Olive green under a fully set case is a combination that should not work and does, largely because olive is a green with brown in it rather than a saturated one. Reference 128395TBR is the 36mm Day-Date in Everose gold with diamonds set into the bezel and continuing onto the lugs, and this configuration pairs that setting with an olive green dial carrying applied Roman numerals and no stones set into the dial. The green is deep and muted, considerably darker than the bright greens Rolex uses on its sports models, and against Everose gold it produces a warm pairing that neither yellow nor white gold would give.
The 36mm case is Everose gold, the alloy Rolex introduced in 2005 with a stabilized copper content so the pink tone stays fixed rather than drifting toward yellow across decades. The TBR designation marks the setting arrangement: diamonds replace the bezel fluting and continue onto the lugs where the case meets the bracelet, which alters the watch in profile as much as from above, since the stones follow the case line down rather than stopping at the bezel edge. The olive dial is deep and matte-toned, and with nothing set into it the surface depends entirely on the applied Roman numerals for structure. Those numerals are gold, standing above the dial with enough relief to cast shadow, and each character carries internal angles that must be cut and polished individually. On a dark dial surrounded by that much bright stone the contrast between the two is unusually stark, and it is the reason the configuration reads as graphic rather than as decorative. The day is spelled in full at twelve, the date at three beneath a magnifying lens. The President bracelet is Everose gold with semi-circular three-piece links and a concealed folding Crownclasp. Olive is a green with brown in it, so under direct light it reads clearly as green and under low or diffuse light it darkens toward brown and can pass for a dark grey dial entirely, which is a wider swing than any neutral ground shows.
The complication set is a day of the week spelled in full and an instantaneous date, with secure rapid-setting for both and a stop-seconds function for setting the time precisely. Nothing else, 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 layouts could hold, and Rolex designed the movement around that rather than adapting one already in production. Both indications jump instantaneously at midnight rather than dragging through the transition. Day discs are available in a wide range of languages and fixed to the individual watch at manufacture rather than selectable afterward. Adjustment runs through a screw-down crown with a double sealing system, with no correctors on the case flank and nothing that requires a tool. The self-winding movement carries approximately seventy hours of power reserve, so both calendar indications survive a weekend off the wrist. Eleven grounds are built at this reference and the display holds across all of them. Surrounded by stones on the bezel and the lugs, the tonal instability of an olive dial is amplified, because the setting stays constant while the ground does not. That is a characteristic of the ground rather than a fault in this configuration, and it is the reason olive reads differently across a day than any of the neutral grounds the reference builds.
Green has moved from a rare color in the Rolex catalogue to a central one over the past two decades, and olive is the least assertive version of it, closer to the muted tones used on Day-Date dials in the 1970s than to the bright greens now associated with the sports references. Rolex offers it without dial setting across the Everose gold range, on the fluted-bezel 128235, on the 128345RBR in both bracelet treatments, and here, which makes the unset dial a consistent decision rather than an anomaly. Within the Everose gold 36mm range the 128395TBR sits at the top of the setting arrangements, above the 128345RBR with its set bezel and no lug stones. The lugs take more contact than the bezel, since that is where a case meets a cuff, and Rolex cuts the seats directly into the gold rather than mounting a plate, which is why factory lug work survives wear that aftermarket setting does not. Olive green is one of three grounds at this reference that can be had without stones and one of two never offered set at all, while eight grounds exist in set form alone. Only brown ombre is listed both plain and set, which makes it the single ground here offering the choice.
This is bought by collectors who want the maximum setting arrangement in the range and a dial that refuses to participate in it. That is a specific taste and a defensible one, because the alternative at this level is a watch that reads as a continuous bright surface with no focal point. A dark unset dial gives the eye somewhere to stop, and the Roman numerals give it something to read once it gets there. It appeals to buyers who find gem-set dials excessive under a set bezel, and to collectors who want a green Day-Date that stays a dress watch. Olive is ordered less often than the brighter greens and considerably less often than the neutrals, and combining it with the lug setting narrows the field further still. One further point bears on the watch, and it concerns what the unset dial buys. At this level of setting the alternative is a watch that reads as one continuous bright surface, and a dark plain dial gives the eye a place to stop, which collectors who notice it tend to find they cannot unsee afterward.
