The Rolex Tridor – The Big Brother You Never Heard Of

Watch & Bullion

10 February 2018 | 2 min read

Everybody knows the classic two-tone Datejust, but did you know it’s bigger brother? Let me introduce you to the Rolex Tridor Day-Date, one of the rarest and most creative takes on the iconic presidents watch. Back in the 1980s, a trend surfaced to match the new waves of wealth during the boom market. Gold alone became boring, so to spice things up different types of gold were put together. Sniffing the scent of opportunity Rolex jumped in and created their own take on this fashion trend. Utilising the day-date platform, which is traditionally available exclusively in solid gold, they got to work.

Rolex could have made it easy for themselves, using individual links in different colours, but Rolex being Rolex this clearly wasn’t going to cut it for them. Instead, they made the middle link out of red gold on the outside, white gold in the middle, and yellow in between. To achieve this they had to carefully smelt individual pieces together as only this would allow for perfect lines of different gold running all the way through the middle links of the bracelet.

Unfortunately, the Tridor did not make it into the new millennia, being discontinued after a run of almost 20 years. A shame, as most watches are only available in one metal and the Tridor goes to hint at the pool of creative options which still is untapped. With a recent surge in interest in creative materials for watches being used, there is hope for the return of the Tridor!