Captain Jack Harkness' Rolex Date

Key Points:

1) Captain Jack Harkness wears a 1960's to 1970's era black dialled watch from the Rolex DateJust line, either a Rolex Date 1500 or a Rolex DateJust 1600.

2) I've created my own superbly high quality (yet reasonably priced) homage watch based on the screen worn one. Get in touch if you want one for yourself, priced at only £225. Many have signed on already but there's no upper limit to the run, everyone who wants one can get one.

Captain Jack (left) and the homage watch (right).

Index:

Section 1: Introduction

Section 2: DateJust History

Section 3: On Screen Appearances

Section 4: The Homage Watch

 

Section 1 - Introduction:

Captain Jack Harkness is a character known for his distinctive style, very little of which has changed over the many decades his character has lived through. On his wrist are always two essentials, a Vortex Manipulator on the left, and a Swiss watch on the right. But what timepiece is suitable for the duties of such an eminent defender of planet Earth?

One device to tell the time, the other to get you there.

To answer this right out of the gate, Captain Jack wears some variant of a Rolex DateJust. Based on the avaiable images I believe it is either the Rolex Date (ref. 1500) or the Rolex DateJust (ref. 1600). These watches are for all intents and purposes identical in design, the Date being the name given to the fractionally smaller 34mm variant of the 36mm DateJust. This miniscule size difference makes them very difficult to distinguish, but for the purposes of this article I will call Jack's watch a Rolex Date (which I think it is on the balance of probability) and refer to the design in general as a DateJust.

 

Section 2 - DateJust History:

The DateJust was introduced to Rolex's line-up in 1945, and was the first self-winding chronometer wristwatch to feature a date window on the dial. The DateJust was an evolution of the date-less Rolex Oyster, the Oyster case being first introduced in 1926 as the world's first production waterproof watch. In 1930, Rolex introduced its "Perpetual" movement. This automatic movement used the wearer's arm motion to turn a rotor at the bottom of the case which in turn wound the mainspring, eliminating the need to wind the watch so long as it's worn every day or two. Although they didn't invent the automatic movement, they certainly helped popularize it by making it accessible and moderately affordable.

The screen worn watch is likely out of Barrowman's personal collection and would've been made at some point in the 1960's or 1970's. Small differences exist in the dials depending on the year of production, such as small proportional changes in the hour and minute markers. Jack's Rolex features a stainless steel case with smooth bezel, black dial, gold hands, and gold baton hour markers. Although the watch would've originally come from the factory on a somewhat sporty stainless steel bracelet, Jack wears his on a smooth textured black padded leather strap, giving the timepiece a slightly more formal look.

The Rolex Date 1500, two vintage examples on their original Oyster straps.

Rolex's DateJust has been one of the brand's most ubiquitous models due to its simple but elegant design, as well as it's versatility. The watch always harmonises with the wearer's outfit, regardless of whether they're wearing a dinner suit or just a t-shirt and jeans. Everyone from world leaders such as Winston Churchill to film stars such as Daniel Craig have rocked a DateJust.

 

Section 3 - On Screen Appearances:

Although Captain Jack wore a handful of watches over his character's tenure, this Rolex Date was by far the timepiece which had the most screen-time. Introduced in the 2006 episode Ghost Machine (Torchwood S01E03) the wristwatch appeared in nearly every episode after this point until the events of 2009, where it was canonically destroyed in the explosion in Children of Earth: Day One (Torchwood S03E01). Jack did actually have another watch that was worn occasionally during this period, but that's a story for another post.

Barrowman wears his watches on his right wrist, which is technically the "wrong" wrist for a right handed person.

It is shown in the 1999 flashback scene in Fragments (Torchwood S02E12) that Jack is wearing the Date around this time, indicating that it is canonically a wristwatch that he has owned for many years. The watch also appeared in the various Doctor Who crossovers, including Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords, The Stolen Earth, and Journey's End.

The whole gang together! With Jack wearing his Date in The Stolen Earth.

It's worth noting that for his appearance in 2021's Revolution of the Daleks, Barrowman wears a DateJust style watch with a dark dial and black leather strap. The lighting in the episode makes it impossible to get a clear shot if it, but it many very well be the exact same watch used during his time on Torchwood.

Zooming in on this photo shows that Jack is wearing a watch with an Oyster case, could it be the exact watch he wore on Torchwood?

 

Section 4 - The Homage Watch:

As you might've guessed, a Rolex isn't cheap. A vintage example of this watch would set you back thousands of pounds, and even a simple service could cost up to a grand depending on the condition of the watch and the experience of the technician. So what's the alternative?

Well look no further, because I have filled this void in the market with my own offering, pictured below. After refining the design through multiple prototypes, every detail from the screen worn watch has been intricately replicated to the point at which I truly believe that they cannot be improved any more. For obvious reasons I have not copied the Rolex branding, the dial is instead adorned with my own microbrand. Aside from this, this is the most accurate replica which can be made.

Swiss inspired. Japanese movement. British made.

My objective when I started this project was to have a wristwatch which was not simply a cheaply made costume piece, but a truly high quality timepiece which I could wear every single day. To capture the spirit of the Rolex, at a fraction of the price. In order to do this I built the watch around a precision industry standard Japanese movement that is hailed for its precision and reliability. This Seiko movement is found inside many wristwatches that are sold today, usually in the sub £500 price range, but sometimes priced much higher. This mechanical movement is fully automatic, it doesn't use a button battery, it is powered entirely by the movement of the wearer.

After selecting the beating heart of the timepiece, I created the custom dial, the face of the watch. This was a crucial step as no off-the-shelf watch today has the gold baton hour markers that give the watch a tasteful two-tone richness that harmonises with the silver colour of the case. Every single dial is laser engraved, followed by careful placement of my own custom made gold baton hour markers (with unique 12 o'clock tree logo), before having tiny luminescent dots hand painted onto the outside of the hour markers in order to allow the wearer to tell the time in the dark.

A challenge came with the case too, the very body of the watch. In recent years Rolex have changed the design of the DateJust to be slightly chunkier in proportions. The first prototype I made used one of these modern cases, it was very close, but I knew I could do better. Fortunately, do better I did, the advent of the second prototype yielded a redesigned 36mm vintage style stainless steel case. Gone were the chunky proportions, replaced instead with an elegantly small timepiece that wears comfortably and discreetly on the wrist. If you want to shout, get a Hublot. If you want to whisper, get this. For the underside, I installed a transparent viewing cover. The original Rolexes have opaque steel covers, but I figured that the hypnotic movement of the clockwork was too good to cover up.

Luckily, the hands of the watch were by far the easiest to source. Although Rolex has used many hand designs over the years on their DateJust line, these straight sided ones are the absolute classics. Each hand is gold plated to match the hour markers and features a luminescent streak that glows in the dark.

Finally, the strap. After carefully analysing all the photos available, it seems that the screen worn strap is a simple (yet elegant) semi-padded, smooth finished, black leather strap. It was surprisingly tricky to find a good quality strap with the right amount of padding to it, but after comparing several options there was one clear winner.

In order to keep the watches safe and looking their best whilst on display, each timepiece will ship in a presentation box. Also included will be documentation, specifically a backstory for the timepiece to give it some real history in the Whoniverse.

The watch as seen in Journey's End, its last outing with Tennant.

The price of this watch? Only £225! That's right, you could buy multiple of these watches for less than the cost of just servicing a Rolex. Not only that, every part on this watch is specifically designed with the future in mind. Let's say one day some terrible accident happens and the watch gets damaged, utterly refusing to run anymore (like every old gold plated Buler lookalike that people use in their Eleventh Doctor outfits). No worries whatsoever, the Seiko movement in this is an industry standard that any jeweller who works with watches can repair. Parts will be abundant for decades to come, and if the broken part in the old movement can't be fixed, the whole thing could be entirely replaced with a brand new movement for an amount that won't break the bank.

To top this all off, for a small amount extra the watches can be personalised to the wearer. In inscription can be installed on the rear of the case (mounted on the rotor) or a metal strap can be included instead of (or as well as) the leather one. Questions are always welcome.

That's all for now folks, if you want one of these watches don't delay, contact me today!