Rolex Didn’t Wear the Crown at Watches & Wonders
There are a few hits amid many duds.
Rolex has long been the biggest watchmaker in the world — status symbol for the aspiring and established rich alike — but never were they more successful than during the 2020-2021 stock and crypto boom, where their Daytonas consistently sold for multiples over retail, and everything was out of stock. In the years since, the first name in timekeeping has tried to go in different directions, appealing to new clients, but it’s all been a mixed bag — a few hits amid many duds — and their 2024 line, unveiled at the Watches & Wonders trade show in Geneva, shows no change.
To start with the best and subtlest watch in the line; their new GMT-Master II, in 40ml, with the oyster or jubilee bracelet. It’s an update to last year’s version, carrying over the black and grey bezel, but now offering this steel watch, rather than all gold. It’s sleek, simple, and has a single touch of color, in the green hand, which is all it needs. Though Rolex’s most popular dive watch comes in many brighter, more famous versions, with various pop-culture inspired nicknames, this is a more sophisticated, mature take and by far my favorite released in years. Expect it to permanently sell out.
Rolex’s entry watch, the 39mm 1908, takes its name from the year that ‘Rolex’ was registered as a brand name in Switzerland — despite actually being founded in London three years prior. It’s a classic, simple watch, and when it was unveiled at last year’s Watches & Wonders was a nice change of pace from its too plain predecessor, the Cellini. This year sees Rolex taking it up a notch, with more sophisticated textures, colors, and materials, courtesy of an ice blue dial — reserved for their platinum watches — and a beautiful guilloche texture. It’s a beautiful timepiece, but it’s a little disappointing to see the entry Rolex only get more stylish by becoming significantly more expensive. Regardless, this takes it in a prettier – though far, far more premium – direction
Rolex Day-Date and Sky Dweller
The Day-Date and the Sky Dweller both have some simple updates too, with a white dial and yellow gold, and black dial and rose gold combination offered on both, and a white dial with silver combination offered exclusively on the Day-Date. None of these five versions are particularly exciting or unique, but with quite sophisticated dial textures, they’re minor improvements.
Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona
The same cannot be said of their extremely unpleasant takes on the Daytona, Rolex’s most iconic model for the modern era, in the form of their Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona. These are chunky white-gold watches, with thick diamond bezels, rather sickly pearl combination dials, and either a Oyster steel bracelet or ‘Oysterflex’ rubber strap, and both are hideous. The less talked about the better, and they are so, so much worse than the Paul Newman homage, LeMan Daytonas, from last year.
Leaving the worst to last, the Rolex Deep Sea should have been left in the depths where it belongs; and given that it’s the size of a diving bell, and made of solid gold, will easily return there if you try diving in it. The Deep Sea is a huge, quite ugly watch and Rolex only made it heavier, and even uglier, by putting it in a garish yellow gold case, with a contrasting vivid blue dial. Only the utterly tasteless will buy one; but thankfully for Rolex, the crypto bubble is reinflating, so they should have no trouble selling them.
