, whose name references the Ruby Jubilee, the traditional 40th anniversary marker. The bezel is reeded and coin-edged, a direct visual precursor to the fluted bezel that becomes a Datejust signature by the 1960s. And the first hundred pieces are sold by subscription, through a Swiss newspaper, numbered 1 through 100 between the lugs.

Underneath the anniversary framing was a working design problem. Automatic date complications had no established architecture in the mid-1940s. Rolex and Aegler (the exclusive movement supplier) had to design an automatic movement with enough torque to drive both a winding rotor and a date wheel, fit it into a waterproof Oyster case, and find a visual language for the date window that did not disrupt the Oyster Perpetual’s identity. The answer is imperfect: the date changes gradually, there is no quickset, there is no magnifier. All three limits are resolved by successor references. But the template exists, and everything that follows in the Datejust line is iteration on it.

Ovetto versus Ovettone

Italian auction houses and native collectors (Pandolfini, Aste Bolaffi, and the broader Italian Rolex community) use two distinct nicknames. Ovetto (“little egg”) designates the standard 32mm Bubblebacks: refs 1858, 2940, 3131, 3372, 3458, 4220, and contemporaries. Ovettone (“big egg”) designates the 36mm Big Bubbleback family: the 4467 and its siblings 5020, 5026, 5028, 5030, 5031, 6028, 6031, 6074, 6075, and 6105.

Italian supports this diminutive-augmentative stacking as a normal construction; the parallel Padella/Padellone distinction (used for ref 8171) follows the same pattern. -etto is diminutive, -one is augmentative. Applied together, the compound produces a nickname that captures the 4467’s identity: a Bubbleback visibly bigger than its siblings.

The Vintage Rolex Field Manual uses ovettone more broadly as a generic Bubbleback synonym.

The 36mm case and the Big Bubbleback family

The 4467’s case is a tonneau-form Oyster, cushion-like and with the characteristic Bubbleback domed caseback, measuring approximately 36mm in diameter. That is a 4mm increase over the standard 32mm Bubbleback, the default for automatic Rolex watches from 1933 through the mid-1940s. The size increase was driven by the movement: Cal. A.295 measures 29.5mm across against the 26.4mm of the preceding 620 family, requiring a larger case and a larger caseback dome to house the rotor.

On the wrist, a 4467 reads differently from a standard Bubbleback. A 32mm Bubbleback is a dress watch by modern proportions, small and domed. The 4467 is still domed, still unmistakably a Bubbleback, but it wears closer to the proportions mid-century Rolex dress watches settled into by the 1950s: the proportions the 6305, 6605, and eventually the 1601 Datejust inherit and refine. The 4467 is the origin of the 36mm Oyster Perpetual as a dress-watch format.

Case construction is three-piece: bezel, mid-case, screw-down caseback. The bezel is thin and reeded, shallower and subtler than the sharply faceted fluting of later Datejusts but the direct precursor to it. Rolex had used engine-turned and fluted bezels on earlier Oysters (the 3372 Luxury Model most prominently); the 4467’s version is the one the Datejust adopts as its own signature.

The crown is a standard screw-down brevet, marked “Rolex + Oyster” with a cross-center design. The crystal is acrylic, domed, approximately 30.9mm. No Cyclops; that magnifier does not appear on a Datejust until ref 6305 in 1954.

Precious metal only

4467 'Red Datejust' in 18K pink gold with rare black dial, case 460565 (Antiquorum 2018).

The 4467 was produced in 18K gold only. Two variants are documented: 18K yellow gold, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of surviving examples, and 18K pink or rose gold, substantially rarer. Collector estimates put the pink gold population at approximately twenty.

No steel 4467 exists. No two-tone 4467 exists. The anniversary framing drove that decision: the 4467 was a commemorative flagship, not a production workhorse. Steel and two-tone Datejusts arrive later, with ref 6305 and its successors. Any purported steel or two-tone 4467 is a red flag for authentication.

The souscription batch and CHF 975

A souscription-numbered 4467 — first 100 pieces, sold by newspaper subscription at CHF 975.

Rolex sold the first hundred 4467 watches by subscription through a Swiss newspaper. Buyers paid CHF 975 (roughly several months of skilled-worker income in 1945) and received a numbered piece with their assigned position between the lugs, 1 through 100. Custom engraving was offered: a coat of arms or the buyer’s initials.

The newspaper is contested. Some sources identify it as La Suisse, a Geneva daily published from 1898 to 1994. Goldammer identifies it as Tribune de Genève, the other major Geneva daily of the period. No surviving 1945 advertisement has been publicly reproduced in any source surveyed.

Souscription pieces are physically distinct. The number appears between the lugs at 6 o’clock, in the position the case serial number takes on later examples. Some carry “Modèle Déposé” (a French-language registration notice) between the lugs instead of a serial; the placement convention on these earliest examples was not yet standardized. By the run-out phase (1946–1949), the serial-number position had shifted to its conventional location. Documented numbered examples include “No:030” and “No:085” (VRF records). Only 18K yellow gold souscription pieces carry the numbering; the rare 18K pink gold examples are unnumbered.

Souscription pieces command a premium at auction. Antiquorum’s May 2024 listing carried an estimate of HKD 87,000–174,000, with the numbered provenance cited as the primary driver relative to unnumbered examples.

The Jubilee bracelet

The Jubilee debuts on the 4467. Rolex designed it specifically for this reference, and the name refers to the Ruby Jubilee, the traditional 40th anniversary. One of Rolex’s two signature bracelet formats (the other being the Oyster) exists because of the 4467’s anniversary framing.

The original Jubilee is a five-link design: three smaller central links flanked by two larger outer links, giving it a softer drape than the flatter three-link Oyster. On the 4467 it is rendered in 18K yellow gold with a folding clasp; pink gold examples carry a pink gold Jubilee matched to the case. The 4467’s Jubilee is also the first Rolex bracelet with solid end links, a construction upgrade from the folded end-link style used on earlier Oyster bracelets of the 1930s.

From this point forward the Jubilee stays attached to the Datejust line. Later steel and two-tone Datejusts offer both Jubilee and Oyster as options, but the Jubilee becomes the default dress bracelet, particularly on gold and two-tone configurations.

Finding a 4467 today with its original 1945-era Jubilee is unusual. Service replacement was common, especially on yellow gold examples where wear and stretch on a folded-link bracelet is cumulative. Period-correct survivors (correct end-links, no clasp-date discrepancies) carry a meaningful premium.

The dial

Dial text carries “ROLEX” and “Oyster Perpetual” below the coronet at 12 o’clock. Below 6 o’clock, the dial is marked either “Chronometer” or “Certified Chronometer”; both are correct and both appear on documented examples.

The word “Datejust” does not appear on the 4467’s dial. That text first appears on ref 6105, the successor that establishes the model name as a dial feature. On the 4467, the date window at 3 o’clock is unannounced: the watch carries a date but not yet its own name.

Most surviving 4467 dials share a common configuration: cream or eggshell base with applied gold pointed dagger markers, radium luminous dots, and gold alpha hands with radium inserts. This is the format Phillips presented in 2018 (case 518506, sold CHF 33,750). Variants include dials with and without lume, dials with the Bubbleback-style Rolex crown logo versus a “cut-off” truncated crown, and rare left-handed variants with the crown at 9 o’clock.

Black dial variants are extremely rare. Antiquorum’s May 2018 lot (case 460565) presented an 18K pink gold 4467 with a black dial and a red-numeral date wheel, the rarest stack the reference produces.

Date wheel evolution

Three distinct date wheel configurations are documented across the production run:

All-black numerals. The earliest 4467 dials, circa 1945 and into the first year or two, carry date wheels with black numerals on a white or off-white background, consistent with the dial’s palette.

All-red numerals: the “Red Datejust.” Sometime in the mid-1940s, Rolex introduced a date wheel with every date from 1 through 31 printed in red. Documented on examples from approximately 1945 through 1947, this configuration is known in collector literature as the “Red Datejust.” The Antiquorum pink gold example above carries this red wheel. All-red 4467 dials command a premium over the standard black-numeral version.

Roulette. The roulette wheel (alternating red and black numerals, typically with odd dates in one color and even dates in the other) appears on 4467 dials from approximately 1947 through the end of production around 1953. The Phillips 2018 example carries a roulette wheel, and it is the most visually associated date-wheel configuration for the reference as it is remembered today.

Date-wheel variants do not track a strict chronological sequence. Production overlap is the norm in vintage Rolex, and documented examples exist where the date wheel is not the version expected for the case serial range. These are tendencies, not rules.

Movement: Cal. A.295

The 4467 uses Cal. A.295, listed in parts catalogs as Cal. 740 or Cal. 745. These are the same physical caliber under two naming conventions: A.295 by diameter, 740/745 by the parts-catalog convention Rolex used for service documentation. Some secondary sources list Cal. 710; that is a manual-wind caliber used in the Oyster Royal and Speedking, not the automatic Datejust.

A.295 is a 10.5 ligne automatic, 29.5mm in diameter, 18 jewels, rhodium-plated. Straight-line lever escapement, Rolex Superbalance, self-compensating Breguet balance spring with index regulator. The rotor is unidirectional, winding in one direction and slipping freely in the other, consistent with the 520/620 Bubbleback family. True bidirectional winding does not arrive in a Rolex caliber until Cal. 1030 in 1950. A.295 has no shock protection and no quickset.

The caliber’s significance is that it is the first automatic chronometer wristwatch movement with a date function. Rolex had produced calendar complications before, but those were manual-wind and not chronometer-grade. A.295 integrates a date wheel into an automatic, chronometer-certified movement in a sealed Oyster case, the combination that defines the Datejust as a category.

The date-change mechanism

The 4467’s date changes gradually over roughly two to four hours around midnight. The instantaneous snap-change date arrived later with Cal. 1065 in 1956–1957, used in refs 6604 and 6605; that same movement ended the Bubbleback case profile, its flatter architecture removing the need for the dome over the rotor. Quickset came with Cal. 3035 in 1977. Some sources describe the 4467’s change as instantaneous; this reflects the name’s aspirational framing rather than the mechanism.

Related limits carry forward from this movement generation. No quickset: the date can be set only by advancing the hour hand through a 24-hour cycle. Unidirectional winding: the 4467 requires more wrist movement than later automatic Rolex watches. No shock protection: drops and impacts are more consequential than for later calibers with KIF or Incabloc.

The Yeager sound barrier claim

The Vintage Rolex Field Manual implies Chuck Yeager wore a 4467 when he broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947. No contemporary evidence supports the attribution. The flight was classified until June 10, 1948, and photographs from the period show a plain-dial stainless Oyster Perpetual rather than a precious-metal Datejust. Collector research identifies the likely reference as 6422, 1002, or 6480. Retroactive Rolex marketing associating the brand with the sound-barrier flight appears from 1953 onward, after Yeager sent a photo to Hans Wilsdorf.

Auction record

An 18K yellow gold 4467 purchased 6 August 1948, with original Bucherer receipt and COSC certificate (Bonhams).

Four lots dominate the 4467’s public auction history, between them covering the configuration space collectors care about: yellow gold with standard dial, pink gold with rare dial, numbered souscription provenance, and original-paperwork provenance. Within the gold-Bubbleback segment, the 4467 is the top-of-segment anchor. No result approaches the upper-tier prices seen for gilt-era Submariners or Daytonas, consistent with a gold-only Big Bubbleback in a market where steel sport watches have moved faster than gold dress references.

Venue Date Lot Case No Material Dial Date wheel Result
Phillips Geneva Watch Auction VII May 2018 222 518506 18K YG Eggshell Roulette CHF 33,750 (est. 15,000–30,000)
Bonhams — 116 — 18K YG — — USD 14,080 (with original Bucherer receipt dated Aug 6, 1948, and COSC certificate)
Antiquorum May 2018 — 460565 18K PG Black Red (“Red Datejust”) Rare — estimate / result not publicly reconciled
Antiquorum May 2024 — — 18K YG — — “Souscription” numbered example, est. HKD 87,000–174,000

Phillips 2018 Lot 222 at CHF 33,750 is the public benchmark for a strong standard 18K yellow gold 4467: eggshell dial, roulette date wheel, Jubilee bracelet, case in the 500,000s consistent with mid-production. The result sits above estimate and reflects blue-chip positioning among early Datejust collectors.

Bonhams Lot 116 at USD 14,080 is anchored by provenance. The watch carries an original Bucherer sales receipt dated August 6, 1948, plus the original COSC chronometer certificate. A 4467 with verifiable 1948 original paperwork tied to a major period retailer is a meaningful collector artifact before the watch itself is evaluated.

Antiquorum’s May 2018 pink gold black-dial example (case 460565) represents the confluence of three rare traits: pink gold case, black dial, and red date wheel. Case 460565 falls in the earlier range of documented production, consistent with the red-wheel attribution of 1945–1947.

Antiquorum’s May 2024 souscription example carries the 1–100 numbered provenance at the top of the desirability hierarchy. The Hong Kong estimate (HKD 87,000–174,000) works out to roughly USD 11,000–22,000.

Market context

Average auction results for standard 4467 examples cluster around USD 10,000–11,000. Dealer asking prices run higher, typically USD 11,000–20,000+ depending on condition, paperwork, bracelet originality, and configuration. Pink gold examples command 2–3× a comparable yellow gold example. Black-dial examples, red date wheels, and souscription provenance each carry their own premiums. When these rare traits stack, the result is a configuration that does not have a price; examples do not surface often enough to establish one.

Compared to the volatility in steel sport references, the 4467 market is stable. Gold Bubblebacks have not been the speculative focus of the post-2018 vintage boom; prices have appreciated steadily. For collectors who value historical significance over market momentum, the reference is not a trade.

What the 4467 established

Three distinct design elements and one entire model category descend from this reference.

The Datejust model. The first reference to carry “Datejust” on the dial is the 6105: same complication, same caseband, updated movement, dial text added. From the 6105 the line develops through the 6305 (first Cyclops, 1954), the 6604/6605 (instantaneous date, 1956–57), the 1600/1601 family (modernized case, 1960s), the 16000/16030/16014 (Cal. 3035, quickset, 1977 onward), the 16200/16220/16233 (Cal. 3135, 1988 onward), and into the current 126200/126233/126234 generation. Every one of those references traces its mechanical and conceptual heritage back to the 4467.

The Jubilee bracelet. Designed specifically for this anniversary reference, the Jubilee becomes one of the two signature Rolex bracelet formats alongside the Oyster. Beyond the Datejust it appears on Day-Date (certain configurations) and in the modern catalogue on the GMT-Master II and Sky-Dweller.

The fluted bezel. Earlier Oysters used fluted and engine-turned bezels (the 3372 most prominently), but the 4467’s reeded coin-edge bezel is specifically the precursor to the fluted Datejust bezel that becomes the line’s signature.

The automatic date complication in a chronometer wristwatch. Before 1945, automatic wristwatches existed, chronometer-certified wristwatches existed, and calendar wristwatches existed. No single watch combined all three in a commercially viable form. The 4467 is that watch, and its mechanism, even in imperfect first-generation form, becomes the template for every date-complication Rolex that follows. Every Datejust, Submariner Date, GMT-Master II, Sea-Dweller, Yacht-Master with date, and Day-Date descends from the architectural problem the 4467 solved first.

Related references

The 4467 sits within a cluster of Big Bubbleback and early Datejust references that collectively constitute the Ovettone family.

  • 5028. Big Bubbleback Ovettone without date. Same 36mm case architecture as the 4467, using a modified A.295-family movement without the calendar module.
  • 6030, 6031, 6074, 6075. Big Bubbleback family references, variously with and without date, extending the 36mm case architecture through the late 1940s and early 1950s.
  • 6105. The first Datejust to carry “Datejust” text on the dial. Direct successor to the 4467 in the Datejust line.
  • 6305. The first Datejust with a Cyclops magnifier over the date, introduced in 1954.
  • 6604/6605. The first Datejusts with Cal. 1065, which introduces the true instantaneous midnight date change in 1956–57, ending the era of gradual creep.
  • 8171 “Padellone.” A moonphase triple calendar in a 38mm case; part of the broader Ovettone/Big Bubbleback family rather than the Datejust line. The nickname (“big pan”) follows the same diminutive-augmentative pattern as Ovettone. It shares the large-case, precious-metal, anniversary-era aesthetic without being mechanically related to the 4467.

Collecting considerations

For collectors, the 4467 occupies a specific position: the most historically significant reference in the Bubbleback era, the ancestor of the Datejust line, genuinely rare in absolute terms (approximately 1,000 units produced), and available for meaningful premiums over baseline Bubbleback pricing without reaching the stratospheric levels of the steel sport references.

Configuration hierarchy. From most to least desirable:

  1. 18K pink gold + black dial + red date wheel + souscription provenance: the maximum-rarity stack.
  2. 18K pink gold + standard or black dial: pink gold alone drives a substantial premium given the ~20-example population.
  3. 18K yellow gold + souscription 1–100 numbered + original paperwork.
  4. 18K yellow gold + “Red Datejust” all-red date wheel.
  5. 18K yellow gold + eggshell dial + roulette date + Jubilee: baseline strong configuration, comparable to Phillips 2018 Lot 222.
  6. 18K yellow gold + standard configuration without paperwork or provenance.

Authentication priorities.

  • Movement. Should be A.295 (Cal. 740/745). Verify against parts-catalog reference photographs.
  • Case material. 18K gold only. Claimed steel or two-tone 4467 watches do not exist in documented production.
  • Serial number placement. Souscription pieces (1–100) carry the number between the lugs; some earliest pieces carry “Modèle Déposé” between the lugs with no case serial. Later production carries conventional placement. A souscription claim without the between-lugs number is suspect.
  • Dial and hand lume. Radium lume on markers and alpha hands should patinate together. Mismatched lume color is a replacement flag. Refinished dials reduce value meaningfully.
  • Jubilee bracelet. Period-correct Jubilees are uncommon as original-delivery survivors. The meaningful distinction is period-correct (correct decade, clasp, end-links) versus service-replacement-with-modern-components.
  • Movement architecture. An A.295 should match reference photographs. Architectural differences (bidirectional rotor, quickset, shock protection) indicate a later caliber misidentified or service-swapped.

Original-delivery bracelets are rare. Original sales paperwork is rarer still; the Bucherer receipt from Bonhams Lot 116 is the type specimen. Examples with full paperwork command a premium that can exceed the configuration premium on its own.

Still open

Several questions about the 4467 remain unresolved.

The newspaper. La Suisse versus Tribune de Genève. No surviving 1945 advertisement has been publicly reproduced, so attribution depends on secondary accounts.

The souscription list. Whether Rolex maintained a formal list of the 100 subscription purchasers (with names, engravings, and assigned numbers) is not documented in public sources.

Total production precision. The ~1,000-unit figure is a collector estimate based on auction sample and surviving-population inference. Rolex has not published a production total. The true figure could range from several hundred to perhaps 1,500 depending on how the late run-out years are counted.

The pink gold population. The ~20-example estimate is based on collector observation and auction sample, not factory records. The true population could be slightly smaller or larger; pink gold 4467s are extremely scarce.

Serial-to-year mapping within 4467 production. No published source provides a tight serial-to-year map specific to this reference. General mid-1940s Rolex serial ranges are known, but allocation within those ranges has not been systematically documented.

The Yeager watch. If Yeager wore a Rolex on the October 14, 1947 flight, identification of the specific reference would settle a long-running attribution question. The watch reportedly resides in Rolex’s private Geneva collection, which has not opened access to outside researchers.

Sources

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