Rolex and a number of other Swiss watch manufacturers joined forces in the 1960s to produce the first Swiss-made quartz movement. The resulting Beta 21 calibre was used by Rolex in the ‘Il Texano’ (ref. 5100) in 1970.

Apart from their pioneering quartz movements these watches were also revolutionary due to their angular case shapes and integrated bracelets. Indeed, they look a lot like the Royal Oak and Nautilus designed by the legendary Gerald Genta in 1972 and 1976, respectively. While the details are murky, a longtime colleague and friend of Genta has stated that it was Genta who designed the Il Texano. In any case, the Royal Oak and Nautilus followed just a few years later and feature the same design cues. The Il Texano was limited to just 1,000 pieces.

In the early 1970s Rolex left the Beta 21 collective to develop its own in-house quartz calibre, resulting in the Oysterquartz line.
The Oysterquartz took the angular design to a further extreme. In 1976, a year before introducing the Oysterquartz, Rolex began casing automatic movements in the cases intended for the Oysterquartz Datejust. Despite featuring a 36 mm case, these watches received the ref. 1530 indicating that it was a Rolex Date. It is believed that only between a few hundred and 1,500 of these watches were ever produced in the second half of the 1970s.

The dial is unique for a Rolex watch. The 1530 essentially treats the rehaut, the sloped inner bezel ring, as part of the dial by placing the minute track and tritium lume plots there. The 1530 came with silver dials, but to the lacquer used these dials have turned a warm champagne color over time, giving the watch a wonderfully warm retro look. The dial sports applied stick markers, the S.C.O.C. text above the 6-hour position, a date aperture on the 3-hour position, and is protected by a durable sapphire crystal.

This 1530 dates back to 1975 and is in amazing condition. The case still sports the original faceted edges. It even comes on its original integrated Oyster bracelet with faceted edges.