Datejust 31

The Datejust 31 is the 31mm middle child of the Datejust family, sized between the 28mm Lady-Datejust and the 36mm and 41mm men's versions. Collectors and dealers have called it the midsize for decades, and for a long time it lived under reference numbers like 68240 and 78240 before Rolex folded it under the Datejust 31 name with the 178xxx and then the current 278xxx generation. We buy and sell these every week on 47th Street. It is the watch a lot of people actually reach for: big enough to read at arm's length, small enough to disappear under a cuff, and offered in more dial and bezel combinations than almost anything else Rolex makes. The current steel reference 278240 carries a smooth domed bezel and starts at $7,700 at retail, and the fluted white gold bezel version 278274 sits above it. Diamond-set and precious metal builds run well into five figures. If you want one reference that shows the full range of what Rolex does, from a plain steel workhorse to a diamond-paved gold dress piece, this is it.