Rolex has invented another gold

Rolex makes its own gold. It has its own foundry, and it has form here: Everose, introduced in 2005, exists because ordinary rose gold fades as its copper content oxidises, and Everose does not. Jubilee Gold, launched this April, is the newest alloy in that line, and it arrives on the Day-Date 40 — reference 228235JG — beneath a green aventurine dial.

Why bother

Because an in-house alloy is a moat. Anyone can buy 18ct gold; nobody else can sell you Everose or Jubilee Gold, and a proprietary metal turns a material into a model name. It is also, quietly, a way to keep raising prices in precious metal while the steel sports models remain rationed.

The dial deserves its own paragraph

Aventurine is glass with copper particles suspended in it, cut and polished like a stone. Every dial is different, it photographs badly and looks extraordinary in person, and it has been creeping across the Rolex catalogue for several years. Green aventurine against a warm new gold is not a subtle combination, and the Day-Date has never been a subtle watch.

Our read

Precious-metal Day-Dates have been the quiet performers of the last three years while attention sat on steel. A brand-new alloy on the President, in its debut year, is exactly the kind of thing that looks obvious in hindsight. If you are buying one to keep, buy the first year.