• Free worldwide delivery

For a long time, the most reliable way to produce blue paint was to ground down lapis lazuli. Due to its beautiful hue, and exorbitant price, Renaissance and Baroque painters used it almost exclusively to depict the robes of the Virgin Mary. It’s no surprise that this regal gemstone makes for a beautiful watch dial.Stone dials are beautiful due to the natural variation of the stones used, but they’re also quite fragile. Many of them have developed cracks or rips over the years. Therefore, a flawless dial will increase the value greatly. This gemstone dial is in faultless condition and features the most desirable variation of lapis. Lapis lazuli often occurs in nature with deposits of two other minerals: calcite (which shows as white veins in the stone) and pyrite (which look like gold veins). This dial contains no calcite deposits and some evenly spaced golden pyrite flecks. Rolex stone dials typically contain no markers. This exceptional variant, however, features applied factory-set diamond indices. Usually, Rolex makes use of a square diamond setting but this dial features a rare round setting instead. Together with the gold and gold applied Rolex coronet the dial takes on a mesmerizing ultramarine and gold hue.This ref. 18238 comes in the classic Day-Date packaging: a 36 mm 18k yellow gold Oyster case, with an 18k yellow gold fluted bezel, and a matching 18k yellow gold President bracelet with a concealed clasp. This fifth-generation Day-Date dates back to 1991 and features a sturdy sapphire crystal as well as the updated caliber 3155 automatic movement with the convenient double-quickset function to separately adjust the day and date discs. The watch is in amazing condition with a thick and sharp case and a tight bracelet.