Birch Wood Dial 18039 Rolex Day-Date

Birch-Wood-Rolex-Day-Date-18039

Amongst the many great accolades Rolex hold, one of the most bizarre has to be convincing their clientele back in the four and five digit era that wood was a luxury material. Wood; you know, the stuff you burn to keep warm, that’s always decomposing slowly, that’s only valuable in tonnes. Granted, Rolex chose very…

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Bloodstone Dial 18039 Rolex Day-Date

Rolex-Day-Date-18039-Bloodstone-Dial

There is no more scarce standard production Day-Date than the jasper, or here Bloodstone, dial in white gold or platinum. Readers of Hairspring will know, in white precious metal, there are fewer than 10. Probably 9. Bloodstone is a jasper, just one with red veins, iron spots that gemologists—or ‘stoners’ as I like to call…

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Jasper Dial 18039 Rolex Day-Date

Jasper-Dial-Rolex-Day-Date-18039

Of all standard production Rolex models, white precious metal and a jasper dial has to be in the top five of outright rarity. You’ll see jasper in yellow gold with some frequency, a handful yearly popping up in the market. But in white precious metal, not gem set, fewer than 10 are known. My current…

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Blue Stella 18039 Rolex Day-Date

Blue-Stella-18039-Rolex-Day-Date

From lilac to yellow, Stella dials are ‘in’, whatever that means. Every time I see a great one come up for sale these days, and the accompanying punchy ask, the ‘so hot right now’ Zoolander meme comes immediately to mind. I normally totally eschew anything fashionable; fashion is of the now. By definition fashion cycles.…

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Burl Wood Dial 18039 Rolex Day-Date

Wood-Dial-Rolex-Day-Date-18039

Over the years, Rolex’s Day-Date has played host to many an exotic dial. But wood? Wood has no carat rating, wood is essentially always decomposing, and wood’s inherent market value only arrives in far larger quantities than a 36mm dial. Wood has received many a black eye as a watchmaking material from countless eco-brands whose…

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