An opaline dial is a watch dial electroplated with silver, which gives it a slightly iridescent colour. The silver coating gives the dial a gentle shimmer. The sheen is faint and opalescent, close to the soft lustre of a fired enamel dial.
How does an opaline dial get its shimmer?
The effect comes from the silver itself. Electroplating leaves a coating with a fine, grainy texture. That texture throws faint shadows and soft reflections, so the surface shimmers instead of shining flatly. Look at the dial through a loupe and the grain of the electroplated layer is plain to see. Not every opaline-style dial is made this way. Some makers start with a solid gold dial and bead-blast it to raise a similar texture, with no electroplating involved.
Where it comes from
The name is borrowed from glass. Opaline is a milky art glass with a faint iridescence, and it was itself named after the opal. The glass came from Murano in Italy and was most popular during the Art Deco period. Watchmakers took the word for a dial finish with a similar soft, slightly iridescent look.
Not to be confused with
Opaline glass. The name suggests the dial is made of glass, but it is not. An opaline dial gets its look from silver electroplating, and the glass only lent it a name. This can cause confusion. The name has also spread to another colour. Gold-coloured, or salmon, dials are sometimes described as gilded or gold opaline dials. That label is borrowed from the silvered opaline dial.
Which watches have opaline dials?
Laurent Ferrier’s Classic Origin Opaline has an opaline silvered dial made the traditional way. Tudor introduced a version of its Black Bay GMT with an opaline dial in 2023. Neither dial is made of opaline glass, despite what the name suggests. In both, the word describes how the surface looks: a soft shimmer rather than a flat shine.
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