Question about Day-Date 36 Reference Number

[miamiclay]

The most likely answer may be that the 18238 watch and the diamond bezel are both genuine factory Rolex, but they were not “born together.” (You are correct that, if they’d been born together, the case’s reference number would be 18348.)

Rolex used to encourage its ADs to upsell diamond bezels separately, to add some new appeal to existing watches. This bezel could have been added by the AD on day 1 when the watch was first sold, or years later.

This thread may offer you some more answers -
https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=289046

[Branpanman]

Thank you! Your reply and that thread you linked to were EXTREMELY helpful!!

I'm confident now that you're correct; this is an original and authentic 18238 with an authentic aftermarket bezel and dial... I'm going to assume that the bezel was done on D1, but in truth there's no way to know for sure.

Thank you, again!

[miamiclay]

My pleasure …

And FYI, if the bezel is genuine factory, it’s not referred to as “aftermarket.” That term usually means “not made by or for Rolex.”

[Branpanman]

Thank you for the nomenclature correction! That's definitely important.

[jtorrebl]

Originally Posted by miamiclay

The most likely answer may be that the 18238 watch and the diamond bezel are both genuine factory Rolex, but they were not “born together.” (You are correct that, if they’d been born together, the case’s reference number would be 18348.)

Rolex used to encourage its ADs to upsell diamond bezels separately, to add some new appeal to existing watches. This bezel could have been added by the AD on day 1 when the watch was first sold, or years later.

This thread may offer you some more answers -
https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=289046

My dad’s 1990 day date is a18238 but has a factory bezel from the AD he bought it from. My dad loved his upsell. It’s now my mom’s watch and she loves it.