Like many other weird and only sometimes wonderful designs and material choices, wooden dials were a true product of the 1970s, even though they trace their origins further back. If you spend any time at all scrolling through vintage watch listing, you’d have undoubtedly come across a wooden-dialled 1:1 fake Rolex Datejust or two, perhaps even a Day-Date. But all of these replica watches online date back to the ’80s, which left me wondering – how about a modern watch with a wooden dial? Surely, that has to exist?
Wooden heyday
Before delving into current happenings, I wanted to recap some of my favourite wood-dial watches from the past. As is often the case with collectible vintage watches, perfect replica Rolex is king here, with a multitude of dial options across three main model lines. By far the most appreciated is the Day-Date, and there are few vintage aaa quality Rolex fake watches that I like more than the Oysterquartz, and this walnut-dialled 19018 is particularly great.
If you wanted something a touch less flashy, you could always go with a Swiss made fake Rolex Datejust, namely the ref. 16019 and its stunning dark burl dial. What’s especially cool about this particular reference is that it’s not actually steel, but rather white gold. There’s just something about a white gold watch, especially a rare vintage one, that screams IYKYK – but does so quietly, of course. To turn up the quirk to the max, there were also top super clone Rolex Cellini and Cellini Midas references with wooden dials, complete with geometric case and lugless design.
In my likely everlasting search of a real lapis-dialled Swiss movement fake Cartier Tank (not the blue-painted one – if you know of such a thing, please contact me), I’ve come across a bunch of strange models. The Tank Organic definitely tops that list, though. Sporting wooden panelling akin to a 1980s Chevy station wagon, these are extremely rare, reportedly produced for as short as a year in the mid-’70s, their production run of 3,000 ended by a merger of the two historic offices, and eventual unification under Cartier Monde in 1979. Cartier being cheap super clone Cartier, the signature blue cabochon was replaced with a brown spinel to match the Brazilian rosewood (palissandre de Rio, if you will) panels and dial.
Until researching this article, a brand I was sort of disappointed in for their lack of unique wooden dials was Universal Genève. Sure, there were a couple of round best quality fake watches here and there, but nothing nearly weird enough to warrant further searching, which in my opinion, is a must when it comes to something like a wooden dial. Then I stumbled across this – the reference 111010. The elliptical case and butcher’s block dial pattern are just… awesome. Jeez, as a writer you’d think I’d come up with a better description. In any case, the seller states that this is the only example of this watch they’ve ever come across, and a semi-thorough Google search reveals it to be true. Just like with the high quality replica Cartier – UG experts, please do weigh in with your thoughts in my DMs.
Recent Comments