Close your eyes and picture a Rolex sport watch. Chances are, the watch you’re thinking of has a black dial. But that wasn’t always the case.
When Rolex first introduced a trio of sport models we know and love today – the Explorer, the GMT-Master, and the Submariner, all launched between 1953 and 1955 – it quickly standardized around black dials. In the early years of these models though, there was a rare breed of dial: the white “albino” dial.
These are curious and ridiculously rare dials – we’re probably talking less than 20 or 25 known watches across Submariners, GMT-Masters, and Explorers from the ’50s and early ’60s. As much as the rarity, they’re just damn cool-looking watches. And lately, I can’t get these albino dials out of my mind.
