About this watch

Reference 124300 is the Oyster Perpetual 41, which is the Rolex with nothing on it: no date, no bezel function, no complication. Hours, minutes, seconds and a case. That absence is the entire argument. The bezel is smooth and domed, the bracelet is a plain Oyster of three flat links, and the dial is silver with a sunray finish and applied baton markers. There is no Cyclops to interrupt it and no fluting to catch the eye, so what you are left with is a wide expanse of silver that changes brightness as the wrist turns and does nothing else whatsoever. A silver sunray dial simply returns whatever is in front of it, which is why it looks cool grey in some of these frames and near-white in others. In ordinary daylight it sits between the two and runs warmer than any of them suggest. Forty-one millimetres of Oystersteel, screw-down crown, luminous hands and markers, and a self-winding Rolex movement with chronometer certification. The case is the same Oyster architecture that carries the diving watches, which is a great deal more watch than the price of entry implies. Mint, 2021, offered as a full set. A second hand watch that asks very little of whoever ends up wearing it, and gives…