This is the widest reference at its size by a clear margin. Ten grounds and thirteen configurations are built here, against eight grounds on each of the two Everose references, eight on each of the two yellow ones and seven on the steel one. It is also the only reference at 41mm that sets a cool ground, carrying slate and bright blue with diamonds alongside bright black. Reference 126334 is the 41mm Datejust in a combination of stainless steel and white gold, carrying a fluted bezel, and this configuration pairs a plain silver dial with applied markers in white gold and an Oyster bracelet.
The case is forty-one millimeters in steel with a white gold bezel, crown and center links, and the rim is fluted, cut into a repeating series of angled facets. White gold flutes are the quietest version of that rim the model builds, because the cut metal reads as brighter steel rather than as a second color, and from any distance the watch resolves as a single material. The dial is silver, a pale metallic ground returning light rather than absorbing it, with applied markers in white gold standing at the hours. That makes this the most tonally unified configuration on the reference: nothing on it is warm, nothing is a color, and the dial, the markers, the rim and the bracelet all sit within a narrow range of the same pale value. The Oyster is built from three-piece links with broad flat brushed sections at the outside of every link, and those brushed faces are the only matte surface on the watch. On a reflective dial that relief does more work than it would on a dark one, since a reflective ground and a cut rim are already returning light in two directions, and without a plain area somewhere the eye has nowhere to stop and the whole object merges into one bright surface. That risk is higher here than on any other reference at the size, because the white gold in the case is close enough to the steel that the watch has no natural break in it anywhere, and the bracelet has to supply one.
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, from a movement built for this diameter rather than shared with the smaller cases, and that reserve covers a weekend off the wrist. The date sits at three under a magnifying lens, and on a pale ground the window is nearly continuous with the dial around it, so only the frame marks the break. Applied markers are read by position rather than by identity, which means the dial is taken in as a whole and the time comes from the angle of the hands. On a silver ground with white gold markers that is the hardest version of the arrangement the reference offers, because the two share both a brightness and a temperature and separate only by height and by the shadows the markers cast. In direct light the dial reads instantly and the markers stand clear; in flat light it reads slowly. That is the standing trade of a tone-on-tone dial, and it is why most buyers wanting a pale ground take the white instead, built here in both marker arrangements. The seventy hours belong to the current generation of this case and apply across the family, and they are the specification most likely to be noticed in ordinary use rather than on paper.
Silver at 41mm is on five references and skips both Everose ones, and it comes with applied markers only, though both arrangements exist at 28mm and 40mm. That places it among the grounds this reference shares widely rather than among the ones it holds alone. What it does hold alone at this size is the cool end of the catalogue: bright blue and green ombre are built here and on the steel reference and nowhere else in the family, and the set versions of bright blue and slate are built here and nowhere else at all. Three of its ten grounds are offered set, against two on each warm two-metal reference and none on the steel one. It is also one of only two references at this size without a twin, since the white gold combination is built fluted and never smooth, exactly as the steel one is built smooth and never fluted. The four warm references are all paired. Counting both bracelets, a plain silver dial in this metal at this size therefore exists in two watches only, since there is no second rim to move it to. The two yellow references build the same ground, so a buyer comparing plain silver dials at this size is choosing between metals rather than between arrangements.
This is the most restrained watch in the widest roster at its size, which is a slightly odd position to occupy. The reference builds three set dials, two colors and a gradient, and this configuration takes none of it: a pale metallic dial, plain markers and the plainer of the two bracelets, on a case whose second metal is almost indistinguishable from its first. What that buys is a watch that looks like a steel Datejust and is not one. Anyone who wants the dial to separate from the markers should take the white, built here in both arrangements, where a flat ground gives the same white gold markers real contrast. Anyone who wants the reference to show what it can do should take one of the set dials or the bright blue, which are the configurations that make this the widest roster at the size in the first place. And anyone who wants more visible metal at the wrist should take the Jubilee.
