What is an "Exclamation" Dial?

By Charlie Dunne

There is an abundance of terminology when it comes to vintage Rolex watches. An “exclamation” dial is quite simple. The term derives from the luminous plot, and rectangular luminous plot on vintage Rolex sports models (except in the case of Explorer reference 1016s, it features a dot below the 6). The rectangle plus dot resembles an exclamation point.

“Exclamation” dials can be seen in models from circa 1962 and are believed to be an indicator for a lower level of radium / radiation for the hands and dial. Just after these “exclamation, we see “underline” dials from circa 63-64 where the dial and hands feature a line somewhere below the text believed to indicate the use tritium without any radium. As in many things, there is an exception to the rule: there are only a few examples of an unusual Rolex Explorer reference 1016 that has both an underline and an exclamation dial that are known to exist.