Do I swap? White Gold BLRO

[GreatScott]

I just want everyone to know you are all evil.

I really want the blue face now.

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[Stevec14]

I don’t, but my own thought without seeing would be that it might clash too much with the other hands. The red automatically differentiates as the gmt hand (for me anyway).

In any case, I prefer the black on a personal basis, but think the blue looks a lot better in some of these photos than I initially thought. If I owned one of these and had some other black watches I’d be seriously tempted, not least from the rarity perspective.


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[Navarino]

I'd go with the blue. Plenty of opportunities to pick up a black dial Rolex. Can't say the same for a flat blue dial. I think it works well with the BLRO. I'll admit I didn't think so when the watch was first announced at Basel this year. After seeing some "real" shots of people wearing it now, I'd take it over the old black.

[AK797]

Originally Posted by Stevec14

I’d go black if an only watch, blue if there are other black dials in the collection.

[JacksonStone]

Originally Posted by SG56

I have still to see an official announcement. The watch is listed on the website.

This comes up every time there's discussion of a disco. In this regard, the website is useless. There are multiple examples of watches that were actually discontinued, but that still appeared on the website until Basel. Two examples include the SD4K and the black-dial WG BLRO. Both watches were all but officially confirmed as discontinued, but skeptics kept saying, "It's on the website," like that actually meant something. Then Basel rolled around, and they were gone.

Conversely, when both the LVc and BLNR were rumored to be gone, the website was right, but that was only evident once we got far enough past the rumor to realize it wasn't true. In the initial stages of trying to suss out what's going on, the website can't be relied upon to tell us much. In the case of the SD4K and black WG BLRO, ADs were actually told by their reps to mark their master catalogs that those models had been discontinued, and were told to stop taking orders. To my knowledge, that never happened with either the LVc or BLNR. In those two cases, it was more misinterpretation of other information.

A mid-year disco is harder to nail down, since we know there isn't some definite point (like Basel) where information will come to light. However, precedent shows that the website often lags behind what ADs get legitimately informed of by their reps when it comes to the ability to order models.

[Md001]

No i wouldn't, personally i have a thing for black, maybe another color for another watch, but not this.

[jonnyz1245]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

OP of this thread was OP of another thread where it was discussed a bit more if that helps.

I think its movement related too... new movement means new reference number. Blue dial and black dial with the old movement had the same number so that makes sense to put the new movement in now that the old movement watches (existing stock) have been sold.

What you say makes sense except for the fact that they still use the 3186 movements in the BLNR and other watches so its not like they have run out of movements.

If they had a stock of wg cases lying around, why not just add the blue dial with the new mvnt? why bother with putting the 3186 with a blue dial only to kill it 6 months and probably no more than a couple hundred blue dial wg watches sent to the AD network? Not one AD I know of in the states ever received a blue dial to sell.

[gmstevenson]

Originally Posted by jonnyz1245

What you say makes sense except for the fact that they still use the 3186 movements in the BLNR and other watches so its not like they have run out of movements.

If they had a stock of wg cases lying around, why not just add the blue dial with the new mvnt? why bother with putting the 3186 with a blue dial only to kill it 6 months and probably no more than a couple hundred blue dial wg watches sent to the AD network? Not one AD I know of in the states ever received a blue dial to sell.

I bought mine from an an AD/Rolex boutique in the US. They said it was the only one they received.

[jonnyz1245]

Originally Posted by gmstevenson

I bought mine from an an AD/Rolex boutique in the US. They said it was the only one they received.

Oh I have no doubt some made it to the US. My sample size was small. Less than 5 ADs I have asked while traveling to different UD cities recently. I try to pop in and take a look around when I have the time and not one said they had seen a blue dial wg gmt.

Congrats on yours! Its a beautiful watch

[hbombkid]

Swap for sure love that blue great color combo.

Man would be awesome if Rolex did complementary dial swaps on all the models that have different dial options.

[Sal_UKSheffield]

Once you go blue you’ll never go “black”

[gmstevenson]

Originally Posted by jonnyz1245

Oh I have no doubt some made it to the US. My sample size was small. Less than 5 ADs I have asked while traveling to different UD cities recently. I try to pop in and take a look around when I have the time and not one said they had seen a blue dial wg gmt.

Congrats on yours! Its a beautiful watch

Thanks. I was just providing the info as a data point.

[Wenga]

I did swop it to blue and kept the black dial , did of course have to pay for the blue dial.

[1William]

I just bought the black dial yesterday as the blue was not an option. If the blue had of been available I am not sure I would have gone there if the black was available. My AD is checking on the U.S. situation with a dial swap and any associated costs and the warranty card. I want the information but am very pleased with the black dial.

[Mr.WorldTimer]

Officially according to RSC London, dial swap is no longer an option as the piece is discontinued.

[Craigdwh]

Originally Posted by Wenga

I did swop it to blue and kept the black dial , did of course have to pay for the blue dial.

I’m leaning towards sticking with black but damn these pictures with the blue dial are sure nice!


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[jcoltrane]

The blue dial makes the WG BLRO a delight to wear, none of the colors can make up their mind what they're supposed to look like. It also would have been harder for me to pull the trigger on this watch if the only visible difference to the SS Pepsi was the bracelet.

[drmizzou]

I’d go for it for sure!

[lee fowler]

Staying with the Black on mine for the minute but will confirm if it can be swapped as I will be meeting the new Rolex UK Sales guy who is taking over from Paul tomorrow!

[jonnyz1245]

Confirmed today with an AD that this is still possible in the US. Watch and warranty card are required for the switch and there is no cost.

Obviously there is no way to tell what Rolex does in the future but am really curious as to whether or not they have discounted the wg blue dial and plan on releasing the basically the same model with a new reference # and new movement or if they discontinued it due to a drop in sales in what was already a very slow seller.?

It makes no sense to have such a limited run of the blue due to wanting to blow through remaining movements. Clearly they are still using the 3186 in other GMT's that sell way more units than the WG BLRO ever has so why not just release it with the new movement back at Basel if the goal was to keep it in the stable? My guess is demand completely dried up upon release of the SS BLRO. The black dial WG BLRO was a very slow seller across all markets since its release. I know of AD's that had them sitting in their cases for 2-3 years.

Thoughts?

[FSUGeoff]

Yes

[gmstevenson]

Originally Posted by jonnyz1245

Confirmed today with an AD that this is still possible in the US. Watch and warranty card are required for the switch and there is no cost.

Obviously there is no way to tell what Rolex does in the future but am really curious as to whether or not they have discounted the wg blue dial and plan releasing the same model with the new movement or if they discontinued it due to a drop in sales in what was already a very slow seller.?

It makes no sense to have such a limited run of the blue due to wanting to blow through remaining movements. Clearly they are still using the 3186 in other GMT's that sell way more units than the WG BLRO ever has so why not just release it with the new movement back at Basel if the goal was to keep it in the stable? My guess is demand completely dried up upon release of the SS BLRO. The black dial WG BLRO was a very slow seller across all markets since its release. I know of AD's that had them sitting in their cases for 2-3 years.

Thoughts?

It is anyone's guess but I suspect the blue dial GMT may be done. If they were going to continue to produce it with the new movement then I don't see why they would wait. The case is the same so they could just drop in the new movement, update the reference number, and continue production. I have been told by ADs that demand for the WG version came to a standstill after the announcement of the SS version. My bet is that they had the additional WG cases and decided to release the blue dial to distinguish from the SS but once the cases ran out they pulled it. I also suspect if they continue with a white gold GMT in the line up next year it will be in a new configuration entirely (possibly a coke?) to further distinguish it from the stainless steel.

[jonnyz1245]

Originally Posted by gmstevenson

It is anyone's guess but I suspect the blue dial GMT may be done. If they were going to continue to produce it with the new movement then I don't see why they would wait. The case is the same so they could just drop in the new movement, update the reference number, and continue production. I have been told by ADs that demand for the WG version came to a standstill after the announcement of the SS version. My bet is that they had the additional WG cases and decided to release the blue dial to distinguish from the SS but once the cases ran out they pulled it. I also suspect if they continue with a white gold GMT in the line up next year it will be in a new configuration entirely (possibly a coke?) to further distinguish it from the stainless steel.

I think you are right. Every AD I have visited over the last 4 years have said that the WG version was an extremely slow seller and remained so throughout its run. I also guessed and you confirmed that once the SS was released, the demand for the WG essentially fell off a cliff. They just look too similar and Rolexes strategy with PM models is always to have them look significantly different than their SS counterparts. Interesting guess on them releasing a WG Coke to further distance themselves from the Pepsi. Only problem there is what do they do in 3-4 years when they release a SS Coke? My guess is they are done with WG GMT altogether. Perhaps a Platinum with glacier blue dial is in the cards?

[johnnyjazz]

I think you should do the swap. As others have said, Rolex might have made a certain amount of blue dials to 1.Distinguish it from the steel model.
2.Offer it to existing black dialled owners for the same reason
3.Give AD,s a better chance of selling hard to move black dialled
that would be changed to blue, again for the same reason.
I think Rolex will continue with a white gold GMT with newer movement. As to the dial and bezel colour, who knows.

[Craigdwh]

Originally Posted by johnnyjazz

I think you should do the swap. As others have said, Rolex might have made a certain amount of blue dials to 1.Distinguish it from the steel model.
2.Offer it to existing black dialled owners for the same reason
3.Give AD,s a better chance of selling hard to move black dialled
that would be changed to blue, again for the same reason.
I think Rolex will continue with a white gold GMT with newer movement. As to the dial and bezel colour, who knows.

All very valid and reasonable observations.

Wouldn't a white gold Coke bezel be amazing?

[brandrea]

I prefer the black dial.

[jonnyz1245]

Another thing to consider is if you do swap to blue, sourcing a black dial down the road will be much easier to do. You could then have a watchmaker switch them out whenever you feel like mixing it up for a while. There are most likely hundreds of thousands of black GMT dials with the BLNR being in production and the BLRO etc.

My vote is to do the switch!

[Pongster]

Is this a decision (to do the swap for free) by each RSC? Or is it an official Rolex policy?

[venkersteell]

The blue dial being slightly different then the blue bezel would bother me. I'd say stick with black. It's such a classic color combination with the Pepsi bezel.

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[Rbrand]

personally i would stick with the black