Swiss ROLEX WATCH CO. Rolex was founded by Hans Wilsdorf in 1905 and in 1908 the trade-ark "Rolex" was officially registered. In 1926, they made the first real waterproof wrist watch and called it the "Oyster". In 1931, Rolex introduced a self-wind movement which they called "Perpetual". In 1945, they introduced the "Date-Just" which showed the day of the month. The "Submariner" was introduced in 1953 and in 1954 the "GMT Master" model. In 1956, a "Day-Date" model was released which indicates the day of the month (in numbers) and the day of the week (in letters).
IMPORTANT: The following is a guide to help determine the age of your Rolex watches. However on some Oyster style watches Rolex added inside the case a Roman number (I, II, III, IV) to denote first, second third or fourth quater + "53", "54", "55", "56" to denote the year of production. Example outside Oyster case #282621 inside case III-55 which = third quarter of 1955. Rolex went back to 100,000 in 1954 on some cases.

ROLEX ESTIMATED PRODUCTION TOTALS (Numbers became random in 2010)
Date Serial #
1925 - 25,000
1926 - 28,500
1927 - 30,500
1928 - 33,000
1929 - 35,500
1930 -  38,000
1931 - 40,000
1932 -  43,000
1933 - 44,500
1934  - 62,000
1935 -  62,000
1936 -  81,000
1937 -  99,000
1938 - 118,000
1939 - 136,000
1940 - 165,000
1941 -  194,000
1942 - 224,000
1943 -  253,000
1944 - 285,000
1945 -  347,000
1947 - 478,000
1948 -  543,000
1949 -  608,000
1950 - 673,500
1951 - 738,500
1952 - 804,000
1953 - 950,000
1954 - 999,999
1955 - 200,000
1957 - 600,000
1958 - 800,000
1959 - 1,100,000
1960 - 1,401,000
1961 - 1,480,000
1962 - 1,557,000
1963 - 1,635,000
1964 - 1,713,000
1965 - 1,792,000
1966 - 1,870,000
1967 - 2,164,000
1968 - 2,426,000
1969 - 2,689,000
1970 - 2,952,000
1971 - 3,215,000
1972 -  3,478,000
1973 - 3,741,000
1974 - 4,002,000
1975 - 4,266,000
1976 -  4,538,000
1977 - 5,005,000
1978 - 5,481,000
1979 - 5,965,000
1980 - 6,432,000
1981 - 6,910,000
1982 - 7,385,000
1983 - 7,860,000
1984 - 8,338,000
1985 - 8,815,000
1986 - 9,292,000
1987 - 9,765,000
1987 1/2 R000,001
1988 - R999,9991
1989 - L00,001
1990 - E000,001
1991 1/4 X000,001
1991 3/4 N000,001
1992 1/4 C000,001
1993 3/4 S000,001
1995 - W000,001
1996 - T000,001
1997 1/2 U000,001
1999 - A000,001
2000 1/2 P000,001
2001 1/2 K000,001
2002 3/4 Y000,001
2003 3/4 F000,001
2005 - D000,001
2006 - Z000,001
2007 1/2 M000,001
2008 1/2 V000,001
2009 1/2 G000,001