If one enquires from The Rolex Watch Company about the so called "Cream/Ivory" dial Explorer II Ref 16550, the company will tell you that it does not exist. So if it does not exist then what is all the fuss about?

Well, unintentionally, it does exist. I say unintentionally because in reality the dial colour was supposed to be white, but due to some fault in the paint used by the Rolex watch Company, the dial left the factory as cream or Ivory colour. Thus the Cream/Ivory colour Explorer II was born. They were made in the mid 1980's, probably from 1984 to 1986, with either a 8 or 9 million serial number and only a small quantity of watches were actually sold. The reason for this was quite simple: they were not popular at all. This Model Reference also came in a black dial version and later on in a white dial version (1986-1988).

In recent years, Rolex Collectors have been chasing the price of this model, driving it higher and ever higher. As with most things in life, as the price and demand of an article rises, fraudsters move in to take advantage of the less knowledgeable and easy preys. Many White dialled Explorer II Ref 16550 have been "converted" to the rarer Cream/Ivory colour model simply by focusing a ray of hot light or even sun light for long periods on to the dial.

Here are a few things one should look out for when examening a Cream/Ivory dial Explorer II Ref 16550:-

1) The dial has white gold surroundings on the hour markers, compared to the black paint surroundings on todays modern day version. See scan.

2) On the bottom of the dial it is written : Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified. The space between "Superlative" & "Chronometer" must be aligned exactly with the space between "Officially" & "Certified". Whereas on the converted dials this alignment does not exist. See above Scan.

I hope this article will help collectors to be more vigillant when purchasing a Cream/Ivory dial Explorer II Ref 16550.