The strap size depends on the reference. Yours is engraved on the case back or between the lugs at 6 o'clock.
19 or 20 mm
Verification: From our database, not yet verified
36 to 39 mm cases · 1950 to 2021
Indicative information. Check your watch before buying a strap: whatsmylugwidth.com is not responsible for an incorrect size.
The story · Since 1953
Rolex registered the Explorer name in January 1953, months before Hillary and Tenzing stood on top of Everest, and the black 3-6-9 dial it launched that year is still recognisable on the watch sold today.
1963 to 1989
production run of ref. 1016, the longest of any Explorer
On 29 May 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest with a British expedition supplied with Rolex Oyster Perpetuals. Monochrome identifies the white-dial ref. 6098 as the Pre-Explorer that went with them. Smiths also supplied the expedition, and which watch reached the summit is still debated.
Refs. 6150 and 6350 both appeared in 1953 with black dials, 3-6-9 numerals, a 36mm Oyster case and 50 metres of water resistance. The 6350 was the first to carry Explorer on every dial and was dropped in 1954. Ref. 6610 followed in 1955 with a flatter caseback, made possible by the slimmer calibre 1030.
Ref. 14270 brought a sapphire crystal, applied numerals and the 4Hz calibre 3000 while staying at 36mm; its first dials, the Blackout, filled the numerals with black lacquer until 1991. Ref. 114270 took over in 2001 with the calibre 3130 and solid bracelet end links.
In 2010 ref. 214270 grew the Explorer to 39mm, which Monochrome calls shocking for such a conservative brand. Early versions had short hands and unlumed white gold numerals; a 2016 update lengthened the hands and filled the numerals with lume.
In 2021 Rolex returned the Explorer to 36mm with ref. 124270 and the 70-hour calibre 3230, and added a first two-tone version, ref. 124273. In 2023 the 40mm ref. 224270 joined it rather than replacing it.
The James Bond author owned a ref. 1016 Explorer, which his stepdaughter remembered as the only Rolex he ever had. He wore it while writing On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1962, and researcher Dell Deaton identified it as the model for the literary Bond's Rolex. The family lent it to the Imperial War Museum in 2008 and to a US exhibition in 2010.
One of the men who reached the top of K2 with an Italian expedition equipped with Explorer watches; he wrote that his Rolex worked perfectly above 8,000 metres.
Geologist and mountaineer on the British expedition that first climbed Kangchenjunga; he recalled wearing his Rolex Explorer throughout and that nothing seemed to harm it.
Member of the SANAE 27 South African Antarctic expedition; his Rolex-sponsored ref. 1016 endured temperatures as low as -50C and sold at Sotheby's for CHF 37,500 in May 2013.
British GQ reports the naturalist was often pictured wearing a Rolex Explorer in the 1950s and 1960s, including while handling a snake in a safari shirt.
Wore a 36mm black-dial Explorer with black tie at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Hillary and Tenzing reached the 8,848-metre summit with a British expedition carrying Oyster Perpetual chronometers; Rolex then launched the Explorer.
Ian Fleming's own Explorer 1016 inspired the Rolex Oyster Perpetual of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), whose big luminous numerals echo the watch's radium dial. In 2010 it was shown wound and ticking at the National Watch and Clock Museum in Pennsylvania.
Rolex equipped members of Wally Herbert's British Trans-Arctic Expedition with Explorers for a 16-month, nearly 6,000 km trek, the first overland crossing of the Arctic Ocean, which ended on 6 April 1969.
A 1953 ref. 6350 with a gilt honeycomb dial, consigned by its original owner who wore it diving and climbing Kilimanjaro, sold for $126,000 at Phillips' Racing Pulse sale in New York.
A ref. 6350 with a caseback stamped IV.53 sold for HK$362,500 against an estimate of HK$100,000 to 200,000 at Phillips' Rolex Milestones sale on 28 November 2016.
Explorer 40: 40mm by 11.6mm, calibre 3230, Explorer printed back at 12 o'clock as on the 1950s dials.
21mm lugs, versus 20mm on the 39mm model; Oysterlock clasp with Easylink of about 5mm.
Back to 36mm (Worn & Wound measured 43mm lug to lug and 11.5mm thick), calibre 3230 with 70 hours of power reserve.
Lug width cut to 19mm, bracelet tapering to 14mm at the clasp; new recesses in the case between the lugs hold the end links.
39mm case and calibre 3132 with blue Parachrom hairspring and Paraflex shock absorbers. The Mark 2 of 2016 fixed the short hands and lumed the 3-6-9.
Case size change from 36mm to 39mm; lug width 20mm.
Calibre 3130 with Parachrom hairspring and 48 hours of power reserve, otherwise close to the 14270.
Bracelet gained solid end links; still a 36mm case with 20mm lugs.
First modern Explorer: sapphire crystal, applied markers, calibre 3000 at 28,800vph. Drilled lugs were dropped by 1994.
36mm case with 20mm lugs; Worn & Wound notes the 2021 Explorer 36 reduced the span from 20mm to 19mm.
Slimmer calibre 1030 and a flatter caseback; early dials printed the 50 metre depth rating in red. A rare white-dial version is nicknamed Albino.
Considered by many the first true Explorer because Explorer is printed on all its dials. Some have a honeycomb dial unique to this reference. Calibre A296, COSC-certified.
Rolex Explorer references in our database. Each card says where its width comes from: listed by the maker (linked to the maker's page in the details), two independent sources agree, or listed in our database and not yet verified by us.
Explorer Pre-Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1950Cream dialCase material: Steel
Explorer ref.
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1952Black Gilt 3-6-9 dialCase material: Steel
Explorer Pre-Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1952Cream Honeycomb dialCase material: Steel
Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1953Honeycomb Black dialCase material: Steel
Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1955Black dialCase material: Steel
Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1963Gilt Black dialCase material: Steel
Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1989Black dialCase material: Steel
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1990Black dialCase material: Steel
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 1998Black dialCase material: Steel
Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 2001Black dialCase material: Steel
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 2002Black dialCase material: Steel
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 2006Black Arabic dialCase material: Steel
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 39 mmYear: 2010Black dialCase material: Steel
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 39 mmYear: 2016Black dialCase material: Steel
Explorer 36
Lug width: 19 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmYear: 2021Black dialCase material: Steel
Explorer 40
Lug width: 21 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 40 mmYear: 2023Black dialCase material: Steel
Explorer 36 Black Dial
Lug width: 19 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmBlack dial
Explorer 36 Stainless Steel / Yellow Gold
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmBlack dial
Explorer 40 (Black Dial)
Lug width: 21 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 40 mmBlack dial
Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 39 mmBlack dial
Explorer
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 39 mmBlack dial
Explorer Black Dial
Lug width: 20 mm
Source: DatabaseCase size: 36 mmBlack dial
No reference matches.
Rolex Explorer references use 19 mm or 20 mm or 21 mm depending on the reference and case size, so check yours in the list below. The most common is 20 mm (18 of 22 references with a known width). These widths come from our database and are not yet verified.
No. 3 different lug widths appear across the line, often by case size or generation. Check the reference engraved on the case back or between the lugs.
The 36mm 14270 and 114270 and the 39mm 214270 use 20mm. The 2021 Explorer 36 ref. 124270 narrowed this to 19mm, and the 2023 Explorer 40 ref. 224270 uses 21mm.
Yes, but the case now has two recesses between the lugs that lock the bracelet end link, and they stay visible with a strap. The spring bar holes also sit closer to the case, so some thick or reinforced fabric straps will not pass through.
Because the end link sits in recesses in the case, it does not give the usual play when you release the spring bar; Worn & Wound says it needs to be pulled straight out.
It is less common in aftermarket straps than 20mm or 22mm, but it is the same lug width as other current Rolex models such as the Submariner and Datejust 41. Like the 36mm model, the case has cut-outs for the end links that stay open with a standard strap.
The Oyster bracelet of the 36mm and 40mm models closes with an Oysterlock safety clasp and has the Easylink comfort link, which adds about 5mm without tools. There is no Glidelock fine adjustment as on the Submariner.
The gap between the two lugs that hold the strap, in millimetres. A new strap must match it exactly: 20 mm lugs take a 20 mm strap.
Most watches use spring bars, so any strap of the right width fits. Many smartwatches use their own band system instead, such as Apple Watch bands or Garmin QuickFit.