Shopping Time: The 5 Most Outrageous Rolex Day-Dates You Can Buy Right Now

We are always scouring the web for the most amazing watches currently available, and each Friday Shopping Time shares five standout timepieces with you.

Prices on Rolex sports watches are dropping, but not for the suddenly popular Day-Date 36. Last week, we reported in detail about why the Rolex Day-Date has shot up in value—a full 57 percent, according to watch market index Everywatch. You know we love our watch market data, so much so that we have a primer on how to use watch market data to inform your collecting. And while hearing about dropping prices on everything from the the Rolex GMT Master, to the Submariner, to a bevy of good deals on current Rolex references, and, yes, even the modern Daytona is always good news, it’s also pretty fascinating when a watch shoots up in value—especially if you own one—but also because it indicates a shift in trends.

We waxed poetic about the rise of the small watch, and even the possible influence of coastal-elite tastes in bringing back the Day-Date with a vengeance, but it’s also been on the wrists of some serious global influencers in the past year or so, including Jay-Z, LeBron James, David Beckham, Idris Elba, and John Mayer.

Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Regan, and Donald Trump have all worn the Day-Date while in office, and so the watch is now broadly known as the President—as is its special bracelet that is (almost never) offered on other models. Until the Rolex Sky-Dweller came out in 2012, the Day-Date had remained the most complicated watch in the Crown’s catalog, with its day of the week and date complications displayed broadly on the outside of the dial. At the time of its release in 1956, the Day-Date was the first watch to include a week-day complication with the full name of the day spelled out, and it remains an iconic reminder of how wildly innovative Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf was before he passed away in 1960.

While we are happy that Rolex is acting like Rolex again, making relatively conservative watches, it is not without some pleasure that we take in the most outrageous Day-Dates currently on the market. With prices up a full 57 percent in August alone, why not swim with the current and see what the most expensive and rare Day-Dates are looking like?

Below are the five most outrageous and amazing Day-Dates currently on the market.

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