Rolex started to punch papers around 1966. The earliest punched papers I have found had a serial number of 1.38M on a booklet that was produced in 1966. According to the chart found in James Dowling's Rolex book that would put the manufacture date around the 4th quarter of 1965. So it seems plausible that 1966 was the first year of punched papers.



Punched papers seem to be all the rage amongst vintage Rolex collectors, obviously it is something rare and special to have punched papers for a watch. But Rolex did not punch all papers that were shipped, even after 1966. It appears many papers were sent out blank and were intended to be completed by the dealers at the time of sale.  This is probably because of logistics and/or the large volume of watches sold by some dealers.