I got the chance to look at a few and the difference is pretty big. Does anyone know what's so difficult about it? The numbering material behaves pretty oddly. It's super reflective! From my days doing material digitization for video games engines, I only recognize two materials that behave the way rolex bezel numbers seem to: certain preparations of silver or other highly reflective metals, and moon dust. The silver achieves it purely due to high reflectivity causing interreflection when it's roughed up like that (which is why silver watch dials look white). Moon dust looks the way it does because of the structure of the particles of dust. Unlike Earth dust, which is round from weathering, moon dust is microscopically jagged. This causes moon dust to be both diffuse and slightly retroreflective at the same time, which in graphics we model with Oren-Nayar roughness.
There are a few materials on earth that are microscopically jagged like moon dust that could theoretically be used as paint pigments to make the bezels look like that, but they're generally not used because they can cause lung damage like asbestos when dry, so I'm guessing it's some sort of really rough, really reflective metal that looks white, like a silver watch dial. Does anyone have any insight into how they're made?
There are a few materials on earth that are microscopically jagged like moon dust that could theoretically be used as paint pigments to make the bezels look like that, but they're generally not used because they can cause lung damage like asbestos when dry, so I'm guessing it's some sort of really rough, really reflective metal that looks white, like a silver watch dial. Does anyone have any insight into how they're made?
Last edited:
