All Mother of Pearl Dials are one-of-a-kind items. An identical dial will never be seen on another person’s wrist. Some may envision a stormy sky brewing in its reflections and others might see it as a wintery scene with glistening layers of snow all around. You might even see ocean waves with ripples, currents and frothy textures and colors, or even rocky mountain cliffs with layers of different colored stone.
The Mother of Pearl Dials are not only unique, due to its natural fingerprint produced by the shell it came from, but also due to the artistry that may enhance or add to its luster once gemologists start to add their creative imprints on it.
How Are Mother of Pearl Dials on Watch Dials Made?
Mother of pearl dials are first extracted from the iridescent lining found in the inner surface of seashell mollusks… most often Oyster, Mussel, and Abalone shells. It is different from a gemstone because it is far more fragile and also comes from an actual living organism.
The mother of pearl substance is made from aragonite. It is a form of calcium carbonate which is secreted by the mollusk as part of a defense mechanism against irritants. Over time the irritant is solidified against the inner wall of the shell with layers of texture.
There are many resulting natural colors produced by the mother of pearl shells. The most common is white or off-white coloring. However, there are also many other colors including Red, Silver, Black, Blue, Green, Yellow and Grey.
Mother of Pearl is rare and hard to harvest especially since Abalone mollusks are illegal to farm, due to its limited supply due to over-farming.
It is important to note that Mother of Pearl is not at all developed from actual Pearls found in Oysters. Mother of Pearl is less rare than actual Pearls because most molusks produce mother of pearl, but only a small percentage actually develop pearls.
When watchmakers decide to use mother of pearl as the dial for the timepiece, they first have to select the shells which have a large enough surface to provide a circular dial. Molusk selection is difficult and tedious not unlike selecting the perfectly sized and colored gemstones for the timepiece.
Once the perfect Molusk shell is determined, it is often difficult to then produce a slice of the iridescent shell without causing breaking or cracking of the slice. Mother of Pearl is extremely fragile and cracks easily especially since the thin sheets used for a dial are only .2 mm in thickness.
Once the desired shape is cut – most often circle shaped, but sometimes square or rectangular shaped then the disk goes to the artists who work to enhance the mother of pearl. The disk is often painted with varnish or lacquer to add strength and enhance the beauty of the natural substance.
Decorative motifs are often added to the mother of pearl dials. Sometimes patterns are engraved on the surface. Then cut outs are made to make room for the various apertures including for the Date window, or a small-seconds dial. Extreme care must be taken to keep the mother of pearl from cracking, chipping or breaking during this process.
The artists then work to add the numerals or luminescent hour markers to the new dial. Finally, other accents such as the brand name (example: Rolex) symbols and other lettering are added along with diamonds or other embellishments.
Due to the extensive process required for bringing a mother of pearl dial into a timepiece, it naturally sets a limit for the amount of such dials that can be produced each year, due to the limited number of time and gemologists available to work on these projects. Therefore only a few thousand watches are produced each year with mother of pearl dials.
Rolex Daytona Mother of Pearl Timepieces
The Rolex Daytona with a mother of pearl dial creates a unique look since the dial itself is absolutely one of a kind. The Rolex Daytona itself is already a hard to come by timepiece, but by adding the mother of pearl dial it separates itself from other Daytona timepieces since the mother of pearl makes it a unique work of art that will never be copied. In addition, depending on its origin and the part of the shell that is extracted, this dial can be unique shades of a color or multiple colors.
If you look at some of the mother of pearl examples above you can see that there are often shades of pink, green, and blue on the same dial even though the overall color might be considered an iridescent white. The dial may reflect colors of the surrounding area, and even produce different colors depending on the angle you look at it.
Although plenty of mother of pearl timepieces are offered by Rolex in the Datejust lineup, the mother of pearl dials on a Rolex Daytona are actually quite rare. In fact, right now on the Rolex site you would not be able to find a mother of pearl dial on any of its timepieces. The closest product to the mother of pearl is actually its meteorite dial, which is clearly a completely different look than mother of pearl.
Pictured above is one of the most distinguished Mother of Pearl Rolex Daytona timepieces – the model 116523. It features a white Mother of Pearl dial with diamonds, stainless steel, and 18K gold Oyster watch bracelet, and an 18K gold engraved tachymeter bezel (40mm).
The black mother of pearl Rolex Daytona reference 116503 is another stunning timepiece with shades of purple infused into the black clouds of the 40mm dial. The hour markers are diamonds surrounded by yellow gold. Produced in 2021, it features Rolex’s newest caliber 4130 with a 72 hour power reserve. It also has a Paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring to reduce magnetic interference inside.
Below we can see the Rolex Daytona “Beach” collection with the reference 116519. It comes with 4 different color Mother of Pearl Dials including Blue, Pink, Green and Yellow and a matching alligator band to accentuate the mother of pearl embodied on the dial. These timepieces came out in the early 2000’s and have an 18k white gold case. Although it is 40mm it is considered to many as a “women’s timepiece” even though traditional timepieces made for women are generally much smaller in size. Pre-owned Beach Daytonas are fetching anywhere between $80,000 and 160,000 today.
Rubber B Provides Bands for the Rolex Daytona
Whether you have a Mother of Pearl Rolex Daytona with an alligator band, or another Daytona, Rubber B has multiple band options to fit your needs. These bands are custom designed to attach to the Rolex case and several models support the Rolex deployant buckle.
Rubber B bands, like Rolex timepieces, are made in Switzerland of the finest materials available. Rubber B utilizes vulcanized rubber which is the finest rubber made. Infused with color, Rubber B rubber is made to last since the color is integrated right into the manufacturing process. It is not sprayed on or coated which could cause chipping or flaking of the color afterwards. Rubber B bands are made to last and to support a wide range of sports and athletic activities including swimming and diving.
For more information on the Rubber B band options for the Rolex Daytona visit our page here.
