Rolex Day-Date 40 Yellow Gold Onyx Baguette Diamond 228238 2024

Reference 228238 with the onyx dial is the Day-Date 40 at its most uncompromising. Yellow gold is a warm metal and onyx is an absolutely cold one, and putting them together produces a watch with far more edge than the champagne-dial version most people picture when they hear Day-Date.

Worth understanding what an onyx dial actually is: a slice of stone, cut and lapped thin enough to serve as a dial plate, then drilled for the hands and the two apertures. It is not black lacquer and it does not behave like lacquer. There is no sunray, no grain and no direction to the finish, so the surface stays flatly, evenly black at every angle, and the printing has to be applied to stone rather than metal.

Ten baguette-cut diamonds are set into that stone. Against a sunray dial baguettes compete with the finish; against onyx they have nothing to fight, which is why this configuration reads as clean rather than busy. The fluted yellow gold bezel and the President bracelet do the rest of the talking.

Calibre 3255, self-winding, approximately 70 hours of power reserve, waterproof to 100 metres. The case is 40 mm in 18 ct yellow gold with a monobloc middle case, screw-down back and screw-down winding crown, on the President bracelet with a concealed folding Crownclasp.

Near mint, 2024, offered as a full set. Stone dials are unforgiving of handling, so a second hand example in this condition is worth more attention than the year alone suggests.

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.