Rolex Day-Date 40 Platinum Ice Blue Baguette Diamond 228236 2023

Reference 228236 is the Day-Date 40 in 950 platinum, and the ice blue dial is not really a colour choice. Rolex reserves that shade for platinum alone, which makes it the one dial in the catalogue that identifies the metal before you have picked the watch up.

The Day-Date's whole reason for existing is the line of text at twelve. Spelling the day out in full, in language, rather than abbreviating it to three letters was the technical problem Rolex solved in 1956, and it remains the thing the model is for. The day and the date both change instantaneously at midnight rather than creeping over an hour, which is a harder mechanism to build and a much more satisfying one to own.

This example is set with ten baguette-cut diamonds rather than applied indices, and baguettes suit the ice blue better than brilliants would: they are rectangles of light on a flat, cold field, and they do not scatter. The fluted bezel returned to platinum in this generation, which sounds like a small thing until you see it against the smooth bezel it replaced.

Calibre 3255, self-winding, with roughly 70 hours of power reserve and a Superlative Chronometer certification. Waterproof to 100 metres, 40 mm across, monobloc middle case with a screw-down back and crown, on the platinum President bracelet with its concealed folding Crownclasp.

Like new in box, 2023, offered as a full set. Buying this one second hand is the only sensible way to buy it.

Every watch is authenticated by an independent watchmaker before it changes hands, never by us. Viewing by appointment at our Collins Street boutique in Melbourne, insured delivery Australia-wide. We buy Rolex outright and source specific references on request.