A gradient dial is the one surface on a watch that cannot be described accurately in a single color, and Rolex builds only one of them on this reference. Reference 278289RBR is the 31mm Datejust in solid white gold with a bezel set with diamonds, and this configuration carries a red ombre dial with gem-set markers in white gold settings, on the President bracelet. The color deepens from a lighter center outward to something close to burgundy at the rim, so the dial has no single value anywhere on it and the diamonds sitting at the hours are meeting a different depth of red at every position around the ring.
An ombre dial is a single color sprayed so its density increases from the center outward, and the difficulty lies entirely in the transition rather than at either end. Applied badly it bands, and the eye finds the seam immediately. Applied properly there is no point at which the change can be said to have begun. Red is the more demanding direction for the technique, since a warm saturated pigment shows any unevenness more readily than a cool one, which is part of why Rolex offers red gradients far less often than blue or brown. The gem-set markers sit in white gold settings raised slightly proud of the surface, and because the ground darkens toward the rim exactly where the markers sit, the stones have their maximum contrast at precisely the position they occupy. The case is solid white gold rather than a two-metal combination, which on this reference means the metal is uniform from the lugs through the bracelet, and the bezel is set with diamonds. White gold is considerably denser than steel, so a solid gold case at 31mm carries noticeably more weight than its size suggests. The bracelet is the President, semi-circular three-piece links with a concealed clasp. The date sits at three under the Cyclops lens on a matched disc. Rolex applies the gradient by spraying rather than printing, building density in passes, which is why the transition can be made continuous at all and why a rejected dial cannot be corrected but only discarded. The hands are polished white gold and drawn for this case size rather than scaled from a larger one, and against a ground that changes value across its diameter they have to stay legible at both the pale center and the dark rim, which is a harder brief than a flat dial sets.
The Datejust shows the date and nothing else. The Cyclops lens above the aperture has been part of the model since 1953 and magnifies the date roughly two and a half times, which makes a small window readable without enlarging it and unbalancing the dial. On a gradient the aperture is worth a second look, since it sits partway through the transition and the printing on the disc has to remain legible against a background that is neither the lightest nor the darkest part of the dial. The date changes instantaneously at midnight rather than creeping through the surrounding hour, the feature the Datejust introduced in 1945 and the one it takes its name from. Correction runs through the winding crown without moving the hands, and nothing the watch asks for requires a tool. The movement is self-winding with a power reserve of approximately 55 hours, an engineering result on a movement built to fit a 31mm case rather than a figure carried down the range. The crown screws down against the case, and the President closes with a concealed clasp folded away inside the links. The rotor winds in both directions rather than only one, which is what allows a movement this size to keep itself running on the modest wrist movement of an ordinary day rather than requiring deliberate activity.
The Datejust arrived in 1945 as the first self-winding wristwatch to show the date in a window, and the 31mm case sits between the 28mm Lady-Datejust and the 36mm original. The 278000 generation replaced the 178000 series in 2018 with a revised case and bracelet. Gradient dials are a comparatively recent addition to the model and have been among the more successful ones, because they give a solid color a reason to change as the wrist moves without introducing a stone or a texture. Red is the least common of them by a wide margin. The President bracelet was designed in 1956 for the Day-Date and appears on the precious metal Datejust references as a borrowing rather than an inheritance. Within the generation, 278289RBR is the solid white gold reference with a diamond-set bezel. Rolex has also never offered a red gradient on a steel reference, restricting it to the precious metal cases, which is part of why it turns up so rarely on the open market compared with the blue and brown versions of the same technique. Within this reference red ombre is one of three grounds that exist only in set form, alongside aubergine and white mother-of-pearl, and it takes the diamond hour markers that five of the ten grounds here share rather than the large Roman six.
The collector this suits wants a dial that photographs differently from how it wears, and knows it. A gradient cannot be captured in a still image, because a camera fixes one angle of light and the whole point of the surface is that it does not hold one, so examples consistently read deeper and more varied in person. It is also the only configuration on this reference that is unrepeatable in the sense that matters, since every other dial here can be described completely in a sentence and this one cannot. Buyers who already own solid colors and stone dials tend to arrive at the gradient last, and having arrived, tend to stop. It is also the configuration on this reference that changes most between daylight and a lit room, since a gradient depends on the direction light arrives from and a flat dial does not. Very little else in the range asks to be seen in more than one light before a decision is made.
