Reference:16710: Difference between revisions

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The awkward dial of the late 16710 is the short 1998 run that carries Luminova paint under T<25 text. Rolex switched lume material from tritium to Luminova through 1998, and the Field Manual’s sequence puts full Luminova on new dials that year, with Super-Luminova taking over from 2000. The T<25 designation is a tritium marker. It flags dial radioactivity below 25 millicuries, and on a pure tritium watch it appears alongside the word SWISS at the bottom of the dial. Any dial printed with that line should, by convention, carry tritium lume.

~~The problem is that a~~ small number of genuine ~~factory~~ dials ~~made in 1998 used~~ Luminova ~~paint~~ but ~~kept the older~~ T<25 ~~printing~~. ~~The result is a dial with no radioactive lume in it that still advertises tritium. These watches look inconsistent~~ to ~~anyone checking authenticity by dial text alone, because~~ the dial text says tritium and the lume plots behave like Luminova: no aging to warm cream, no loss of initial glow over decades, just a steady pale colour that reads fresher than it should on a 1998 watch. Collectors who only know the cleaner ~~version of the transition read these dials as re~~-~~lumed aftermarket work~~ or ~~outright fake~~. The Field Manual treats ~~the T<25 Luminova dial~~ as ~~a genuine~~ factory transitional output~~, and the misread risk is precisely why the sub-branch is worth naming on a 16710 page rather than leaving folded into the general lume sequence~~.

A small number of genuine 1998 dials use Luminova but still print T<25. That makes them easy to misread as fake or re-lumed if the buyer expects the cleaner Swiss-only or Swiss Made changeover. The Field Manual treats them as real factory transitional output.

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=== Pepsi ===

The Pepsi branch carries the family's red-and-blue identity ~~directly~~ into the neo-vintage era. ~~The red aluminum fade~~ is the ~~branch's aging signal: surviving examples range from nearly-unfaded crimson-and-blue to watches where~~ the ~~red has gone to pink or close to washed-out mauve~~, ~~with~~ the ~~blue generally holding better than the red~~. The early Mk 1 and Mk 2 Pepsi inserts carry narrower fonts and slightly different baton geometries that collectors sort by printing pattern rather than by explicit generation marker. Whether any given bezel arrived on its current watch ~~from the factory or~~ was ~~swapped during a dealer delivery is a live debate on the reference. Rolex did not publish a serial-to-bezel mapping, and "~~born a Pepsi" cannot be proved from the serial number alone. A bezel-insert generation, a production serial, and a documented delivery country line up cleanly on some examples; on others the three read as plausible but not provable.

The Pepsi branch carries the family's red-and-blue identity straight into the neo-vintage era. What matters in practice is not just the color, but whether the insert generation, case period, and rest of the watch agree. Serial alone cannot prove a watch was born a Pepsi.

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 The awkward dial of the late 16710 is the short 1998 run that carries Luminova paint under T&lt;25 text. Rolex switched lume material from tritium to Luminova through 1998, and the Field Manual’s sequence puts full Luminova on new dials that year, with Super-Luminova taking over from 2000. The T&lt;25 designation is a tritium marker. It flags dial radioactivity below 25 millicuries, and on a pure tritium watch it appears alongside the word SWISS at the bottom of the dial. Any dial printed with that line should, by convention, carry tritium lume.
-The problem is that a small number of genuine factory dials made in 1998 used Luminova paint but kept the older T&lt;25 printing. The result is a dial with no radioactive lume in it that still advertises tritium. These watches look inconsistent to anyone checking authenticity by dial text alone, because the dial text says tritium and the lume plots behave like Luminova: no aging to warm cream, no loss of initial glow over decades, just a steady pale colour that reads fresher than it should on a 1998 watch. Collectors who only know the cleaner version of the transition read these dials as re-lumed aftermarket work or outright fake. The Field Manual treats the T&lt;25 Luminova dial as a genuine factory transitional output, and the misread risk is precisely why the sub-branch is worth naming on a 16710 page rather than leaving folded into the general lume sequence.
+A small number of genuine 1998 dials use Luminova but still print T&lt;25. That makes them easy to misread as fake or re-lumed if the buyer expects the cleaner Swiss-only or Swiss Made changeover. The Field Manual treats them as real factory transitional output.
 <span id="stick-dial-and-3186"></span>
@@ Line 128: / Line 128: @@
 === Pepsi ===
-The Pepsi branch carries the family's red-and-blue identity directly into the neo-vintage era. The red aluminum fade is the branch's aging signal: surviving examples range from nearly-unfaded crimson-and-blue to watches where the red has gone to pink or close to washed-out mauve, with the blue generally holding better than the red. The early Mk 1 and Mk 2 Pepsi inserts carry narrower fonts and slightly different baton geometries that collectors sort by printing pattern rather than by explicit generation marker. Whether any given bezel arrived on its current watch from the factory or was swapped during a dealer delivery is a live debate on the reference. Rolex did not publish a serial-to-bezel mapping, and "born a Pepsi" cannot be proved from the serial number alone. A bezel-insert generation, a production serial, and a documented delivery country line up cleanly on some examples; on others the three read as plausible but not provable.
+The Pepsi branch carries the family's red-and-blue identity straight into the neo-vintage era. What matters in practice is not just the color, but whether the insert generation, case period, and rest of the watch agree. Serial alone cannot prove a watch was born a Pepsi.