Rolex 6105 in pink gold with black épargne dial

This Rolex 6105 in pink gold carries a black épargne dial, and these dials were highly complicated to produce.

The minuterie and the “Swiss made” signature were created with the épargne method. The dial was then treated in a black galvanic bath and protected with “sapon”, a translucent lacquer used against oxidation. The signature “Rolex Oyster Perpetual” and the “Officially Certified Chronometer” wording were applied with the décalque doré method, using red gold powder on top of the sapon.

On this example the sapon has been “eaten” by the radium lume over some seventy years, which adds a great deal of character. The back of the dial shows all the correct details of an original dial: the indexes are fixed by “pickage” and then levelled by “limage”, a method used at the time. These same techniques – épargne, pickage and limage – can be seen on famous dials such as the Bao Dai.

See also the Rolex 6105 pink gold, black épargne dial in our collection, and more on Rolex.