THE ESSENTIALS
MAKE: ROLEX
MODEL: 16628
YEAR: 2000
BOX/PAPERS: YES/YES
CASE DIAMETER: 40mm
CASE MATERIAL: 18K YELLOW GOLD
BRACELET MATERIAL: 18K YELLOW GOLD
MOVEMENT: AUTOMATIC
The Rolex Yacht-Master was born at the turn of the millennium—a sports model, but not in the same vein as its pure tool-watch cousins like the Submariner or Sea-Dweller. Instead, the Yacht-Master was designed for someone who’d done well during the dot-com boom and wanted a utilitarian Rolex that suited a more bougie lifestyle. While the reference 16622, with its platinum bezel and dial, is perhaps the Yacht-Master most people think of first, Rolex actually began the series with the full-gold reference 16628 in 1992 (excluding the “prototype” Yachty of the 1960s).
The 16628 offered here is not a run-of-the-mill example either. Dating to 2000, it was the most expensive variant available within the Yacht-Master range at the time. We dug through our old UK price lists and found that, in the year this watch was purchased, it retailed for £15.5k. Adjusted for inflation, that’s just shy of £30k today. For context, a white-gold Day-Date 118239 with diamond hour markers and baguettes cost around £2k less.
Originally purchased in the beautiful Swiss city of Lugano, this watch appears to have seen very little wrist time over the past 25 years. The case and bracelet are immaculate, with only light handling marks visible across the case, bracelet, and bezel. The mother-of-pearl dial is superb, displaying subtle opalescent tones throughout and providing the perfect canvas for the beautiful ruby hour markers. On the wrist, it all makes sense—it’s far less flashy than you might expect. Whether I’m getting old (Stef) or it’s the Italian in me, I genuinely struggled to take it off after the wrist shots.
The watch comes complete with its original burgundy box, booklets, wallet, translation booklet, and papers. The bracelet will accommodate up to a 20 cm wrist.
It has been recently serviced, fitted with new gaskets, and passed a 10-bar pressure test—ready for jumping off a Riva on Lake Como, or more realistically, a sauna session at David Lloyd. It’s currently running at +1 s/day, with an amplitude of 290° and a beat error of 0.1 ms.
A superb piece and a timely reminder of just how good value these neo-vintage, gem-set Rolexes still are.