White is the one dial on this case that makes the gold do all the work. It carries no color, no metallic component, no figure and no gradient, so nothing on the surface competes with the case around it, and a yellow gold watch with a white dial reads as a gold watch in a way that a champagne or a green one does not. It is also the widest ground the model offers, appearing on more references than any other unset dial, in all four case metals and at both sizes. Seven of the ten grounds on this reference belong to yellow gold alone; white belongs to everybody, which makes it the fixed point against which the metal-specific dials can be judged.
The ground is flat, opaque and constant, and that constancy is what separates it from champagne. A champagne dial changes value continuously with the light and a white one does not, holding the same reading in a dark room and a bright one, so the only thing that changes across a day is the behavior of everything set against it. Applied markers in gold stand proud of the surface with polished faces, and against white they are unmistakable at any distance, since a polished gold marker on a white ground is close to the highest contrast the model produces without resorting to stones. The day aperture at twelve and the date window at three are framed in gold and sit on a surface that matches the printed discs behind them exactly, which is possible here and on almost nothing else in the roster. The case is 36mm in yellow gold with the wide flat lugs and low band standard to the model, the bezel is set with diamonds around its circumference, and the President bracelet runs from the case in polished three-piece links with a concealed clasp. White also sets a standard the rest of the watch has to meet. On a ground with no depth and no variation, any softness in the printing or any inconsistency in the applied markers shows immediately, because there is nothing on the surface to draw the eye away from it. The minute track runs unbroken around the outer edge and the text is held to the minimum the model requires.
This is the configuration in which the calendar works with no compromise at all, and it is worth understanding why, because every other dial on the reference is managing some version of a problem this one does not have. The day and date are printed on separate discs whose background has to match the dial. On a metallic ground no printed disc can follow the range; on a gradient the match is approximate by necessity; on a stone or a shell it is impossible. On flat white it is exact, so the openings read as parts of the dial rather than as insets placed into it, and the frames are decorative rather than corrective. The day is written out in full at twelve rather than shortened to three letters, and the date sits at three under a lens set into the crystal. Both indications change instantaneously at midnight rather than creeping through the preceding hour, and the movement carries roughly seventy hours off a full wind. Everything is operated through the crown, with no correctors interrupting the case band. Eight grounds are built at this reference and white is the only one the catalogue never offers with stones on the dial. Champagne and green ombre can be had either way, and the remaining five exist in set form alone, so a plain face here comes down to a single ground.
Ten grounds are offered on yellow gold at 36mm and only three of them travel outside the metal: white, mother-of-pearl set with diamonds and the paved dial. Five of the ten are set-only and have no plain form anywhere in the model, which leaves a buyer who wants an unset yellow gold Day-Date at this size choosing between champagne, green ombre and white. Within that group white is the only one offered in two marker treatments, applied here and Roman on a separate configuration, so it is the sole plain ground on the reference where the buyer gets a second decision. Three references carry the roster in full, 128238 with a fluted bezel, 128348RBR, which splits further on the bracelet, and this one, with identical dials across all three. A collector settles the ground, then the bezel, and on white alone the markers as well. White also anchors a comparison across metals that nothing else on this case permits. The same ground appears on platinum, on white gold and on Everose, so four Day-Dates can be set side by side, identical in dial and differing only in the metal around it, and what each case does becomes visible directly. Only the paved dial and mother-of-pearl offer the same reach, and mother-of-pearl fails the test, because the shell takes on the tone of whatever it is fitted to. White stays where it is.
White with applied markers on a yellow gold case is the most conventional watch this reference makes, and the set bezel is what stops it being an entirely conventional one. The dial belongs to the oldest idea of what this model is, a plain legible field with gold indexes and a calendar, and the ring of stones sits on top of that idea rather than emerging from it. Some collectors want exactly that friction and others find it unresolved; there is not much middle ground. What is not in dispute is the wearability. This is the easiest dial in the roster to read at a glance, the least dependent on light and angle, and the one that will look identical in ten years to how it looks now, since there is no material effect to age and no finish to shift. For a buyer who wants a yellow gold Day-Date to be worn daily rather than selected for occasions, it is the correct dial and the set bezel is the indulgence.
