The Pearlmaster is the most expensive way to wear a Datejust, and Rolex built it that way on purpose. Introduced in 1992, it took the Datejust movement and calendar and put them inside a case sold only in solid gold or platinum, always set with factory diamonds, riding on the rounded, jewelry-style Pearlmaster bracelet that no other Rolex uses. There is no steel Pearlmaster. There never was. We buy and sell these every few weeks at our counter on 47th Street, and the first thing we tell people is that this is a gem watch first and a Datejust second. It debuted in 29mm and 34mm, later added a 39mm case in 2015, and Rolex quietly retired the line around 2022. That discontinuation is the whole story on the buy side right now: no more coming off the production line, and the good ones with heavy diamond work are getting harder to source clean.
The Pearlmaster 34 was the launch platform for caliber 2236 at Baselworld 2014, making it the first Rolex to use a silicon Syloxi hairspring in production, a break from the Parachrom hairspring Rolex had run since 2000.. The Pearlmaster 39, launched in 2015, was one of the first Rolex models to carry the new-generation caliber 3235 with its 70-hour power reserve.. The line was originally sold under the Masterpiece name before settling into Pearlmaster branding.. The rounded, five-link Pearlmaster bracelet with Crownclasp is unique to this collection; you will not find it on any other Rolex, and a replacement in matching solid metal is expensive and slow to source.. Reference suffixes carry most of the price signal: an RBR-class piece with diamonds on the bezel, lugs, and bracelet can sit at multiples of the base diamond-bezel version of the same reference.