1972 Rolex OysterQuartz ref. 5100 “Texano” Rolex Vintage Dept. Serviced

Up for grabs is a Rolex OysterQuartz in yellow gold

Reference 5100/8 this was the first Rolex quartz model.

Nick-named “Texano” due to its heavy, solid gold case and bracelet structure.

This model was only produced between 1970 and 1972 and only 1000 pieces were ever made. Nine hundred of them were in yellow gold and 100 were in white gold.

Unlike the traditional serial number system Rolex uses, these watches were individually numbered and this one is No. 101.

You might be familiar with Rolex’s other quartz watch, the Oysterquartz, which is not to be confused with the ref. 5100. The ref. 5100 was produced while Rolex was still part of the Centre Electronique Horologer (CEH). Rolex left the CEH in 1972, and went on to produce its own in-house quartz movements and the Oysterquartz watches. It uses the Beta 21 movement and if you’ve ever had a watch with this movement and tried to service or fix it, you’d quickly learn that the parts are absolete for these movements and no one has them. When I originally bought this watch in 2023, the date wasn’t changing and no one could fix it or had NOS parts for it. The only option was to send it to Rolex “Atelier de Restauration” vintage servicing in Geneva, Switzerland.

The journey started in June of 2023. Rolex had to make parts for this service, it cost $11,500 to service this piece, and it was completed in December of 2024, over a year after Rolex initially physically received the watch.

The restoration process with this piece was focused on the movement. At the end, the watch comes back with a personalized book which has photos of the actual watch, the serial numbers, and the scope of work they performed on it. They even disclose from their records the production year as 1972. This is something the do not confirm during a standard Rolex Service Center servicing.

The case was buffed but remains thick with defined edges and shapes. There are no dings or dents. The serial number 101 is fully legible.

The dial and hands were left untouched and original. While there were several variants for dials on these, this one is the non-luminous with non-luminous hands.

The bracelet was buffed, but remains untouched in terms of restoration and shows very little to no stretch. It fits about a 7.75″ wrist. The hallmarks on the clasp are legible.

The watch comes complete with the Atelier special box, the booklet with watch’s and restoration process summary as well as the payment receipt from December 2024 with all matching numbers.