Can you Change Rolex Oyster Bracelet to Jubilee? [Complete Guide]

Can you Change Rolex Oyster Bracelet to Jubilee? [Complete Guide]

Rolex has several different bracelets in its lineup. The President bracelets, Oyster bracelets, and Jubilee bracelets are the most iconic and common. Naturally, the bracelet of a watch plays an important role in the look functionality, and comfort of a watch, hence why Rolex puts great focus on developing and designing them.

Just like with its watches – Rolex consistently improves and revises its bracelets to improve their design, quality, and overall longevity. And Rolex has made numerous improvements and innovations over the years.

Improvements of Rolex bracelets

Originally, Rolex started out by making hollow bracelets. The issue with these, Rolex found, was that they feel rather cheap and tend to get a lot of stretch over time. Rolex is very open about the fact that they want their watches to last for many years, even generations. This of course also includes its bracelets. And in order to make this possible, they have invested tons of resources into research and development to improve the bracelets.

To create a more robust construction, Rolex eventually changed to solid end links instead of hollow end links. To make the bracelets even more robust, Rolex would eventually change the hollow links to solid links to create a completely solid construction that is less likely to stretch and have a more qualitative feeling on the wrist. Rolex would also come to upgrade its bracelet to feature solid metal clasps (type 300).

Can you change from Rolex Oyster bracelet to Jubilee? (Or vice versa)

Perhaps one of the most common questions when it comes to Rolex bracelets is if you can change from Oyster bracelet to Jubilee, or from Jubilee to Oyster. You may be thinking that the Datejust, for example, is available with both Oyster or Jubillee, so why wouldn’t you be able to change the bracelet at a later stage from one to the other?

The answer is that you can change from Rolex Oyster bracelet to Jubilee on some models but far from all. Whether you can change from Oyster bracelet to Jubilee depends on the model you have. Moreover, it’s also important to point out that Rolex has a number of different Jubilee bracelets and Oyster bracelets. With this said, if it is possible to change from Oyster bracelet to Jubilee, it doesn’t mean that any Jubilee bracelet will fit your watch.

As a rule of thumb, all Rolex watches that are available on either Jubilee or Oyster as an option can be changed from one to the other. Moreover, you may be able to change from Oyster bracelet to Jubilee on models that are exclusively available on Oyster bracelet, but it depends on which models you have.

Rolex is known to create its watches with just the slightest differences in order to make it impossible for modifications. It’s evident that Rolex works to prevent modifications so that people don’t modify their watches in a way that gives them a look that they didn’t have from the factory. This is particularly true for Rolex bracelets. They may move the lug hole just the slightest bit to make it difficult to fit a different bracelet to the watch.

Different models require different bracelets

It’s important to point out that not all types of bracelets will fit different kinds of bracelets. Just because you can fit a watch with a Jubilee bracelet doesn’t mean that you can use any type of Jubilee bracelet. As mentioned, Rolex has made a large number of bracelets over the years and they also have multiple bracelets in production simultaneously to serve different models. Some, for example, may have an Oyster clasp, others may have an Oysterlock clasp. As such, they may also have different end link designs to fit a certain model.

Another thing to consider is the spring bars. For some models, it is possible to change from Oyster to Jubilee bracelet, but only if you change the spring bars. Keep this in mind because the bracelet may fit, but if you have the wrong spring bars, you may believe that it doesn’t. You may need to use slimmer spring bars to get the bracelet to fit on your watch.

Furthermore, older Rolex bracelets also come with removable spring bars. Whilst all new bracelets have solid end links that are attached to the bracelets, older bracelets have removable end links. And the end links may in these cases have slightly different designs. As such, one type of end link may fit a certain watch, but another type of end link may not fit as well. Rolex tends to use a three-digit designation for its end links, such as “555” which helps you identify which end links you need for a certain watch.

Which watches can you change from Oyster to Jubilee?

The list of watches that you can change from oyster to Jubilee bracelet can be made long. But, as mentioned, it will also depend on which Jubilee bracelet you use. To make it easier to distinguish them, Rolex gives each version a bracelet reference number, just like they do with their watches. For a complete guide to Rolex bracelets, refer to this article.

Let’s look at the most common Rolex models and which bracelet you need to change from Oyster to Jubilee:

63600 and 63200Jubilee bracelet

The Rolex Superjubilee reference 63600 fits almost any Rolex, no matter if it’s a 5-digit or 6-digit reference. It fits most watches with 5 or 6-digit references with lug widths of 20mm. If you want to use this steel Jubilee on gold or gold and steel watches, it will of course fit as well since the cases have exactly the same dimensions. Note that for 5-digit references, it may only fit models without lug holes, depending on the spring bars you have.

Models: 114060, 116610LN, 116710LN, 116710BLNR, 214270, 126000, 114300, 16570, 116610LV, 116500LN, 16700, 16610lv, 16610, 14060m, 14060M.

(Plus all the models that the bracelet was originally fitted with this bracelet)

The difference between 63600 and 63200 is that the 63600 is longer and has 2 extra removable links. This is because the 63200 bracelet was used on the Datejust 36 with diamond dials that a lot of women purchased. But the issue with this bracelet was that it was difficult to size for smaller wrists, hence why the 63600 was introduced. Apart from the length, they are identical.

62510H bracelet

Note that this bracelet is available with several different end links. As such, you need to decide which the correct end links are for your model, even though you can conclude that the 62510H Jubilee bracelet can be used for your watch. The bracelet has a lug width of 20mm and will therefore only fit models with lug widths of 20mm. If you want to use this steel Jubilee on gold or gold and steel watches, it will of course fit as well since the cases have exactly the same dimensions. For this model, note that there are differences between hole and no hole cases. Depending on the end link, the bracelet may not fit if you have holes in the case.

Models: 1675, 16710, 16700, 16234, 16013, 16014, 16570, 16610LV, 116610, 14060.

(Plus all the models that the bracelet was originally fitted with this bracelet). 62510 end links marked “T” existed for the GMT-Master models, as the GMT-Master from this period was available with either Jubilee or Oyster bracelet.

Changing from Jubilee to Oyster on models that already exist

As mentioned above, you can change from Oyster to Jubilee for all models that are already offered with a Jubilee option. In these cases, you usually have to choose that exact bracelet for it to fit.

The datejust 41, for example, is available on either oyster or Jubilee. If you have the Oyster bracelet reference 72610, you need the Jubilee bracelet reference 62610.

The same goes for the Sky-Dweller. If your watch has the Oyster bracelet reference 72220, you can change to the Jubilee bracelet 62220.

And if you have GMT-Master II reference 126710 with Oyster bracelet reference 79200, you can change to the Jubilee bracelet reference 69200.

In most cases, the challenge is to actually source the Jubilee bracelet. If your model doesn’t originally come on the Jubilee, for example the Explorer 16570, an official retailer will likely not sell or order a Jubilee bracelet for your watch as this is not a configuration that Rolex has made. It’s a “modification” in Rolex’s view and this is prohibited.

Whilst Rolex retailers are able to order most bracelets, many are surprisingly reluctant to do so. 

But both of these things depend on which Rolex retailer you ask.

This is why a lot of people turn to the secondhand market to buy a Jubilee bracelet. But due to the difficulty in buying a Jubilee bracelet from Rolex retailers in some cases, combined with long delivery times, many of them tend to sell for more than the retail price. This is on top of an already relatively high price. Keep in mind that the retail price for them is more than 2000 USD, depending on the bracelet.

Some Jubilee bracelets are “exchange only” and cannot be ordered by the Rolex retailer. Exchange only means that it is only possible to get a new bracelet from Rolex if your watch is a Jubilee version. In this case, it would only be able to source a bracelet on the secondhand market.