Rolex Lady Oyster Perpetual Date

It is perhaps one of the greatest injustices in horology that women's wristwatches are so commonly treated as lesser objects, resulting in far fewer executions worth collecting. 

This is truly a shame, and probably one of the reasons why horologically-minded ladies have taken to wearing men's watches during the past decade.  It seems that just now brands are getting the memo, and a few manufactures (notably Vacheron Constantin and Parmigiani Fleurier) have begun producing proper ladies watches again - you know, those ones that eschew faux-gold, not-so-precious stones and batteries for the real thing: mechanical, wearable art.  Long, long overdue.  Still, when it comes to vintage options for ladies, the pickings can be slim, quite the opposite from men's.

Fortunately there are things like this to soften the blow:  A Lady Oyster Perpetual Date.

Try as we might, we cannot think of another mechanical ladies timepiece that has remained in constant production for decades.  Every bit as iconic as their masculine counterparts, the Lady Datejust was offered in a range of materials and nearly innumerable dial configurations since its introduction.  Just like in the men's Datejust line, Rolex produced numerous expressions of the Oyster Perpetual and Oyster Precision series alongside, offering slightly more affordable options with the same basic design.  

This piece, a lovely Oyster Perpetual with date function comes in the petite 24.5mm steel Oyster case with fluted gold bezel and gold crown - a classic look that is a benchmark of women's watch design.  Though out of style for some time while large obnoxious fashion dangles took center stage, these petite and elegant timepieces are once again making a comeback - or perhaps just proving that they never really went out of style.