Category Archives: Rolex
The Origin and Birth of the New Generation Rolex Day-Date President
OYSTER PERPETUAL GMT-MASTER II
WORLD TRAVELER CHIC
The famous travel watch, created by Rolex in 1954, benefits from the latest technical innovations. With its new bracelet, this watch is even more refined.
Keeping the time while traveling across the globe is the leitmotiv of Rolex with its Oyster Perpetual GMT-MASTER II. The original model continues to be upgraded through improvements in manufacturing techniques yet still has the same objective: ensuring ease of use and exceptional robustness. Last year, the Pepsi model, so-called because of its red and blue two-tone bezel, integrated a new performance caliber, the 3825. For the first time, this timepiece was combined with a five-link steel Jubilee bracelet. This year, at the latest edition of Baselworld, the brand with the crown launched the famous Batman (reference 126710 BLNR) set apart by its graduated black and blue ceramic dial, with the same features.
As with all Rolex watches, this Oyster Perpetual GMT-MASTER II has the Superlative Chronometer certification which guarantees a precision of -2/+2 seconds.
Price: 8 500 EUR
By Dan Diaconu
OYSTER PERPETUAL YACHT-MASTER 42
THE CALL OF THE SEA
Change in continuity. This is the Rolex watchword with the new models introduced at Baselworld 2019. The Yacht-Master, a professional sailing watch, takes us full steam ahead.
The Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master was first launched by Rolex in 1992 with a new model released in 2015. This year, the brand has produced a version with a large case (42mm wide), watertight down to 100m and made from a solid block of grey gold. The new watch, reference number 226659, arrives in a collection that has hitherto featured models between 37 and 40mm wide. There is nothing revolutionary here from an aesthetic point of view. The watch has all the hallmarks of the brand with the iconic crown logo, with a guarantee of optimal readability. The instantly recognisable hands point towards round indices. All the elements on the elegant black lacquered dial are coated with Chromalight, a lume with a long-lasting blue glow. The dial is encircled by a revolving two-directional fluted bezel, which is topped by a disc made of Cerachrom ceramic. The date display is magnified by the trusty Cyclops lens.
Price: 25,500 EUR
By Dan Diaconu
OYSTER SUBMARINER
THE REFERENCE
Often copied, seldom equalled, it sails across the waves of fashion. We take a closer look at the mythical Submariner watch, a must-have for all fans of the brand with the crown logo.
The Submariner, the first watch to be watertight down to 100m, has been a big hit with fans of underwater adventure since its launch in 1953. It came to wider public notice when Sean Connery wore the watch in Dr No, the first James Bond film, in 1962. Since then, Rolex has added features to the timepiece in line with technological developments, and enthusiasm for the unmatched reference in its category rightly shows no sign of waning. While its design features have changed little, the use of new materials is what really attracts attention to each new model. Today, the round hour markers and distinctive hands are coated in Chromalight, a long-lasting, high-density luminous material. The unidirectional revolving bezel features a disc made of Cerachrom, a tough, scratch-resistant ceramic. Each new model launched by the brand improves the robustness and readability of the diver’s watch.
As for the mechanism, the automatic movement is continually enhanced too, ensuring faultless accuracy. The calibre 3135 comes with a bi-directional rotor for optimal energy conservation in the anti-magnetic Parachrom hairspring. As an extra guarantee of accuracy, the Submariner has the Superlative Chronometer certification, combining COSC and Rolex standards.
Price from 6,850 EUR
By Dan Diaconu
OYSTER PERPETUAL DEEPSEA
A VISION IN DEEP SEA BLUE
Get out your swimfins! The Deepsea by Rolex celebrates a decade of extreme diving by combining interesting technical innovations and a much-awaited design change.
The Oyster Deepsea, the more muscular version of the Sea-Dweller, first launched in 2008. It is Rolex’s professional diving watch and watertight down to 3,900 metres. This year, it has been equipped with the D-blue dial. The dial first appeared on a model launched to commemorate James Cameron’s 2014 expedition to the Mariana Trench, 10,908m below the sea surface, and features a beautiful gradation of colours from midnight blue to black, recalling the colour of the oceans. The new model, the 126660, also differs from its predecessor, the 116660, due to small changes to the sides of the watch case and lugs. The result? The 44mm-wide Oystersteel case now comes with a wider strap featuring a resized safety clasp. Extensions are also available, making it possible to wear the watch over a thick neoprene wetsuit, substantially improving wearer comfort. Otherwise, the new timepiece has kept all the main features, including the helium valve at 9 o’clock and the unidirectional revolving bezel with a disc made of Cerachrom, a type of ceramic developed in-house by the brand with the crown logo.
Like all Rolex watches, the Deepsea has the Superlative Chronometer designation, guaranteeing excellent performances, and a 5-year warranty.
Price: 11,550 EUR
By Dan Diaconu
OYSTER PERPETUAL GMT-MASTER II EVEROSE
EVEROSE’S WARM CARESS
Two new versions made of Everose gold have joined the legendary GMT-Master II collection, with two time zones, a new movement made by Rolex and an original two-colour ceramic bezel.
After a first look at the new Rolex watches, some visitors with lively and gourmet imaginations affectionately dubbed them “ristretto and cappuccino”, since the two Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II Everose watches, with their two-colour Cerachrom ceramic bezel, recall the colour of coffee.
The 40mm-wide Oyster cases are watertight down to 100m and dressed in Everose, a pink gold made by Rolex with lasting radiance. One of the models comes in Oystersteel, a 904L steel, and features a few touches of Everose gold on the bezel, dial, crown and on the central links of the strap. The other is entirely forged in the warm precious metal.
With a total of ten patent applications, the automatic calibre 3285, officially certified as a Superlative Chronometer – a guarantee of quality introduced by Rolex – drives the displays on these two Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II Everose watches and provides a power reserve of 70 hours.
Price: 13,400 CHF (Oystersteel and Everose) – 35,000 CHF (Everose)
By Sharmila Bertin
OYSTER GMT-MASTER II
TIMELESS VISA
With this watch there’s no need to take any excess baggage along during your business trips or holidays! The new GMT-Master II has everything you need to take you from one end of the planet to the other.
First launched in 1954, the Oyster GMT-Master is now a reference in travellers’ watches. The graded 24-hour bezel in the colours of a famous American soda gave it its nickname. And while the recipe for Pepsi is still a secret, the formula that brought success to this timepiece is well known and can be summarised in two words: simple and robust. The version unveiled this year at Baselworld 2018 by Rolex follows in the tradition of the previous models. The 40mm-wide steel case contains a wonderfully simple black dial. The wide hour and minute hands point to XL-sized hour markers. All these elements have a Chromalight coating for optimum visibility. Along with the central second hand, there is the famous fourth, red hand that turns around the dial once every 24 hours. It can be used either to show local time or a second time zone on the revolving ceramic bezel. A date topped with a Cyclops magnifying lens rounds off the time information. And for the first time, the Oyster GMT-Master II comes with a Jubilee-type strap with five steel links.
Like all Rolex watches, the Oyster GMT-MASTER II also has the superlative chronometer certification guaranteeing precision of -2 to +2 seconds a day.
Price: 8,500 EUR
By Dan Diaconu
ROLEX – CELLINI MOONPHASE
MOONLIGHT
As our satellite travels along its orbit, it shows different shapes from crescent to full moon. Rolex delicately recreates the process.
Cellini. While the name pays homage to a talented sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, it also recalls a romantic opera composed by Berlioz in the 19th century. So, what could be more natural than combining a classic watch made by Rolex with watchmaking’s most poetic complication, the moonphase? The 39mm-wide case is machined in a gold, copper and titanium alloy called Everose and houses a delicate white enamelled dial of great simplicity. At 6 o’clock, an enamelled blue disc with a fine intensity stands out. In a starry sky, the full moon, represented with applied chapters made from meteorite, and the new moon alternate cycle after cycle. The self-winding mechanical movement in the Cellini Moonphase powers a mechanism with an astronomical accuracy of 122 years.
With a power reserve of 48 hours, the calibre 3195 deploys its energy so that the rose gold hour, minute and seconds hands keep time with ultimate precision. It also drives a central blue hand adorned with a crescent moon tip showing the date on the dial rim.
This traditional and refined piece comes with a brown alligator leather strap with an adjustable in-house rose-gold folding Crownclasp. Like all the watches stamped with the Rolex crown, the Cellini Moonphase has the Superlative Chronometer certification, a guarantee of performance and robustness.
Price: €24,550
By Dan Diaconu
ROLEX – COSMOGRAPH DAYTONA
RACING ELEGANCE
Three new models have joined the Cosmograph Daytona collection. What do they have in common? Precious metal cases, a Cerachrom bezel and new elastomer straps.
Created in 1963, the Daytona has never ceased to be a subject of watchmaking conversation ever since Paul Newman wore his own watch in the film Winning. This very watch has just made the news after it was sold at an exceptional auction in Geneva for the record-breaking sum of 17.8 million dollars. This year, Rolex is keeping the legend alive with three versions of the Cosmograph Daytona, with one in yellow gold, a second in rose gold and a third in Everose, a rose gold alloy created in the manufacture’s foundry. True to the spirit of the original model, these chronographs provide drivers with great tools. With a tachymeter incorporated in the black ceramic Cerachrom bezel, it is easy for champion drivers to measure their average speed up to 400km/h (or miles per hour, depending on their unit preference). On the dial, we find the counters in tri-compax position to measure shorter time periods in 1/8th of a second.
These Cosmograph Daytona watches are worn with a new Oysterflex strap, adding to their sports style. The straps combine the robustness of a steel strap with the flexibility and aesthetics of their elastomere counterpart. Like all Rolex watches, the three Daytonas have a double certification, from the COSC as chronometers, and from Rolex as “superlative chronographs”.
Price: €26,650 (yellow gold) – €26,750 (grey gold – Everose gold)
By Dan Diaconu