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Yuki Matte 1016 Dials


jmb

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Does anybody have a guess as to what circa the Yuki matte dials are based from?  Got a couple of the yellow lumed ones on order (white is out of stock - AGAIN) and was curious as to what serial number range I should use...

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when i was trying to find one to draw off, i noticed they are all over the place. yuki's one is probably a mashup of different eras? it's actually pretty inaccurate. i think people accept it because that cluster of text below the crown has good sizing. the rolex lettering itself i think is probably closest to the 60s - 70s.

watch out yuki's current white ones in eta form. they look like the ones he was selling a long time ago before the styling of the ones seen in the yellow lumed ones.

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No, I don't think that will be the end.  They run out of the white ones quite often.  They ran out last month, got some back in and a week later they were out of stock again!

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Q...  "Does anybody have a guess as to what circa the Yuki matte dials are based from?"

A...  "when i was trying to find one to draw off, i noticed they are all over the place. yuki's one is probably a mashup of different eras?"

 

More than likely the right answer.

 

From VRF:

-early matte “frog” logo orange yellow patina dial
-serial 144xxxxx
-66 caseback

 

From  "A Rolex Collector's Resource"...

"While there has never been an official statement of why Rolex moved from gilt to matte dials in the latter half of the 1960’s, the latter seems to exude the ‘tool watch’ vibe that Rolex aspired to inspire — while (likely) keeping production costs low. These dials have a pebbled black background printed on a copper plate. The text, minute, and hour markers are then overlaid in white and tritium lume is applied on top. While definitely a less intensive process than galvanic printing, the continual tweaks Rolex made over the long production run of the matte 1016 (1966-1989) means the variations are anything but simple."

 

Some more 1016 info on the same site:

https://explorer1016.com/matte/service-dials/

 

Chrono24 has a boat load of them to look at:

https://www.chrono24.com/rolex/ref-1016.htm

 

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"The more I stare at them the more they all look the freakin' same!"

 

I know what you mean.  I have a couple from Yuki that I got 5 or 6 years ago and a couple from 'Stilty' from about 10 or 11 years ago plus one supposedly from IG44.

They all look the same from a couple feet away but up close the IG44 and Stilty dials are a tad better.  The Yuki dials are pretty good though.

 

For comparison, I have a nos 1016 trit dial and truth is the replicas are all pretty good compared to the genuine dial.  After the crystal gets seasoned from knocks and dims the details a little bit, the replica dials are fine with me. 

I have a 'Stilty' dial in my JMB 1016 and it looks very good (to me anyway) except for the 6 hole clasp on Mary's bendover oyster bracelet.

 

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i think helenarou only has 26mm and 29mm eta dials. 26mm will be too small for jmb case. if a 29mm dial fits, could be an option to go for a custom print with helenarou assuming she can work off a blank?

yuki still has stock on the better print 1016 dials in white for cal 15X0 movements if you want to go the remove dial feet route.

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