Reference:118239: Difference between revisions

The 118239 is the white-gold Day-Date 36 of the 6-digit era. Same 36mm President case as the yellow-gold [[Reference:118238|118238]], same fluted bezel, same caliber 3155, cut in 18k white gold instead. At arm's length it reads as steel, and that quietness is the whole appeal: a watch that weighs like gold and looks like nothing in particular until the fluting catches the light. Rolex catalogued it from 2000, on the President bracelet and on the Oyster, and gave it the widest dial range of any reference in the generation. Lapis lazuli, meteorite, mother-of-pearl, cherry lacquer and full pavé all sit in the same catalogue as plain silver and black.

The 6-digit Day-Date 36 splits by metal and by bezel. The [[Reference:118238|118238]] is the yellow-gold fluted volume reference, the [[Reference:118235|118235]] the Everose, the [[Reference:118208|118208]] the yellow-gold smooth, and the 118239 the white-gold fluted. White gold has always been the awkward member of the Day-Date family, because the one thing a President is supposed to do at a glance is announce itself, and white gold declines to. That has kept the 118239 out of the spotlight and made it the reference collectors reach for when they want the watch without the announcement.

Mechanically there is nothing to separate it from its siblings. The case, the caliber 3155, the double quickset and the Twinlock crown are shared across the generation, and the [[Reference:118238|118238]] entry carries the full account of the caliber. What the 118239 has of its own is metal and dial. White gold takes a mirror polish differently from yellow, and it is the natural ground for the cool-toned dials, lapis and meteorite and pavé, that make up the more interesting half of the reference's catalogue.

The dial range is the reason to care about this reference. Thirty-four configurations are catalogued for the 118239, running from plain lacquer to fully paved. The same dial menu appears against both bracelet options, so a buyer choosing the Oyster gave up nothing on the dial.

Two of these deserve singling out. The lapis is the hardstone that suits white gold best, because the metal stays out of the way and the stone does not have to fight a warm case for attention. The meteorite is the one that never repeats, since the crystalline banding is cut from a different part of the slice on every dial. The wider hardstone story across the Rolex catalogue is covered in Italian Watch Spotter's stone-dial guide, and the cross-family dial taxonomy sits on the [[Reference:1803|1803]] entry.

The Oyster bracelet is the surprise. Roughly half the catalogued 118239 configurations sit on the flat three-piece Oyster instead of the President, a pairing usually associated with the smooth-bezel references like the [[Reference:118208|118208]]. A fluted white-gold Day-Date on an Oyster is about as far from the dress-watch reading of the model as Rolex ever took it. As with any President, a clasp date code dates the bracelet and not the head, and a serviced watch may well wear a later bracelet than its case. The cross-family detail sits on [[Reference:Bracelets]].

==Market==

The 118239 moves mainly through the dealer and certified-pre-owned market; catalogued auction results are scarce for the 6-digit Day-Date generation generally. Where the generation does reach the auction record, dial configuration decides the price, and the reference number by itself says little. Christie's Hong Kong sold a coral-dial [[Reference:118208|118208]] for HKD 525,000 in 2014 and a bloodstone example for HKD 225,000 in 2018, several multiples over a plain-dial equivalent. On the 118239 the configurations that do the same work are the lapis, the meteorite and the pavé; a plain silver or black example is a straightforward modern Day-Date and prices like one.