Black onyx is the hardest dial material to use well because it offers the maker nothing to hide behind. A figured stone carries its own pattern and any small imperfection disappears into it. Onyx does not. The material is prized precisely for being uniform, so every inclusion, every variation in tone and every flaw in the polish is visible across an unbroken black field, and selecting slices clean enough to cut watch dials rejects a great deal of material before any work begins. This reference sets that dial into a black ceramic Code 11.59 case at 41 mm, which produces a watch that is almost entirely one colour. Onyx is also a chalcedony rather than a crystal, which means it is comparatively soft for a dial material and takes its polish differently from a harder stone. A properly finished onyx dial has a depth to its black that lacquer cannot reach, because the light enters the material slightly before returning rather than reflecting from a coating on the surface.
The case is black ceramic in the Code 11.59 construction, round from above and octagonal through the middle section, with hollowed lugs welded to the case band. Machining that architecture in ceramic is substantially harder than in metal, since the material permits no correction and every transition between brushed and polished surfaces has to be reached in the tooling rather than at the bench. The dial is black onyx with a black lacquered inner bezel, so three separate black surfaces meet at the edge of the display and each has a different quality of finish. Ceramic is matte and dense, onyx is a hard polished stone with depth, and lacquer sits between them, and reading the boundaries between the three is most of what the watch offers visually. Rose gold hands are the only element that breaks it, and they carry the entire burden of legibility. The strap is black rubber-coated with a white gold folding clasp. That clasp is the only white metal anywhere on the watch and it sits where nobody looks, which is either an oversight or a joke depending on how the reference is read. The hands are rose gold, the case and dial are black, and the single cold element is hidden underneath the wrist.
The function set is a flying tourbillon with hours and minutes. The cage is supported from below alone, with no bridge crossing it, so it turns in the aperture with nothing passing over the assembly. That cantilevered construction is the harder of the two ways to build a tourbillon and it exists for a visual reason rather than a functional one, since a bridged version works equally well and is simply less interesting to watch. Winding is automatic. There is no date and no seconds hand, which on this dial is not a matter of restraint but of necessity, since the aperture for the tourbillon is already the only interruption in an otherwise uniform black surface and a second opening would destroy the effect the dial depends on. The aperture itself was designed into the dial rather than cut through a finished one, so the onyx is worked around a known opening from the start. On a uniform material that matters less than it would on a patterned one, but the edge quality around the aperture is where a black stone dial is most easily judged. A clean edge with no chipping and no visible adhesive is the mark of a properly executed stone dial, and on onyx there is nowhere for either fault to hide.
The four references sharing the 26396 case are separated by dial material alone, and they cover a deliberate range. Sodalite in white gold carries strong white veining through deep blue. Enamelled aventurine gives a smoked green surface built from manufactured glass. Meteorite carries a crystal lattice from outside the solar system and is offered as a limited edition. This one takes the opposite position from all three, using a material chosen for having no pattern whatever. That makes it the quietest of the group and the one that depends most on the case and the tourbillon rather than on the dial. That is an unusual position within a group assembled specifically to showcase dial materials, and it is worth understanding as a deliberate inclusion rather than a gap in the range. A survey of what a dial can be made from is incomplete without the material that refuses to show anything.
This reference is for a collector who wants a tourbillon presented as severely as possible. Black on black on black is a position rather than a default, and it removes every element from the watch except the outline, the cage and two rose gold hands. Buyers who find the stone-dialled references decorative will find this one austere in a way they respond to, and buyers who came to the collection for the materials will find it the least interesting of the four. Both readings are correct. What is not in question is the difficulty of the dial, since a flawless black surface is harder to source and harder to finish than any patterned stone in the group. Buyers who understand that tend to be the ones who choose it, and they are choosing the difficulty rather than the appearance, which is a different motivation from the one driving the meteorite and sodalite references. There is also a practical argument that goes unstated in most descriptions of black dials. A uniform surface shows dust, fingerprints on the crystal and reflections far more readily than a patterned one, so an onyx dial asks more of an owner in ordinary care than any of the alternatives in the group. Buyers who keep watches immaculately will not notice. Others will.
