Three references at this size put champagne under a set rim and this is the only one built in solid gold. The other two are two-metal cases, one with a domed rim set with diamonds and one with the full setting this reference carries. Reference 278288RBR is the 31mm Datejust in yellow gold, carrying a bezel set with diamonds, and this configuration pairs a champagne dial set with twelve diamonds in gold settings, carrying no numerals, with a President bracelet. Stones at the rim, stones at the hours, and a ground nearly the same tone as the metal holding both.
The case is solid yellow gold and the bezel is set all the way round in place of flutes. The dial is champagne, a warm pale tone sitting close to the case in value, with twelve round diamonds mounted at the hours in gold settings matched to it. Because the mounts, the case, the rim and the bracelet are all one metal, and the ground is only a shade away from that metal, the stones are the single element on the watch that is not gold or a version of it, and they appear at two radii. The two rings do not behave the same way. The bezel stones sit in solid metal on a curved surface, so they catch light at different moments as the wrist turns and the ring is never fully lit; the dial stones sit flat under the crystal and light together. What that produces is a steady bright circle inside a flickering one, which is a specific effect and the reason the two rings do not simply read as more of the same thing. The President bracelet is semi-circular three-piece links in the same gold, rounded across their width, and it is the only bracelet this reference offers. There is no plain surface anywhere between the two rings for the eye to rest on, which is the strongest argument against this configuration and, for the buyers who choose it, the point of it.
Hours, minutes, running seconds and a date changing in one step at midnight. The self-winding movement in the 31mm case holds roughly fifty-five hours of running time, matching the 28mm references rather than the 36mm ones, which use a larger movement of their own. The dial adds nothing to that and is read by position alone, since a diamond in a gold mount says nothing about which hour it stands at and the ring works only while it stays even. The date window at three is the one break, and on champagne it is absorbed better than on any other ground here: the frame is gold, the disc sits close to the surface in tone, and the interruption is smaller in effect than the same window is on white or silver. What this configuration gives up is a fixed point to read from. Three grounds on the reference offer an oversized six that tells the eye where the bottom of the dial is; champagne is excluded from that treatment at every size Rolex builds it, so the only way to have this ground set is with the even ring. The watch is therefore read from the hands and the two circles together, which at this diameter is slower than the numeral dials and almost never a practical problem. The compensation is symmetry. With nothing enlarged and nothing singled out, the dial has no top or bottom of its own, and the only asymmetric element on the entire watch is the date window.
Champagne set with diamonds names more than one dial. At 28mm it comes with twelve settings, or with twelve settings and a Roman nine in gold carrying eight stones. At 31mm and 41mm it comes with the twelve settings only. At 36mm the name covers three arrangements across two models, and at 40mm a fourth built with baguette-cut stones. Nothing in the name distinguishes them, so the reference number is the only reliable way to know which dial a listing describes. The rim narrows the field further. Of the four bezels built at this size, the fully set one appears on six references and is the most widely built here, ahead of the flutes at five, the domed rim at three and the domed set rim at three. Solid gold takes only the first two of those; neither of the domed options is built in solid metal at all, so the choice on a gold case is between worked flutes and a full setting with nothing in between. This reference is the yellow half of that choice and 278278 is the other half, carrying the same twelve dials under a fluted rim. Between the two, this ground is where the rim matters least, since a warm set dial is already doing most of what a set rim does and the second ring adds reach rather than a new idea.
This is the most decorated version of the most conventional idea on the reference. Champagne with diamonds on a gold Datejust is the arrangement most people picture when they picture the watch, and putting the same stones around the rim doubles it rather than changing it. The result is warm throughout, bright at two radii, and almost entirely without contrast, which is either the point or the objection depending on the buyer. Anyone who wants the setting to be visible as setting should take a dark ground, where the stones separate by contrast rather than by material. Anyone who wants the watch to carry stones without looking like a diamond watch from the front should take the plain champagne or the white dial on this same reference, both of which leave the rim to do the work alone. And anyone who wants this dial with a quieter edge should take 278278, which builds it identically under flutes.
