On this reference the marker set is decided by whether the ground was made for the metal. Chocolate and sundust were developed alongside the Everose alloy and both come with applied markers; bright black, mint green and white were not, and all three come with Roman numerals. Slate takes an arrangement of its own. The four references at this size that are not Everose reverse it, putting applied markers on the same three borrowed grounds. Reference 126301 is the 41mm Datejust in a combination of stainless steel and Everose gold, carrying a smooth bezel, and this configuration pairs a bright black dial with a full set of Roman numerals and a Jubilee bracelet.
The case is forty-one millimeters in steel with an Everose gold bezel, crown and center links, and the rim is smooth rather than fluted. The dial is bright black, a glossy lacquered ground closer to a mirror than to a surface, which is the quality separating it from the matte and sunray dials the reference also builds. A sunray dial changes brightness as the wrist turns; a lacquered one reflects what is in front of it, so the dial picks up the room rather than the light source. Gold Roman numerals stand on it at the hours, and against black lacquer they are the highest contrast the reference can produce, higher than gold on slate and considerably higher than gold on chocolate. The Jubilee is built from five-piece links with the gold running in three narrow inner strips, which breaks the metal into small units and multiplies the number of reflective edges. Between a mirrored dial and a bracelet built to flash, this is the most active configuration the reference offers, and none of that activity comes from a stone. Everything on the watch is either polished metal or polished lacquer, and the only matte surface anywhere is the brushed outer face of the steel links. On the Oyster version of this configuration those brushed sections are broad and flat and give the eye a place to stop; on the Jubilee they are narrow, so the watch offers very little relief from its own brightness. That is either the appeal of this combination or the reason to avoid it, and buyers tend to know which within a few seconds of seeing it.
Hours, minutes, running seconds and a date advancing in a single step at midnight rather than easing over into the day that follows. The self-winding movement in the 41mm case holds roughly seventy hours of running time, which covers a weekend off the wrist with room to spare and is the specification here a buyer is most likely to notice without looking for it. The date sits at three under a magnifying lens and takes the position a numeral would otherwise occupy, so the Roman set runs to ten characters. On this ground the window is the one weak point in an otherwise very legible dial: a white disc against black lacquer is brighter than the gold numerals around it, and the eye goes there first. Everything else about the arrangement works in the same direction. Roman numerals identify their own positions rather than only marking them, so the time can be read from the characters alone, and gold on black is the contrast pairing needing the least light to work. In a dim room this is the easiest dial the reference builds to read, and in direct sun it is the hardest, because a lacquered surface returns the source straight back and the numerals disappear into the glare for as long as the angle holds.
Bright black is not built in the small cases. It starts at 31mm and runs through 36mm, 40mm, 41mm and 42mm, on twenty-nine references in total, and the marker treatment shifts as it goes: Roman numerals only at 31mm, both arrangements at 36mm and 41mm, applied markers only at 40mm and 42mm. At this size the split follows the metal exactly, with numerals on the two Everose references and applied markers on the steel one, the white gold combination and both yellow ones. Within this reference black is one of eight grounds and one of six carrying no stones, since only chocolate and sundust are offered set. The family is arranged in twinned pairs, each warm metal combination built once smooth and once fluted on an identical dial roster, while the steel reference exists only smooth and the white gold one only fluted. The fluted twin 126331 therefore builds this exact dial, and the two of them are the only watches in the range pairing black lacquer, Roman numerals and Everose. Counting both bracelets, that comes to four watches in total, which is the whole of the choice available on this dial in this metal; there is no set version of the ground, no third bracelet and no solid gold case at this size to move it into.
This suits a buyer who wants a two-metal watch that reads as formal rather than as warm. Black lacquer is the ground giving the least away about the case it sits in, so the rose gold registers as an accent at the rim and the wrist rather than as the character of the piece. The Roman numerals push it further in that direction, since a full set of characters is the dressiest marker arrangement the model builds. Anyone who wants the same dial with applied markers will have to leave the Everose references, because neither of them builds it that way. Anyone who wants the gold to be less present should take the Oyster, which confines it to one continuous center line. And anyone who wants the outside of the watch to be as active as the dial should take 126331, where the flutes give the rim a pattern to match the bracelet.
