What's up with this Rolex?

[dimots]

Has this been deliberately aged/tarnished or what? I kind of like how it looks in the photos...but I can't really see a gold Rolex ageing in this manner.

https://www.chrono24.co.uk/rolex/submariner-date-t...

[R8Steve]

Tropical dial, they are designed to change colour over time with exposure to the sun.

I think they look absolutely pants personally.

[dimots]

I like tropical dials, I am a fan. They're not designed to change colour, they are just standard dials that have acquired patination through exposure to the sun.

However this watch looks to have been either deliberately aged or carefully photographed/filtered to give the gold a brassy look in addition to the patinated dial.

[R8Steve]

dimots said:

I like tropical dials, I am a fan. They're not designed to change colour, they are just standard dials that have acquired patination through exposure to the sun.

However this watch looks to have been either deliberately aged or carefully photographed/filtered to give the gold a brassy look in addition to the patinated dial.

They're not standard dials, they had a different coating on them. Ironically the coating they put on the Rolex was originally meant to stop discoloration.

Most of the ones i've seen have similarly patina'd cases, i'd imagine they are well worn and normally pretty old. The one in your link though does look worse (or better if you like that kind of thing) than most.

[dimots]

Hmm...maybe the strap colour is throwing me. You could be right...I would need to see it on a gold bracelet I suppose.

The dial is odd too though. It has the appearance of being uniformly darkened. Below is what I would call a 'perfect' tropical dial on a similar watch (which could also be a frankenstein for all I know) but generally there's some variation in colour across the dial.



Anyway, just wondering if any experts could spot any obvious manipulation going on like a replacement dial or similar. I know these kinds of watches are notorious for it and this one looks dodgy to me.

Edit: and they ARE standard dials. They were not designed to discolour and were standard on loads of 60s/70s Rolexes so why are they not standard?

Edited by dimots on Wednesday 23 May 17:22

[GCH]

They are not designed to change - it is a fault with certain batches, same as 'spider' dials which some collectors go nuts for