Feta1 Posted January 13, 2008 Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 I just picked up a rolex Day Date SS rep. I know that Rolex only makes them in yellow gold, white gold, and platinum. My question is if I want to get the bracelet to have a white gold look is there anything I can do? Would a cape cod cloth do the trick? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxrAndy Posted January 13, 2008 Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 Well it will make it shine nice but it wont change colour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gioarmani Posted January 13, 2008 Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 A good buffing will definitely help. I got this bench grinder from Home Depot for only around $40 and replaced one grinding wheel with a buffing pad, and bought some jewelers rouge from Amazon: Here's what my Presidential looked like after a good buffing: http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=46397&hl= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted January 13, 2008 Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 Nice shine, Gio, but no amount of buffing will change the (cool) color tint of steel to match the (warm) color tint of gold. Nothing short of gold plating will do & I have not found a good source for that yet. This looks promising, but I do not see a white gold option listed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feta1 Posted January 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 Nice shine, Gio, but no amount of buffing will change the (cool) color tint of steel to match the (warm) color tint of gold. Nothing short of gold plating will do & I have not found a good source for that yet. This looks promising, but I do not see a white gold option listed. I don't know... I went to the Rolex website to get a picture of the gen and mine looks pretty darn close.. Here is a pic of the gen I need to dig out my camera and take a picture of mine... but the center links on mine look just like this as do the side ones... maybe it's something I can't see in the color without seeing the gen in person... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POTR Posted January 13, 2008 Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 <cough> "White" Gold <cough> is RHODIUM PLATED. Gio, what's up with those endlinks bro? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feta1 Posted January 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 <cough> "White" Gold <cough> is RHODIUM PLATED. Gio, what's up with those endlinks bro? So what would be best to polish up those center links? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchwatcher Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 as someone correctly pointed out, in order to get a 'white gold' appearance, you would need to purchase a rhodium plated rep (which is available from the better collectors) and will run you probably $300-400. No matter what you do to stainless steel it oxidizes so quickly that even after a thorough polishing it will return to a greyish cast within a few days. here's a DD which is rhodium plated, i don't know if a picture really does it respect, but you notice the difference immediately when you are wearing it -- much whiter than ss: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archibald Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 <cough> "White" Gold <cough> is RHODIUM PLATED. Gio, what's up with those endlinks bro? Some WG watches are rhodium plated. You'll have to research whether or not Rolex does it. FM, for example, does not.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POTR Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 White Gold is a mix of gold and palladium and/or nickle... Nearly all white gold jewelery is Rhodium plated. Rhodium is related to platinum and palladium and is similar in characteristic color. As a plating material it is HARDER and much more durable than gold. Unplated "white" gold usually causes more allergy reactions due to nickel leeching than plated... Unplated "white" gold is also "cheapskate" white gold as it is cheaper (Rhodium is roughly 5 times more expensive than PLATINUM, and 10 times more expensive than Palladium)... I would like to see where any jeweler or watchmaker proclaims that their "white" gold is unplated... and their reasons for not doing so. The only situation where you can achieve the "proper" "white" gold color without plating is with a very high ratio of palladium (1/2 the price of gold, where's my discount?) or nickel (where's my bigger discount and where's the Doc? my wrist is rotting...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archibald Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 White Gold is a mix of gold and palladium and/or nickle... Nearly all white gold jewelery is Rhodium plated. Rhodium is related to platinum and palladium and is similar in characteristic color. As a plating material it is HARDER and much more durable than gold. Unplated "white" gold usually causes more allergy reactions due to nickel leeching than plated... Unplated "white" gold is also "cheapskate" white gold as it is cheaper (Rhodium is roughly 5 times more expensive than PLATINUM, and 10 times more expensive than Palladium)... I would like to see where any jeweler or watchmaker proclaims that their "white" gold is unplated... and their reasons for not doing so. The only situation where you can achieve the "proper" "white" gold color without plating is with a very high ratio of palladium (1/2 the price of gold, where's my discount?) or nickel (where's my bigger discount and where's the Doc? my wrist is rotting...) Somewhere in the archives there's a thread in which I quoted from a Watch Time article on white gold, including a list of companies that rhodium plate--almost all of the companies mentioned exclusively use paladium gold (rolex I believe uses a small amount of platinum in all their gold, more in their white gold) and companies that rhodium plate are in the minority . I only remember the two watch companies that I was interested in at the time, FM and JLC: neither rhodium plate as a trip to the AD or at least a quick google image search will demonstrate. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raijor Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Unplated white gold will exibit a slight brown / grey color. I have and brushed unplated white gold wedding band and it even appears to be a light yellow gold in some light. As noted almost all white gold jewellery and watches are plated with Rhodium to give the stunning white gold color. Most people will never notice that your watch is not white gold and may even assume it to be platinum if they do not assume it is fake before that simply because it is Rolex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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