Weight of Day Date reps

[chefcook]

Hello guys,

unfortunately I do not have a 36mm Day Date rep but I'd be very interested in knowing the weight of these.

As they usually come with solid bracelets I assume they are noticeably heavier than lets say an Explorer 36mm with hollow mid links?

My genuine 116000 Oyster Perpetual with solid bracelet comes in at about 125g sized for my 7" wrist which is about the same as a genuine or replica 40mm Submariner 16610. My fathers solid yellow gold genuine Day Date 18238 sized for the same wrist size is only 10 grams heavier which actually is barely noticeable on the wrist.

IMO if we could get a 36mm Day Date rep a little over 130g it would be a good match regarding the weight...

Cheers and regards!

[www_watch]

IMO if we could get a 36mm Day Date rep a little over 130g it would be a good match regarding the weight...

That could be pretty difficult to achieve.

Because it's not about size or the way it's built but all about the material itself.

So unless the rep makers use solid gold or fill those watches with lead (which wouldn't work either...)

I think we're stuck with the lightweight of the rep DayDates.

[chefcook]

when looking at an old datejust rep case (36mm) I think that one could gain at least 8g by using a movement holder made from tungsten. I think I calculated that about a year ago... of course the feeling on the wrist would be different as the bracelet is the heaviest part on gen Day Dates, but at least the overall weight would be nearer to the gen.

[kbh]

It's not possible to get a rep anywhere close to the weight of of gen D/D which is solid gold. Gold is 2 1/2x as heavy as stainless steel and when you throw in the weight of the solid gold bracelet, the gen is going to be immensely more heavy than either a rep or a gen DJ.

[chefcook]

But seeing that a gen Oyster Perpetual 116000 is only 10g lighter than a solid gold gen Day Date of the same size it seems that the case construction of the gen solid gold cases must be different.

According to some gen forums the gen solid gold 18238 old style case weighs 38.6g including the bezel, crown and case back. The bracelet with all links should be about 73.1g. With Movement holder, dial, crystal, gaskets and movement this all sums up to 143g according to my scale with all links and 134 with two links taken out of the bracelet.

If a full sized solid genuine president band (those always were considered to be solid) is 73.1g and made from 18k gold (16.7 g/cm^3) it should have a weight of only 34.3g made of steel. For comparison: Rep 93150 bracelet comes in at 58g and has hollow mid links, sheet metal end links and a sheet metal clasp.

For me it seems that something is missing in this puzzle.

[chefcook]

I found a picture of the missing piece:

have a look, the solid gold case actually is hollow where the gen steel cases are filled:

In the meantime I found the weight of a 16200 Datejust (old style): 102g. So the current solid linked Datejusts are considerably heavier as they have the same about 125g the 116000 Oyster Perpetual has.

EDIT: Much more interesting: Where the old style 18238 had between 130 and 140g the 118238, it's successor, has a weight of around 180g!!! So obviously Rolex now does fill the gold cases.

2nd EDIT: According to this LINK (CLICKY) the old style 18238 had closed but hollow mid links.

The more I am looking for info on weight of gen Day-Dates the more I believe that we actually can build at least an old style Day-Date (the one with brushed lugs) that has a nearly accurate weight without containing a single gram of gold.

[slickdick]

Interesting post! Thanks.

[Pentax1]

I built a solid gold rep day date