1999 Rolex Day Date White Gold Bark Finish Ref. 18249

White Gold Bark       - The Day Date has exclusively been produced in precious metals (with exceptions of a few stainless steel prototypes which we will ignore for this moment) and we estimate more than 75% of all Day Dates to have been manufactured in yellow gold. In the 5-digit era from 1978-1999 Rolex never produced any examples in rose gold so we will ignore those as well for now.  The remaining are in white gold and platinum. The Bark (1807) finish was already introduced in the 1970s and together with the Florentine (1811) and Morellis (1806) were the three models which bear factory case and bracelet decorations. In the later sapphire crystal era then the 1811 and 1806 finish was discontinued and only the Bark (18078 and 18249) was available. The Bark finished references were not produced in big numbers and for sure become much rarer in white gold. The current example is such a watch,  a 18249 reference featuring the double quick set function. The bezel and center links of the bracelet feature the 'wood' like carved decoration referring to the Bark finish. Whereas usually the dial will make a Day Date rare, here the case and bracelet decorations stand out. The carvings bestow the watch with some extra glamour, a glamour that will be very quickly noticed by Day Date lovers as its not seen much around.