White is the only ground built on every reference in an entire size family. All seventeen Datejust references at 31mm carry it, which no other dial in the catalogue manages, and all six at 41mm carry it as well. Reference 126331 is the 41mm Datejust in a combination of stainless steel and Everose gold, carrying a fluted bezel, and this configuration pairs a plain white dial with a full set of Roman numerals and an Oyster bracelet. It is the ground every version of this watch has in common, fitted here to the case that suits it least obviously. A white dial gives the Everose nothing to react against, which makes this the most restrained way the reference can be specified.
The Oyster is built from three-piece links with the gold running as a single continuous center line between broad flat sections of brushed steel. It is the plainer of the two bracelets and the one showing the least warm metal, and it is stiffer across its width as well, so it holds a fixed curve and the watch sits squarer on the wrist. A larger case carries more weight, and a bracelet that bends less distributes that weight across less of the arm, which is why an Oyster tends to wear exactly its stated size while the Jubilee wears slightly smaller. Above it the rim is Everose gold cut into flutes, a band broken into repeating angled facets that catch light in sequence. Those two components pull in opposite directions, which is what makes the combination work: the bracelet is broad, matte and cool, the bezel narrow, cut and warm. The dial is a plain white with gold Roman numerals standing at the hours, and it is the highest-contrast unset combination the reference offers after black. White and gold separate completely in any light, where gold on chocolate separates by height and shadow and gold on slate by a narrower margin of tone. A Roman numeral also holds more metal in the same footprint than an applied baton does, so a full set puts a surprising amount of warm metal inside the crystal on a dial that otherwise contains none. That is what keeps this configuration from reading as a steel watch outright, since the bracelet is mostly brushed steel and the only other warm elements are the rim and the crown.
Hours, minutes, running seconds and a date advancing in a single step at midnight rather than easing into the day that follows. The self-winding movement in the 41mm case holds roughly seventy hours of running time, a longer reserve than the smaller Datejust cases carry, and the practical consequence is that the watch survives a weekend in a drawer. 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 rather than eleven; ten still name their own positions and nothing about the layout depends on the missing one. On a white ground the window is also less disruptive than on any other dial the reference builds, since a white date disc against a white ground is nearly continuous with it and only the frame marks the break. At forty-one millimeters the characters are printed larger than the same set at any smaller size, and a full Roman set is a crowded thing on a small dial and an open one on a large one. Between the pale ground and the extra room, this is the most straightforwardly legible watch in the family. The seventy-hour reserve belongs to the same generation as that case size and is the specification most likely to be noticed without looking for it, since it covers a weekend in a drawer where the movement that preceded it did not.
White carries no metal preference anywhere in the range. It is built at 28mm, 31mm, 34mm, 36mm, 40mm, 41mm, 42mm and 44mm, on cases in steel, in all three two-metal combinations and in solid gold in every tone, which is more reach than any other ground the catalogue offers. What changes is the marker set. At 31mm it comes with Roman numerals only; at 36mm and 41mm both arrangements exist; here the split is by metal, with the two Everose references taking numerals and the other four taking both. That follows the wider rule on this reference, where grounds made for the alloy take applied markers, borrowed grounds take Roman numerals and slate takes an arrangement of its own with a baton at nine. Within the reference white is one of eight grounds and one of six carrying no stones. The smooth twin 126301 builds the identical eight, so the rim is the only difference between them. Counting both bracelets, a white Roman dial in this metal at this size exists in four watches and no more, which is a narrow field for the most widely built ground in the catalogue and worth knowing when comparing listings that use the same dial name across dozens of watches.
This is the plainest watch the reference builds. No stones, no color, and the more restrained of the two bracelets, on the only dial in the range with no relationship to any particular metal. What is left is proportion and legibility, which at forty-one millimeters is a reasonable thing to be left with. The fluted rim is the single ornamental element on the piece, and against a plain dial it is easier to read as ornament than it would be on a busier watch. Anyone who wants the warm metal to register more strongly should take the Jubilee, where the gold is broken into three strips across the wrist. Anyone who wants a dial with some depth in it should take the slate or the bright black, both built on this reference and both changing with the light where this one does not. And anyone who wants applied markers on a white ground will have to move to one of the four references at this size that are not Everose.
