Colored Dials In 2026: It’s Not All Black And White

Earlier today, Tudor did something pretty bold: they released a new model of the Black Bay Chronograph, but in a smaller, 39mm x 13.1mm case, although that wasn’t the most daring part of the release. That was the dial color: yellow, which is an unusual color choice for modern watches in general.

The dial color was striking enough that I thought I would look and see what my own collection looks like, and it is pretty monochromatic: lots of black dials, some white dials, but almost no actual color – I have a Bulova “Devil Diver” with an orange bezel and dial, and a Citizen Tsuyosa x seconde/seconde, and that’s sort of it (I have wanted an orange dial Doxa for many years and for reasons unclear even to me, have never gotten one). This made me curious about what the most widely used dial colors are, and also, how tastes and preferences have changed since wristwatches went mainstream (or not).

As it turns out, different dial colors are of course, not exclusive to particular categories, but some colors are much more popular than others, and while there are trends in dial colors the basic choices have remained remarkably stable for many decades. The appetite for the market for brightly colored and even multicolored watches has its ups and downs as well, but market preferences in specific colors have stayed consistent, with one major exception based on some of the sources I’ve looked at.

White Dials: Purely Simple, Simply Pure

White dials seem to be the traditionalist’s favorite; the idea of a single daily wear watch has given way for lots of collectors, to idea of having several different watches for different occasions – a simple three watch collection might consist of a dressier watch if not an outright dress watch; a sports watch or field watch with a tough steel case and good water resistance; and perhaps to round things out, a small complication like a triple calendar or chronograph. These could all be white dial watches, but if only were to have a white dial, there’s a good chance it would be the dress watch.

A quintessential example is the Cartier Santos, which was originally produced by Cartier at the dawn of the 20th century. The watch was designed by Louis Cartier for the aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, who was an early pilot of both lighter than air-ships, and conventional airplanes, and who asked for a wristwatch so as not to have to use a pocket watch.

The design has had thousands of variations since then, and over the history of the model you can find it with just about every dial color imaginable, but with this piece, except for the modern precision-engineered bracelet, when you look down at your wrist you’re basically seeing what Alberto Santos-Dumont would have seen on his wrist in 1904.

Watch writers like to point out that the Santos was therefore, the first pilot’s watch – this, however, was back in bygone days when there was nothing eccentric about being a wealthy socialite like Santos-Dumont, as well as a pioneering flyer. Today’s tool watches overwhelmingly look as functional as possible, but this was an elegant adventurer’s watch for a more civilized age. See it here. 

Black Dials: No-Nonsense Practicality

White dials were overwhelmingly preferred in the market after World War II; Marcus Siems, writing for Goldammer.com, notes that while white dials were the top choice after World War II, but as the idea of a dress watch began to give way to the idea of an every day wristwatch that you could wear anywhere, and that was tough enough for a no-nonsense guy’s guy, sports watches with black watches became the favorite, and have been so ever since.

This a Longines Legend Diver, and it came out in 1959 when recreational scuba diving was really taking off, and when the idea of exploration in general – of the Poles, of outer space, and eventually even the Moon – were big parts of the larger conversation. Mechanical watches at that time went from being either essential articles of dress, or instruments produced for specific military purposes (aviators, underwater combat swimmers, and military units in general) to being essential pieces of equipment and were expected in many cases, to be able to tolerate environments that would be destructive to a traditional dress watch.

Black dials, the generous use of lume, meaningful water resistance, and clearly marked dials all made such watches much more versatile than a dress watch, and today black is not just chosen specifically for its utilitarian functionality – it’s the choice by default for many manufacturers and customers. See it here. 

Blue Dials: Modern Luxury

Blue dials were very rare in the years after World War II, but they began to become more and more popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when an intersection of innovation in dial design with watches like the Royal Oak, and the Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse, with  widespread print marketing campaigns, began to make the color not just a niche, but an actual aspirational color.

Like Andy’s “cerulean” sweater in the famous monologue from The Devil Wears Prada, blue has become a major visual code for luxury, in no small part thanks to the skyrocketing fame and subsequent discontinuation of the steel Patek Philippe 5711 (and its return this year for its 50th anniversary, in platinum). Over the last ten years, it’s become a close third to white and black dials, and of course, it’s not restricted to luxury or luxury sports watches.

Still, there is nothing like a strong design and a blue dial – the combination really makes the design stand out from the crowd, as you can see from the Nautilus and the Royal Oak. Here’s an example from this year: the reborn Cartier Roadster, which has a design influenced by some of the great sports car coachwork of the 1950s and 1960s (hence the name). The success of the design isn’t completely dependent on the dial color, of course, but in blue, there’s a sensuous three dimensional quality to the watch that really says, top down and open road. See it here. 

Green Dials: A Trend Goes Mainstream

Green dials have been trending so strongly over the last five years that Tim Mosso said last year, on camera and on the record, that “Green Dials Are Over:”

… and bet that they would be taken over as a trend by glass box sapphire crystals. While green is no longer the shade du jour that it once was, it has instead, like blue, become part of the standard vocabulary of watch design and has become a widely available choice (although still not edging out blue, black, and white).

The IWC Ingenieur Automatic 42 Green Ceramic is a great example of green doing something it would be difficult for another color to do, which is be used in the same material (green zirconium oxide, a modern engineering ceramic) for the bracelet and case, and the same color across the dial, without the use of color detracting from the instrument-watch feel that’s part of the attraction of the Ingenieur. This isn’t to say that it wouldn’t work in blue, or even red, but in a subdued matte green, it feels like an extension of the technical history of the Ingenieur, rather than a departure from it. See it here.

Yellow Dials: The Happy Face

The smiley face emoji 🙂 and its many variants has been around for so long that it’s hard to remember that someone designed it – a designer and ad man named Harvey Ross Ball, who in 1963 was paid $45 bucks for the design which was commissioned by an insurance company to use in morale-raising material for its employees. I don’t think it was an accident that the background color was yellow – Ball, who did the design in less than ten minutes, knew the color was likelier to cheer up a sad day than blue or red or green. For sure, it’s a high visibility color; so much so that there’s a study that shows yellow taxis have fewer accidents than blue ones.

The NOMOS Club Campus Starlight is a case in point – the “error free” dial was originally invented to improve legibility but here, it is a counterpoint to a lemon yellow dial bright enough to stop the rain and part the clouds. The watch does also show that when you’re using a color that draws the eye so strongly, you need a few strong, clear design elements that can stand up to it, but that also don’t make it too complicated visually. You can easily imagine a perpetual calendar watch with any of the other dial colors we’ve looked at, but a highly complicated yellow watch is a tall order. Which explains why, if you’re going to try it, your best shot at succeeding is to really lean into it:

The De Bethune “Yellow Tones” is, as they say, just what it says on the can. The yellow here is just on the dial; the entire watch is a deep golden color, thanks to the extensive use of heat tempered titanium.

So what’s the color trend in 2026? If there is one, I think it’s a retreat from some of the really bright, strong, saturated colors we’ve seen in the past, and as colored dials have become more widespread, the actual saturation has been toned down for broader appeal. The now-years-long mainstreaming of vintage watches has also made white, off-white, and silver dials more popular. It’s interesting though, to consider thinking about dial color a little bit more consciously when thinking about adding to a collection – black and white, and to a lesser extent blue, are as popular as they are for a reason, or for several reasons including versatility; if you’re not careful a yellow watch can wear you instead of the other way around, and it’s a harder color to style, certainly.