One dial on this reference is not a single value. Six of the seven grounds here hold one identity across the face; the green gradient runs brightest at the middle and darkens progressively toward the rim, so the color at the center and the color at the edge are visibly different at every angle. Reference 126200 is the 36mm Datejust in stainless steel, carrying a domed bezel, and this configuration pairs a green ombre dial with applied markers and a Jubilee bracelet. At this size the ground is built on this reference and the two white gold combinations and on none of the warm ones.
The dial is a green gradient, brightest at the middle and progressively darker toward the rim, so the ground reads as two colors at once and the transition between them shifts as the watch moves. A gradient is also the one dial treatment that cannot be judged from a single photograph, since the position of the light decides where the dark band begins and how quickly it arrives. Applied markers stand at the hours in polished steel, and because they sit at the outer part of the dial they are set against the darkest area of the gradient, which gives them more contrast than the same markers get on a flat ground of comparable color. That is the practical advantage of the arrangement and part of why it works with batons where other saturated grounds on this reference come with numerals or with a choice. The case is thirty-six millimeters in steel throughout, with a domed bezel, a smooth curve with no cut in it that holds one broad reflection and reads as a continuation of the case. It is the only rim this reference is built with, where every other case at this size is offered with at least two, so the outside of the watch is settled before a buyer sees it. The Jubilee is built from five-piece links with the center three polished and the outer two brushed. Against a dial already grading from light to dark, the bracelet supplies a second gradient of its own, bright down the middle and matte at the edges. The five-piece links also articulate more freely than a three-piece construction, so the bracelet follows the wrist rather than holding a fixed curve, and on a thirty-six millimeter case that makes the watch wear closer than its diameter implies.
Hours, minutes, running seconds and a date advancing in a single step at midnight rather than easing into the following day. The self-winding movement in the 36mm case holds roughly seventy hours of running time, the same reserve the 41mm cases carry and considerably more than the smaller ones. The date sits at three under a magnifying lens, and on a gradient the window sits in the darker outer band, so the white disc is at maximum contrast with the ground immediately around it. That is more conspicuous than it would be on a flat color of the same average value, and it is the one place the dial pays for the effect. Applied markers are read by position rather than by identity, so the time comes from the angle of the hands rather than from the markers themselves, and on a ground with a strong radial structure the eye is already being led outward from the middle, which suits a marker ring better than it would suit a ring of characters. The seventy hours the movement holds belong to the current generation of this case and are the specification a buyer is most likely to notice without looking for it, since the watch can be set down on a Friday and picked up on a Monday still running.
Green ombre is built at three sizes and the model decides the marker set. At 36mm the Datejust version takes applied markers on three references and the Day-Date version takes Roman numerals on three others; at 40mm it is Roman on three Day-Dates; at 41mm it is applied markers on two references. There is no version below 36mm at all, which puts the gradient among the small group of grounds the model builds only in its larger cases. The three Datejust references carrying it at this size are this one and the two white gold combinations, which is the same set that carries bright blue, and the warm cases build neither. Within this reference the gradient is one of seven grounds, the narrowest roster at 36mm, and none of the seven is set with diamonds, since no all-steel reference in the current catalogue carries a gem-set dial at any size. The nine references at this size divide one per metal and bezel with nothing repeated. Counting both bracelets, the gradient in steel at this size exists in two watches and no more, and there is no second rim or marker arrangement to move it to. Seven grounds are built at this reference and none of them is offered with stones on the dial, so the choice runs on color and bracelet alone.
This suits a buyer who wants a dial with some depth in it and does not want stones or gold to supply that depth. A gradient gives the watch something to look at that costs nothing in formality, since the effect is a matter of color rather than of ornament, and on a plain steel case with a domed rim it is the only thing about the piece that is not entirely conventional. Anyone who wants the color to hold one value should take the mint green or the bright blue, both built here. Anyone who wants the gradient in a larger case will find it at 41mm on the steel and white gold references, in the same marker arrangement. And anyone who wants it with numerals will have to move to the Day-Date, which builds the ground that way where the Datejust does not, and which is a substantially different watch in every other respect.
