What bracelet does your Rolex wear?

Popular references at a glance

The bracelet each of these ships or shipped on, from Rolex's own documents. Full links are the links in a complete bracelet, not counting the two end links or a half link. For any other reference, use the lookup above.

The seven bracelets

Oyster

Three flat links across, with a broad centre link and two narrower outer links. It is the structural bracelet: flat, wide-surfaced, and the one fitted to most Perpetual and Professional models. The 2015 catalogue lists it in three groups: Oyster, Oyster for Sky-Dweller and Oyster for Professional.

Jubilee

Five links across: two flat outer links with three smaller rounded links running down the centre. More articulated than an Oyster, so it drapes more closely, and visually dressier. Made for the Datejust and still listed against the Datejust and Lady-Datejust sizes. In the 2015 book it is always on a concealed Crownclasp. On current watches that is still true of the Datejust 31 and Lady-Datejust, while the Datejust 36, Datejust 41 and Sky-Dweller Jubilees close on an Oysterclasp with Easylink and the GMT-Master II Jubilee on an Oysterlock with Easylink.

President

Three links across like an Oyster, but every link is semi-circular rather than flat, which is what gives it the heavier, rounded look. In this catalogue it is listed only against the Day-Date and the Datejust 31 and Lady-Datejust 28, and always with a Crownclasp.

Pearlmaster

Five rounded links across with the centre link widest, so it reads as a bracelet first and a watch band second. Listed only against the Pearlmaster 29 and Pearlmaster 34, in 14 mm and 17 mm, always on a Crownclasp.

Flat Jubilee (Land-Dweller)

The Land-Dweller's bracelet, and only the Land-Dweller's. Five solid links across like a Jubilee, but every link is flat, and it is integrated into the case, so there is no end link, no lug width, and no other Rolex bracelet that fits. It closes on a concealed folding Crownclasp with no Easylink, and Rolex publishes no removable-link count for it. Rolex's part numbers are 63LA00, 63LA05 and 63LA06 for the 36 mm, and 63NA00, 63NA05 and 63NA06 for the 40 mm, in steel, Everose gold and platinum.

Settimo (Perpetual 1908)

The Perpetual 1908's metal bracelet, as an alternative to its leather strap. Seven small solid links across, in 18 ct yellow gold on the 52508, closing on a concealed folding Crownclasp. Rolex's part number is 13HC08, 20 mm wide, and Rolex publishes no removable-link count for it.

Oysterflex

Flexible titanium-nickel alloy blades overmoulded in high-performance black elastomer, so it looks like rubber but is built on metal. It has no links: it is sized by fitting a different moulded section at each end, chosen from wrist size, and on current watches the clasp carries a Glidelock for fine adjustment. Worn by gold Daytonas, Yacht-Masters and Sky-Dwellers. The size charts are further down this page.

What the millimetre number measures

Sizing: screws, and the three tool-free extensions

The removable extension links number counts links held in with screws. Fliplock and Easylink extensions are not counted; both adjust without tools. So a bracelet listed at six removable links has six links that come out with a screwdriver, and may also carry an Easylink, a Glidelock or a Fliplock on top of that for the smaller day-to-day adjustment.

Easylink

A folding link inside the clasp that swings out to add about 5 mm, Rolex's own figure, then folds back. No tools, no removed links. It appears on Oysterclasp and Oysterlock bracelets alike, and it is never counted in the removable link total because it is not held in with a screw.

To lengthen

1. With the clasp open, pull the bracelet end out from under the clasp cover so the hidden link unfolds.
2. Swing the bracelet round and press it back into the clasp.

To shorten

1. With the clasp open, pull the bracelet end out.
2. Fold the extra link back on itself under the clasp cover.
3. Press it in until it clicks.

Glidelock

A toothed rail under the clasp cover with a sliding carriage that locks into any notch. On the metal diver's bracelets Rolex gives about 20 mm of adjustment in steps of about 2 mm, which is what a diver needs when the same watch has to sit over bare skin and over a wetsuit. It is on the Submariner, Sea-Dweller and Deepsea bracelets, and on every current Oysterflex, where Rolex gives about 15 mm in steps of about 2.5 mm.

On a Submariner or Sea-Dweller

1. Flip open the safety catch, then open the clasp.
2. Pull the bracelet end to lift it out of its notch in the toothed rail.
3. Slide it to the length you want, then press it back down until it locks.

On a Deepsea or Deepsea Challenge

1. Flip open the safety catch and lift the centre panel.
2. Slide the bracelet to the length you want.
3. Push the centre panel back down and close the safety catch.

On an Oysterflex

1. Open the clasp. There is no separate safety catch to flip first.
2. Pull the bracelet end out of its notch, slide it to the length you want, and press it back down.

Fliplock

A folding extension link under the clasp that opens out to add about 26 mm on top of the Glidelock, Rolex's figure, enough to wear the watch over a diving suit up to 7 mm thick. In the 2015 catalogue it is on the Sea-Dweller 4000 and the Deepsea; among current models Rolex lists it only on the Deepsea Challenge. Like Easylink it is excluded from the removable link count.

To open

1. Take the watch off and run the Glidelock out to its full length first.
2. Press both ends of the extension link at the same time and it folds open.

To close

1. Fold the link back and press the clasp end down first.
2. Then press on both ends of the link and click the bracelet end down.

The steps follow the drawings and instructions in Rolex's own owner's booklets for the Datejust, GMT-Master II, Submariner, Sea-Dweller and Rolex Deepsea, Deepsea Challenge, Cosmograph Daytona and Sky-Dweller, put into our own words.

Reading a bracelet reference

A reference is a part number, not a size

References that sit next to each other in the book, 72600, 72601 and 72603 for example, are the same bracelet in different metals. They share a width, a removable-link count and a clasp. The reference identifies the exact part, including the material, which is why a steel bracelet and its two-tone twin are two different numbers.

Neighbouring references can still differ

Do not assume it. The four Yacht-Master 35 bracelets in the 2015 catalogue are all 17 mm on an Oysterlock, but carry four, five and six removable links depending on the reference. On the Submariner, 97200 has seven removable links where 97203, 97208 and 97209 have six. Check the row rather than the pattern.

The BR and Tridor suffixes

Some references carry a suffix. In this catalogue the BR suffix appears only on Pearlmaster bracelets and on the Karat versions of the Jubilee and President, and Tridor appears once, on a Pearlmaster 29 bracelet. Quote the suffix with the number: it is part of the part number, and dropping it asks for a different bracelet.

Dating a bracelet by its clasp code

Rolex clasps carry a small stamped code. On clasps made before the switch to random codes during 2011, collector tables read most codes as the year and month the clasp was made, which dates the clasp, and normally the bracelet, but not the watch.

For 2000 to 2010, the tables use two letters for the year plus a month number from 1 to 12, so CL10 is October 2004. Guides differ on how closely clasp and watch dates match: one says a clasp can be about a year newer, or one to two years older, than its watch, while another says the bracelet's year usually matches the watch's.

Before 2000 the charts use a single letter for the year, followed by the month number, so L7 is July 1987. For 1976 to 1981 the letter may carry a V in front, so VA is 1976 and VF is 1981. From 1995 to 1998 the charts disagree: 1995 is T on some and W on others, and V, Z, U and W are each read as more than one year, so those four letters do not settle the year on their own. Before 1976 there are no letter codes: clasps carry small stamped numbers, guides disagree on whether they give the month or the quarter with the year, and clasps from about 1973 to 1975 are often unstamped. Bracelets made in the United States by C&I carry a two-digit year instead.

Dealer guides agree the code is inside the clasp but place it differently: some say the hinge or the blade, while others say to open an Oyster clasp fully and look inside the swing arm, or on a Jubilee to check the inner face of the folding blade. Two warn the stamp is tiny and suggest a loupe, one adding a phone camera in macro mode.

Dealer guides say an extra S stamped with the code marks a service replacement: genuine Rolex, but not original to the watch, so its date shows when the replacement was made. They show the S either set slightly apart or straight after the code, as in MA5S, a service part made in May 2005.

Dealer guides agree that during 2011 Rolex moved to random three-character codes, such as J4M or 72C, which no public table can date; they say only Rolex can. Some charts list CP for 2011 while others treat the whole year as random, so a 2011 clasp may carry either.

Rolex does not publish what these codes mean. A collector site that documents the table credits the theory behind it to a member of the r-l-x forum and warns that its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

Dealer and collector charts and the watch press, Fratello among them, list these letters for these years. For 1995 to 1998 the charts disagree, so the table gives the most common reading with the other charts' readings in brackets. The code dates the clasp, not the sale, so a watch sold in 2002 can carry an AB or DE clasp. Some charts add CP for 2011, but dealer guides say random three-character codes that give no date also began during 2011 and have been used since.

End links and end piece numbers

The end link is where the bracelet meets the lugs, and Rolex's US price list of May 2011 calls it the endpiece. A dealer guide says Rolex numbers end links to match specific types of case. The list bears this out: the end piece number, read with the references printed beside it, narrows down which case a bracelet fits, where the bracelet number alone cannot.

The table below opens with the 78790, listed with three different end pieces for four references. Rolex's own documents disagree on the A in the second row: rolex.com printed plain 78790 for the 16570 and 16710 in 2003 and 2004, while dealers call the solid end link version 78790A. One case can also take several end pieces: the list pairs the 16710 with #801 on the 78790A and #501B on the 78360, which it marks available for replacement only.

On the Submariner Date 16610, a dealer guide says a bracelet that looks as if it goes into the end link has hollow end links and is a 93150, while on the solid end link 93250 the first centre link seems to run right up to the lip of the bezel. The same guide says the 93150 was standard on the 16610 only through about 1999, so from 2002 on this check mainly flags an older or swapped bracelet.

A dealer's code guide says that on more recent solid end link bracelets, Rolex stamps the part number, a date code and the crown on the inner part of the end link, hidden until the bracelet comes off. One dealer listing for a 93250 describes 801, the end piece number the 2011 list gives that bracelet, inside the first link within the Rolex crown.

Lug holes, the spring bar holes drilled through the lugs, matter when swapping end links: a dealer guide to the Submariner 16613 says Rolex began phasing them out around 2003, and a GMT collector forum post warns that on a 16710 case without them, any GMT end link but the Jubilee 502T might not come off without destroying the end link or damaging the case. Rolex's 2011 list prints no 502T, only a 502B for the 16700 and 16710 Jubilee, marked available for replacement only.

Model names in parentheses are ours, since the list's bracelet pages print reference numbers only. Several recent bracelets in the list, such as the 97200 for the 116610, the 78200 for the 116710 and the 98210 for the 116660, are listed without an end piece number, while others of similar age still carry one, such as the 78590 with #843 for the 116520 and the 77210 with #811 for the 216570. The list does not say why.

What the guarantee papers say about the bracelet

How much guarantee papers say about the bracelet depends on when and where the watch was sold. The first US plastic card printed the bracelet's full reference and the card introduced in mid-2020 leaves it out, while sources disagree about the cards in between.

The US card that replaced paper had four labelled boxes on the front (Style #, Serial #, Bracelet # and Dial), and the Bracelet # box held the full five-digit reference, such as 78490 on a card for a Daytona 116520. Sources disagree on when US cards dropped that box. A French watch magazine dates a redesigned card to watches sold from about spring 2014, and its example names the bracelet only in plain words, STEEL BRACELET, with no part number. One photographed card in that design leaves that line blank. A blogger writing in 2020, however, called the four-box card the design Rolex replaced that year.

A bracelet that does not match the papers can still be genuine Rolex. Rolex's 2013 description of its service says worn or damaged case and bracelet parts are replaced with genuine Rolex parts, and collector and dealer guides say a clasp code stamped with an extra S marks a genuine service part that is not original to the watch. Answering a reader about a watch sold in 1994, a German collector blog said a clasp dated later than the sale can mean the clasp or whole bracelet was replaced, which it says happened relatively often, or that the dealer backdated the certificate's purchase date, for instance for a birthday gift. Clasp dates end with the switch to random codes, which dealer guides place in 2011, and a clasp date shows when the clasp was made, not when the watch was sold.

The dates come from collector blogs, dealer guides, forum posts and the watch press, which do not always agree and do not settle whether US cards kept the Bracelet # box after the 2014 redesign. Rolex does not publish the US paper code, and the one website that decodes it does not say which years it covers.

Checking a bracelet for stretch

Despite the name, steel does not physically stretch the way leather or rubber does, as one dealer's repair guide puts it. Dealer guides explain that pins and their holes wear and links can flatten, so small gaps open at each joint and add up along the bracelet. That repair guide calls dirt and grit inside the links the primary cause. Rolex says you can wash the case and bracelet with soapy water and a soft brush, but its care pages do not mention stretch.

Dealer guides start with the hang test, holding the watch by the case to see how far the bracelet droops, but they disagree on what is healthy: some say a tight bracelet stays near horizontal, another that a healthy one droops with some flexibility. That guide calls the test a first signal, not the only signal, and says a Jubilee is naturally more supple than an Oyster, so a Jubilee that droops more is not stretched for that reason alone. Another dealer says the Jubilee's many joints make it more prone to stretch over time.

Dealer and strap-maker histories say hollow centre links stretched more, partly because grit got in and wore the pins. They say some models kept them into the mid-2000s, though they disagree on timing and Rolex has published no date for the change. Rolex says ceramic inserts added to the President bracelet in 2015 sit around the pins to help prevent premature wear.

Dealer guides say removing a link or adjusting the clasp can snug up a bracelet with minor play but does not reverse existing looseness, and a dealer's repair guide adds that once pins are worn, which it calls common on vintage bracelets, removing links will not fix the "jingle-jangle" feel. For worse cases the guides describe new pins or a partial rebuild, and say severe stretch may call for a replacement bracelet.

Rolex says servicing re-polishes or satin-finishes the bracelet according to its original finish, but its servicing-procedure page and service FAQ never mention stretch or promise to tighten a worn bracelet. Dealers say Rolex service centres do not tighten or restore stretched bracelets and offer a replacement instead.

These are dealer rules of thumb, not Rolex guidance. The lay-flat check comes from Elite Watch Co, a Moda vendor and paid partner, in its guide to Jubilee bracelets.

What a Rolex service does to the bracelet

Rolex says that in a service the bracelet is detached before the movement comes out, and that "the movement, case and bracelet will follow separate paths during servicing before being reassembled at the end of the process." The bracelet goes back on only after the whole watch has been pressure-tested in water.

If a seller claims a full Rolex service, ask for the Rolex Service Card. Rolex's card page (archived December 2025) says one comes back with the watch after every full service performed by a Rolex Authorized Service Center, but not which watches or years this applies to. On Rolex's WatchID page for the card (watchid.rolex.com), the "Last service performed" section for the latest complete overhaul can list a "Guarantee exclusion", and "Bracelet" is one of the possible entries, so a Rolex overhaul record can leave the bracelet out of the two-year service guarantee. Ask what that section shows, though the page does not say why, or how often, Rolex excludes a bracelet.

Rolex's guarantee on new watches excludes "normal wear-and-tear" in general and names only non-metal bracelets and straps, so nothing in it promises that stretch in a metal bracelet is covered. Rolex's servicing procedure and FAQ pages never use the word "stretch" and do not promise to tighten a bracelet.

We found no Rolex guidance on spotting a heavily polished bracelet, so these signs come from dealer guides. They say link edges should feel defined rather than rounded, and that a bracelet that looks smooth with a uniform shine may have been polished. On the case, they say over-polished watches typically have thinner, rounder lugs with little to no edge definition.

One more check is our own inference from Rolex's rule, not a Rolex statement. Rolex says the case parts and bracelet are "re-polished or satin-finished according to their original finish", so brushed surfaces that now shine like a mirror, or blurred lines between brushed and polished areas, may suggest refinishing that did not follow that rule. Compare the bracelet with that reference's factory finish, since not every Oyster bracelet surface is brushed, and remember that an evenly refinished bracelet may simply have had a Rolex service.

Rows dated 2013 and 2017 quote older rolex.com pages as they were archived then. They show what Rolex said at the time and may not match its current terms.

A Rolex bracelet timeline since 1996

Rolex did not change all of its bracelets at once: one aftermarket strap maker's history says solid centre links reached the GMT-Master II, Milgauss and Daytona before the Submariner, and the watch press dates Glidelock on the gold Submariner Date to 2008, two years before dealer guides place it on the steel one. The table quotes Rolex wherever Rolex gives a year and otherwise says what kind of source a date comes from. Rolex has not dated the move to solid links, so those rows give a range, and the same strap maker warns that respected references conflict.

Two Rolex patents describe mechanisms like its two clasp extensions. US patent 5,771,543, first filed in Switzerland on 17 July 1996, matches the year Rolex gives for Easylink: it describes a folding-clasp link that pivots between two set lengths without a special tool, and it names an earlier Swiss patent from 1987 with a similar device, so 1996 marks Rolex's improvement rather than the birth of the idea. US patent 8,001,658, first filed in Europe on 6 October 2006, about two years before Rolex says it introduced Glidelock, describes rack teeth inside the clasp cover that let a band, a diving watch band in particular, fit both with and without a diving suit. Neither patent uses the names Easylink or Glidelock, so linking them to those products is our reading, not a Rolex statement.

Wording in quotation marks is Rolex's own unless the same cell credits it to another source. Where a cell credits a date to a dealer guide, a strap maker or the watch press, Rolex has not published that date, and the clasp-code history comes from collectors and dealers rather than from Rolex.

Every reference in Rolex's price lists since 2022

All 188 references Rolex has printed in its price lists since 2022, including the Land-Dweller, the Perpetual 1908 and the 2026 releases, each with the bracelet part it ships on. Width, removable links and clasp are from Rolex's own model page for every reference Rolex still shows. Open a model to see its references.

References from 2002 to 2021

368 references Rolex sold between 2002 and 2021 that have since left the price list, each answered from Rolex's own documents: the price lists we hold from 2002, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2020, and Rolex's model pages as archived between 2002 and 2021. The bracelet is the part Rolex printed against that exact reference. Width, removable links and clasp come from the bracelet tables in the same lists, with the 2015 trade catalogue filling in only where those tables say nothing. A part marked with a year appears in older Rolex price lists for this watch but not the newest one: either the part for watches sold in those years, or an option Rolex has since dropped.