Slate changes both its size and its metal family between its two forms, and nothing else in the range does that. Left plain it is a 40mm dial on platinum and white gold. Set with diamonds it is a 36mm dial on Everose, and on no other metal at any other size. So the two versions of this ground share a name and almost nothing else, and a buyer looking at a set slate dial is not choosing a treatment of a ground they could have had plain in the same case. They are looking at the only slate the smaller size offers and the only slate a warm metal ever receives.
The ground is a flat cool grey with no metallic component and no gradient, holding one value from any angle and in any room. On Everose that produces the most direct temperature opposition available on this reference, because rose gold is the most assertive of the four case metals in the range and grey concedes nothing to it. The stones do specific work in that arrangement. Hour markers are set into gold surrounds with baguette-cut stones at six and nine, and on a mid-tone ground the gold outlines separate from the field at both ends of the light range, where on a pale dial they would wash out and on a very dark one they would be the only thing visible. Slate sits in the middle, which is why the framed arrangement suits it better than an unframed ring would. The bezel is set with diamonds around its full circumference, the case is 36mm in Everose gold with the low band and wide flat lugs standard to the model, and the President bracelet closes it in polished semi-circular links. Grey is the hardest neutral to get right on a dial, because it has no natural reference point. A white ground is judged against white and a black one against black, but a grey can drift warm or cool by a small amount and read as a mistake rather than a decision. This one is pitched slightly cool, which is what lets it hold its own against Everose instead of being pulled toward the case, and the consistency across the surface has to be exact for that to work. Any unevenness in the finish would show as a warm patch and the argument of the dial would collapse with it.
A mid-tone ground makes the calendar easier than a pale one and harder than a dark one. Printed discs match a flat grey closely but not perfectly, since grey has no depth to absorb a small error the way black does and no brightness to swamp it the way white does, so the frames carry a share of the work in making two flat inserts sit convincingly on the surface. The day is spelled out in full at twelve in words rather than three-letter abbreviations, which fixes the width of the upper opening across every dial in the model, and the date sits at three under a lens set into the crystal. Both indications change instantaneously at midnight rather than creeping through the hour before. The movement carries roughly seventy hours off a full wind, enough to cover a weekend off the wrist. Everything is set through the crown, with no correctors interrupting the case band. Eleven grounds sit at this reference and every one of them carries the same day and date display, so what a buyer chooses between is the ground and the stones on it. Slate takes the framed hour markers with baguette-cut stones at six and nine, an arrangement it shares with three other grounds here.
Twelve grounds are offered on Everose at 36mm and seven exist on this metal alone: blue-green set, brown ombre in both forms, eisenkiesel set, green aventurine set, rose set and slate set. Only white, mother-of-pearl set with diamonds and the paved dial reach all four metals, with olive green and silver set reaching three. What distinguishes the Everose exclusives from the yellow gold ones is their character: yellow gold takes applied colors, champagne and the greens and dark grey, while Everose takes stones and gradients, eisenkiesel and aventurine and the brown ombre. Slate is the outlier in that group, a flat applied color on a metal whose other exclusives are mostly materials. Three references carry the roster, 128235 with a fluted bezel, 128345RBR, which offers a diamond-set bracelet as well, and this one, with the set bezel and the standard President. Slate is also the clearest example of how little the names in this range can be relied on. The plain version at 40mm sits on the cool metals and takes applied markers. The set version at 36mm sits on Everose and takes gold surrounds with baguettes at six and nine. Slate ombre is a separate ground again, Everose at 40mm with Roman numerals. Three treatments carrying variants of one color, spread across two sizes, three metals and three marker arrangements, with no overlap between any of them. A buyer who likes the idea of a grey Day-Date has to work out which of those three watches they actually mean, because none of them can be had in the configuration of another.
Slate on Everose is chosen by collectors who want a rose gold watch that does not announce itself as one, and it is the most effective configuration on the reference for that purpose. Grey absorbs the reflected warmth coming off the case rather than amplifying it, so the dial stays cool under any light and the watch reads as restrained from a distance even with a set bezel and set markers. The alternative on this metal is white, which does the same job less interestingly, since white has no character of its own and grey does. What makes slate worth the choice is that it is a considered neutral rather than an absence of color, and the gold marker surrounds are what keep it from tipping into austerity. For a buyer who owns an Everose Day-Date with a warm dial already, or who wants one and does not want a rose-on-rose watch, this is the ground the range built for exactly that.
