Slate inside a fully set Everose gold case is the least likely combination in the reference and the most interesting one to argue about. Reference 128345RBR is the 36mm Day-Date in Everose gold with a diamond-set bezel, and this configuration adds a diamond-set President bracelet beneath a grey sunray dial carrying diamonds in gold settings and baguette-cut stones at six and nine o'clock. Warm metal, cool dial, white stone on every surface around it. Fully set watches are usually built on dials that agree with the case; this one is built on a dial that does not, and the tension is the whole reason it exists.
The 36mm case is Everose gold, the alloy Rolex developed in 2005 so its copper content holds the pink tone permanently rather than fading toward yellow. The bezel carries diamonds in place of the fluting the Day-Date normally wears, and the President bracelet is set as well, a considerably harder operation because the links flex constantly and every stone has to survive that, which is why factory-set bracelets are made in far smaller numbers and why bracelet setting is where aftermarket work most often fails. The slate dial is a sunray, brushed radially from the center so it runs from a light grey at one angle to a deeper charcoal at another, and on a fully set watch that movement is what keeps the dial from disappearing into the brightness surrounding it. Hour markers are diamonds in gold settings rather than white metal, so each stone sits inside a warm ring and carries the case tone onto a cool field, with baguette-cut stones at six and nine supplying a second geometry and a vertical axis. The day is at twelve, the date at three beneath a magnifying lens, and the clasp is a concealed folding Crownclasp. A grey sunray carries no color to disguise an inconsistency in the brushing, and surrounded by diamonds on the bezel and the bracelet it has to hold its own against far more reflected light than a plain-bezel watch would throw at it.
Two indications beyond the time: a day of the week spelled in full and an instantaneous date, with secure rapid-setting for both and a stop-seconds function for exact setting. Nothing has been added in seven decades. The Day-Date was the first wristwatch to display the day as a complete word rather than an abbreviation, which needed a disc larger than existing calendar architectures could hold, and Rolex built the movement around that rather than adapting one already in production. Both indications jump instantaneously at midnight. Day discs come in a wide range of languages and are fixed to the individual watch at manufacture rather than selectable afterward, so the language is a permanent specification. Adjustment runs through a screw-down crown with a double sealing system, with no correctors on the case flank and nothing requiring a tool. The self-winding movement carries approximately seventy hours of power reserve, so both calendar indications hold through a weekend unworn. Eleven grounds are built at this reference and that display is identical beneath all of them, so the dial and its markers are the whole of what separates one configuration from another. Slate takes framed hour markers with baguette-cut stones at six and nine, an arrangement it shares with brown ombre, rose and mother-of-pearl, so four of the eleven grounds share it.
Grey and slate dials have been in the Day-Date range for decades and have consistently been ordered by a smaller share of buyers than the warm neutrals, which is why they retain a following among collectors who track the less obvious configurations. Pairing them with rose gold is more recent, since Everose gold only arrived in 2005 and the model's warm references before that were predominantly yellow gold. Combining a cool dial with full case and bracelet setting is rarer still, because buyers at that level of setting generally choose dials that reinforce the metal rather than resist it. Within the Everose gold 36mm range this is the fully set slate configuration of the 128345RBR, above the same dial on a plain bracelet and above the fluted-bezel 128235. Setting the President is the hardest operation on the watch and the component where aftermarket work most often fails, so confirming factory provenance on the bracelet is the first check worth making on any example. Within the reference itself, three grounds take ten baguette cuts, four take framed markers with baguettes at six and nine, two take Roman numerals at those positions and the paved dial takes sapphires, which leaves only three of the eleven grounds available without stones at all. Two of those three are never offered set at all.
This configuration suits collectors who want maximum setting without a warm dial underneath it. That is a narrow position and a coherent one: a grey dial gives the eye a cool center inside a bright warm frame, where a rose-colored or mother-of-pearl dial would let the whole watch run in one direction. It appeals to buyers who find fully set warm-toned watches monotonous, and to established collectors who already own the tonal configurations and want the one that holds something back. The gold marker settings are what keep it from reading as two separate watches joined at the bezel, distributing case tone across the dial in dozens of small points. Slate at this level of setting is ordered rarely, and this pairing of dial, metal and setting turns up far less often than its catalogue position implies. One further point is worth recording, and it concerns wearability. A cool dial widens the range of clothing a warm-metal piece works with, and owners of this configuration report reaching for it more often than for the tonal alternatives at the same level of setting.
