The plain-steel Lady-Datejust. The least expensive Rolex here.

The Lady-Datejust is the Datejust at 26mm, the size Rolex made for women from the 1950s until it moved the line to 28mm in 2015. It is the same watch in miniature: an Oyster case with a screw-down crown, an automatic chronometer movement, the date under its Cyclops lens at three, a fluted or engine-turned bezel, and a Jubilee or Oyster bracelet. Because Rolex made them for six decades in every dial and metal, the pre-owned market is deep and this is where the money goes when people search for a women’s Rolex.

The 79240 is the Lady-Datejust with the engine-turned steel bezel, a machined ring of fine lines that Rolex offered as the all-steel alternative to the white gold fluted bezel on the 79174. It is the least expensive way into a Lady-Datejust because there is no gold on it at all. WGACA’s description calls the bezel fluted; the photograph shows engine-turned, and that is what a 79240 has, so trust the photograph.

WGACA gives the reference as 79240, the case as 26mm steel with a sapphire crystal, the movement as automatic, the closure as an Oyster clasp and the condition as Excellent with light scratching and scuffing throughout the hardware. It does not state box, papers or year. The silver dial and the Jubilee bracelet are from the photograph; the calibre, chronometer rating, reserve and 100 metres are Rolex’s published figures for the reference.

WGACA authenticates in-house and is not a Rolex authorised dealer, and Amazon adds its 30-day return window. Ask for the serial, whether box or papers come with it, and when it was last serviced. Nothing here was measured on the watch.

This unit is sold by What Goes Around Comes Around (WGACA) through Amazon Luxury Stores, authenticated by the seller with Amazon’s 30-day return window on top; it is one piece, and when it sells the listing goes away, so the second button opens the live search for 26mm Lady-Datejusts.

Steel and two-tone Lady-Datejusts have resold close to what pre-owned buyers paid, sometimes more, sometimes less; that is a pattern, not a promise, and nothing here is investment advice.