When did Rolex Start using White Gold Hands?
Did you know that the hands and hour markers on all modern Rolex watches are made in 18ct gold? It’s true! Most watch manufacturers make the hands and hour markers in stainless steel – and so has Rolex, but not anymore. Today, the hands and hour markers on Rolex watches are made in white gold. For yellow or rose gold watches, it’s quite obvious that they are made in gold. But for steel watches, it’s not very obvious.
But why? And when did Rolex start using white gold hands and indices?
That’s what we are going to look closer at in this article.
Why Rolex began using white gold hands and hour markers
As mentioned, Rolex hasn’t always made the hands and hour markers of its watches in 18ct white gold for its steel watches. This naturally begs the question of why Rolex began using it.
The answer can be found in Rolex’s vision and idea when designing and creating watches – longevity.
Rolex themselves say the following:
“A Rolex lasts a lifetime. At Rolex, we want to ensure that your watch performs as well throughout your life as on the day you bought it. All that is needed is to give your Rolex just the smallest bit of care”
In other words, Rolex’s ambition is to build long-lasting timepieces that look just the same in ten or twenty years as it does now. There are plenty of good examples of this that Rolex has implemented that support this vision. Rolex changed the aluminum bezel inserts for ceramic as the aluminum bezels faded and scratched over time. Rolex also changed the luminous compound for its watches as they became discolored and stopped glowing after a few decades.
Another thing that they did was of course to change from stainless steel hands and hour markers to 18ct white gold ones. And this is the reason why Rolex began using white gold instead of steel for its hands and hour markers.
Over time, Rolex started to notice that the steel hands and hour markers started to tarnish and even rust. This is of course completely opposite to Rolex’s vision of keeping its watches look exactly the same as the day they were purchased. The purpose of the change to white gold was to preserve the integrity of the watch as it ages. Unlike steel, white gold retains its integrity and doesn’t rust. The ultimate reason is to prevent tarnishing, which was the case with steel.
Some people believe that it is because white gold is shinier and enhances the luxurious appearance that Rolex changed it. And whilst that may have been a contributing factor, it certainly wasn’t the key reason for the change. But thanks to the shiny nature of white gold, it does make the hands and indices catch light in a much more striking way than steel.
When did Rolex Start using White Gold Hands and hour markers?
Vintage Rolex watches have hands and hour markers made in steel. As such, it’s not uncommon to see hands and hour markers that have started to corrode and oxidize.
Rolex started to implement the white gold hands in the middle to the late 1980s. Some examples are seen from the early 1980s with white gold hands are seen. For natural reasons, not all steel Rolex watches got white gold hands at the same time.
But there is actually an interesting story behind this as well. Rolex first started to implement white gold hands as watches from the 1970s started to show some great issues with corrosion. This sparked the idea by Rolex to start using white gold hands. But with that said, Rolex did not implement the white gold indices simultaneously. This was an idea that was (most likely) sparked afterward. In other words, Rolex started with white gold hands because they saw issues with corrosion and then likely thought to themselves “if we use it for the hands, why not use it for the hour markers also?
The general consensus is that Rolex started using white gold hands at least a few years before the white gold hour markers.
The first Submariner to have white gold hour markers was the reference 16800. It was originally introduced with a matte dial which then transitioned to a dial with white gold hour markers. The very first GMT-Master reference to have white gold hands was the reference 16750. Like the Submariner, it was initially introduced with a matte dial and then got the white gold hour markers.
Rolex uses white gold hands and markers for all white-metal watches
It’s obvious that Rolex uses yellow gold or rose gold hands and hour markers for yellow gold and rose gold watches respectively. After all, these are types of gold that offer the same longevity as white gold.
But did you know that Rolex uses white gold hands and hour markers for all white-metal watches? In other words, white gold, platinum, and stainless steel watches all have white gold hands and hour markers.
