Every gold and platinum reference in this collection builds exactly one dial set with diamonds, and this is the one for this watch. Fourteen references carry a precious metal case and each of them offers a single gem-set face among however many plain ones it makes, from four grounds on the smaller rosters to eight on the widest, so the proportion of set to plain varies enormously while the absolute number never does; the steel reference offers none at all, which holds for every all-steel watch the brand currently builds. Reference 126519LN is the 40mm Cosmograph Daytona in white gold, carrying a black ceramic bezel, and this configuration pairs a bright black dial with steel-colored counter rings and diamond-set hour markers, fitted to an Oysterflex bracelet.
The case is forty millimeters in solid white gold, a metal that reads as brighter steel rather than as a second color, so the watch resolves as a single pale material with a black ring around it. That ring is a monobloc ceramic bezel with the tachymetric scale molded into it rather than engraved on metal, which keeps the scale legible without polishing and gives the front of the watch a hard division between the dark rim and the pale case. The dial is bright black lacquer with three counter rings in a steel tone, and diamonds set in gold mounts stand at the hours. On a glossy black ground those stones sit at the highest contrast the collection produces, and the pale counters break the surface into four distinct areas rather than one. That division is what makes a set dial workable on this model at all: on a plain black face twelve stones would sit in an undifferentiated field, and here they occupy the outer band while the counters hold the middle. On the unset versions of this dial the markers are applied batons in white gold, which read as a fifth pale element on a face that already has four; the stones read as something else entirely and that is the whole of what the setting changes. The Oysterflex is a flexible bracelet built over a metal blade rather than assembled from links, so it holds the shape of the wrist without articulating, and it is the only strap-like fitting in the range that keeps a gold clasp and a rigid core. It is also the fitting that separates this reference from its Oyster twin more than the bezel does, since a bracelet and a strap sit differently on the wrist regardless of what the front of the watch is doing.
This is a chronograph, which is the whole point of the model and the reason its dial is arranged the way it is. The three counters record elapsed minutes, elapsed hours and running seconds, and the central hand sweeps the timed seconds, so the four indications divide the surface into a layout that has been essentially fixed for decades. The tachymetric scale on the bezel converts elapsed seconds into a rate, which is a function that predates the electronics that replaced it and survives because it is the visual signature of the watch. The self-winding movement holds roughly seventy-two hours of running time, more than any Datejust or Day-Date the brand builds, which is a practical difference on a watch of this kind since a chronograph left running consumes its reserve faster than a time-only piece. Diamonds at the hours do not change any of that; they replace applied markers on a dial that has to remain readable while three counters are also being read. That is the argument for a set dial on a chronograph rather than against one: the markers have to be visible at a glance and stones on a black lacquer ground are visible at a glance, which is not true on every ground the collection builds. The meteorite dial on this same reference is the clearest counter-example, since a surface with its own pattern gives a small marker considerably less to stand against.
Within this reference the set dial is one of four, alongside two arrangements of the same black and steel combination without stones and a meteorite dial. The collection divides sixteen references by metal and by fitting: steel, a steel and yellow gold combination, platinum, and solid Everose, yellow and white gold, with the gold references split again between an Oyster bracelet and the Oysterflex, and four further references carrying diamonds on the lugs. This one is the white gold Oysterflex, paired with 126509, which is the same metal on an Oyster with an engraved gold bezel rather than a ceramic one. Between those two the dial roster overlaps on three grounds and this reference adds the meteorite. Two of those three are the same black and steel combination with the order of the dial and the counter rings reversed, which is a distinction the dial names record and a photograph makes obvious. The reference pairs a ceramic bezel with a strap rather than a bracelet, which is the combination that has defined the recent gold Daytonas, and the diamond markers are the only decorative element on a watch that is otherwise entirely functional in its layout. Nothing else on the dial has been added for effect.
This suits a buyer who wants the collection's most recognized configuration with the one concession it allows. A black dial, pale counters and a ceramic bezel is the arrangement most people picture, and putting it in white gold on the Oysterflex makes it a considerably quieter watch than the yellow or Everose versions of the same specification, since the case metal declines to announce itself. The diamonds are then the only element that does. Anyone who wants the same dial without them should take either of the unset black and steel arrangements, both built here. Anyone who wants the case to read as gold should move to the yellow or Everose references. And anyone who wants a bracelet rather than a strap should take 126509, which builds three of these four dials on an Oyster and swaps the ceramic rim for one engraved in white gold, which is a warmer and less emphatic front on the same case.
