Rolex white gold

[Steelfish]

What is the Rhodium plating for? And how durable is it?

[TheDude]

Originally Posted by Steelfish

What is the Rhodium plating for? And how durable is it?

I think Rhodium is also used to color gold white. It's part of the platinum group of metals, I have a few watches claiming "Rhodium plated hands".

From Wikipedia:

Rhodium finds use in jewelry and for decorations. It is electroplated on white gold and platinum to give it a reflective white surface. This is known as rhodium flashing in the jewelry business. It may also be used in coating sterling silver in order to strengthen the metal against tarnish, which is silver sulfide (Ag2S) produced from the atmospheric hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Solid (pure) rhodium jewelry is very rare, because the metal has both high melting point and poor malleability (making such jewelry very hard to fabricate) rather than due to its high price.[36] Additionally, its high cost assures that most of its jewelry usage is in the form of tiny amounts of powder (commonly called rhodium sponge) dissolved into electroplating solutions.
Rhodium has also been used for honors, or to symbolize wealth, when more commonly used metals such as silver, gold or platinum are deemed insufficient. In 1979, the Guinness Book of World Records gave Paul McCartney a rhodium-plated disc for being history's all-time best-selling songwriter and recording artist.[37]