Rolex Oysterquartz

The Rolex Oysterquartz was a quartz watch made by Rolex.
Unusually, its movement features a mechanical lever escapement driven by a simple permanent magnet moving coil 'motor' mechanically similar to a d'Arsonval galvanometer.
History.
At the end of the 1970s, the Swiss watch industry was being affected by the Quartz crisis, and Japanese watchmakers supplied the world market with large quantities of quartz watches. Rolex decided to put forward a new line of watches to combat this situation, and the Datejust Oysterquartz was born. Although not designed to turn the company’s tradition of producing mechanical watches upside down, it faced the international, namely Asian, markets seeking to keep alive interest in Swiss luxury watchmaking; an industry that seemed at that moment to have been completely absorbed by the Japanese quartz watch.
The conception of the Datejust Oysterquartz dates to the beginning of the 1970s. The design of the watch is far removed from the classic Rolex line and carved characteristics of the period: a completely angular case, an integrated band with a polished finish and sapphire glass. Regarding the materials used to make this watch, the whole range consisted of three versions: gold, steel with white gold bezel and steel and yellow gold. At the start, the Datejust Oysterquartz was somewhat overlooked in Europe; however, it was much sought after on the Asian and American markets. A renewed interest in the watch was sparked when Rolex decided to take the Oysterquartz out of its catalogue and thus out of production. The era of the Rolex quartz watch ended in 2001, having lasted less than three decades. The Rolex Datejust Oysterquartz began to appear in the most important auction houses’ catalogues, becoming a highly valued object on the collector's market.
Model numbers.
Model numbers of the Rolex Oysterquartz include: