Reference 1530

The Oysterquartzcaseperpetualwatch

We all know that Rolex introduced a quartz movement in 1976.
But before that - in 1975 - they started to produce a very small quantity of the Oyster Perpetual
Date with Cal. 1575 which they fitted into the case that was designed for the Oysterquartz
Ref. 1700/0. Maybe they did this to see how people will like the new style of the case.



On the left you can see an OP Date Ref. 1530 from 1975 and on the right there is an Oysterquartz
Ref. 17000 from 1980

The main outside differences is the dial and the winding crown.
The 1530 dial is much smaller but therefore it has a bigger inner bezel. Also the winding crown of
the 1530 is smaller than the on on the Oysterquartz and they are different material. While the
OQ crown is all steel the OP crown has a silver core covered by steel.

The main inside difference is the movement of course.

Here you see Cal. 1575 (Oyster Perpetual Date)

And here ist the Cal. 5035 (Oysterquartz)

Another special thing on this special watch is the bracelet.
While most of the 1530s share the bracelet with the OQ 17000 which has bracelet Ref. 17000
or 17000B mine has the Ref. 96660. I would call it the "Pre-17000-Bracelet" with screwed links.

OP 1530

OQ 17000

On the following pictures you can see the two different rehauts for the 1530.
The left one with a mark for every second and on the right each second is
divided again by a shorter mark

Here you can see the 1530 and the bicolor 1630 in a dealers catalog.
The interesting thing is that the 1530 is a "Date" while the 1630 is a "Datejust"
although the watches have the same size and the same movement.

Thanks to Matthias for the picture :)

Some more pics of the OP Date Ref. 1530:

BTW: The 1530 shown on the above picture has a replacement dial. The original dial is
more creamy like the on on the following picture (credit to my friend SteveS from NJ)

Last but not least a scan of the even rarer Ref. 1570 with a WG bezel:

I´m still hunting for this one....