2,171 articles · 66 videos found · page 25 of 75
The Rolex chronograph born on the racetrack. History, references and specs.
The first self-winding waterproof wristwatch with a date window - and the reference Rolex.
The 1953 Rolex diver. James Bond's watch and the template every dive watch copies.
Founder of Rolex (1905) and Tudor (1946). Invented the Oyster case and the Perpetual rotor.
Monochrome
Considering its position as the leader of the Swiss watch industry, it’s fair for Rolex to be the centre of all attention. As such, everything The Crown does is subject to comments, opinions and discussions. Every new model, something that’s happening most of the time only once a year, will be up to strong debates. […]
Monochrome
Retracing the history of iconic watches has long been a fascinating yet difficult task. Things are even more complex regarding Rolex, a rather discreet company that has hardly ever communicated its history and the origins and evolution of its emblematic models. Retracing the history of a Rolex collection was until now a task for historians […]
Fratello
Welcome to this latest episode of Fratello Talks. Does modern Rolex still have the magic? That’s the question that Nacho, RJ, and Thomas tackle today. There’s no question that modern Rolex watches are reliable, luxurious timekeepers. But for many enthusiasts and collectors, nothing quite comes close to the magic of the older four- and five-digit […] Visit Fratello Talks: Does Modern Rolex Still Have The Magic? to read the full article.
Hodinkee
Let's roll.
Quill & Pad
When the dust settled on the 2016 Phillips Start-Stop-Reset auction of stainless steel chronographs in Geneva, an extremely rare Rolex Oyster Zerograph Monopusher Flyback Chronograph stood out from the very strong field.
Quill & Pad
The last two decades have witnessed regular Rolex engineering advances, often in plain sight and in rapid succession. Despite these developments, Rolex remains a brand defined not by movements but by continuity, model families, and the Rolex image itself. Tim Mosso thinks that the root of Rolex’s soft-pedaled reputation for movement virtuosity lies in the company’s own branding strategy. That and more in this third installment of Rolex's history of movement technology.
Quill & Pad
From the public’s perspective, Rolex’s surge into its movement revolution began with the now anachronistic-sounding Basel 2000 World Watch, Clock, and Jewelry Show. But the evidence of a long-term engineering campaign was mounting at the patent office and in the dealers’ showrooms as this article by Tim Mosso highlights.
Time+Tide
If you're struggling with finding a rubber strap for your steel sports Rolex, here are a few options you should consider.The post Yearning for an Oysterflex but Rolex hasn’t granted your wishes yet? There are plenty of others to choose from appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Quill & Pad
If you want to love Rolex, but you love mechanical movements more than you love watch brands themselves, rejoice: Tim Mosso thinks that we are living in the halcyon days of Rolex movement innovation and shares a few well-illustrated technical and movement highlights right here.
Hodinkee
Sitting next to Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour, this may be the unofficial "soft launch" of the watch in the wild.
Hodinkee
All that and more in this week's edition of Hodinkee's what's selling where column.
SJX Watches
A watch known to insiders but largely unknown, the original Rolex Daytona “Rainbow” came long before the modern-day version that arrived at Baselworld 2012. It was a ref. 16599 equipped with the cal. 4030 based on the Zenith El Primero that was produced sometime in the 1990s. Now the one-off “Zenith Rainbow” is going under the hammer at Phillips come November when the auction house stages Reloaded, a thematic sale dedicated to watches made between 1980 and 1999. Having been owned by a well-known collector for several years – the same gentleman sold another record-setting Rolex at Phillips several years ago – this ref. 16599 has a bezel set with sapphires in a rainbow graduated due, along with a diamond pave dial with blue sapphire hour markers. I happened to meet the prior owner of this watch and he related the story of how he came to possess the watch. Knowing that backstory, the lavish stone setting and almost-bespoke nature of the watch certainly makes sense. Today’s Rainbow in Everose, the descendent of the ref. 16599 Estimated at over CHF3 million, the Daytona “Rainbow” will be sold on November 8, 2024 in Geneva at the Hotel President during Reloaded: The Rebirth of Mechanical Watchmaking, 1980-1999. The auction catalogue will be available closer to the date of sale.
Revolution
Fratello
Let’s face it: 2024 didn’t come loaded with optimism from brands, so we weren’t expecting big changes. Watches and Wonders was filled with evolutionary timepieces and studied tweaks, and the most surprising releases of 2024 so far caught us napping. It might have taken less to surprise me this fairly quiet year, but I’ve still […] Visit More Surprising Releases Of 2024 - Unexpected Wristwear From Rolex, Omega, Credor, And More to read the full article.
Hodinkee
All that, and more in this week's round-up of vintage (and sometimes modern!) watches from around the web.
Hodinkee
Ben and I catch up with the actor and director on what he's collecting nowadays.
Fratello
Rolex surprised us all when the brand launched a Submariner with a green bezel in 2003. The stainless steel Sub was steadily monochromatic during the five preceding decades, so this was a bit of a shocker. The model was soon nicknamed “Kermit.” More than two decades later, it seems green is here to stay. We […] Visit Comparing Green-Bezel, Black-Dial Subs: 16610LV “Kermit” Vs. 126610LV “Starbucks” to read the full article.
Fratello
This Monday morning, it is all about making crucial “bling” decisions. Not too long ago we had the pleasure of going hands-on with two diamond-set versions of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona in white gold: the reference 126589RBR with a “Panda” mother-of-pearl dial on an Oysterflex bracelet and the reference 126579RBR with a “Reverse Panda” “MOP” […] Visit It’s An “Icy” Monday In August With Two Diamond-Set Versions Of The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona to read the full article.
Fratello
Is there ever a good moment to buy a Rolex? These watches are just so popular they simply won’t go down in value. Or at least not in any dramatic way. But there are certainly better and worse times to buy one. Watch prices on the secondary market have decreased since the market stabilized after […] Visit Putting The Pre-Owned Spotlight On Prices Of Current Rolex References to read the full article.
Quill & Pad
When Rolex put the Sky-Dweller Caliber 9001 in a Rolesor case in 2017 (“Rolesor” is a Rolex term for stainless steel and gold) and dropped the price down to $14,400 Chris Malburg became a player. And, as he soon discovered, so were a goodly number of other Rolex admirers. Here is why he bought this watch and what happened then.
SJX Watches
Arguably the most prestigious Rolex wristwatch, the Oyster Perpetual Day-Date was introduced in 1956 and has only ever been available in precious metals – with the exception of a handful of prototypes in stainless steel. From its beginnings the Day-Date had a particular significance in the Rolex catalogue. The brand’s advertising from the 1960s for the Day-Date carried the phrase “Men who guide the destinies of the world of the world wear Rolex watches”. It was also during this time that the now-familiar “President” nickname for the model emerged when American president Lyndon Johnson, along with several of his successors, were photographed wearing a Day-Date. The Oyster Perpetual Day-Date ref. 6611 of 1956 The Day-Date was the first wristwatch to indicate the date as well as day of the week spelled out in full, a technical feat at the time. In the near-seven decades since, the Day-Date has remained consistent in terms of design and function: the date sits in a window at three o’clock, while the day is displayed within the arc-shaped window at 12 o’clock. Though the dial layout has stayed the same, the mechanics behind the display have been refined and improved substantially over the years. Today’s models – namely the Day-Date 36 and Day-Date 40 – are powered by the cal. 3255. The movement boasts all of Rolex’s technical innovations, along with a double instantaneous calendar display, where both the date and day indicators jump instantaneously and s...
Hodinkee
The founder of Analog Shift and co-founder of RedBar joins to talk vintage and neo-vintage watches, Doxa (of course), and working with Watches of Switzerland.
Hodinkee
Nat Geo, Mission Blue, and the Laureates, too.
Worn & Wound
History is a double edged sword for a budget conscious collector like me. The nerdy half of me loves to get caught up in the horological space race of 1969 and participate in the 1953 drama of debating if Smiths or Rolex wore it best on top of Everest. But while my romantic side finds joy in history, the frugal collector in me has some reservations. This side of me knows that the watch industry is in constant flux as it adapts to new technologies, reacts to wars and navigates economic shifts. It’s the side of me that acknowledges brands brimming with pedigree did not weather this history unchanged, and can’t help but notice the value from those shiny new microbrands with seemingly no history to offer. What is a collector to do when they have a romantic enthusiast on one shoulder telling them the story behind a watch matters and a frugal cynic on the other asking if a plastic chronograph is really worth a premium because its metal counterpart went to the moon? Personally, rambling blog-style until coming to some sort of conclusion aimed at making sense of an often nonsensical hobby has never steered me wrong. Provenance vs Pedigree: A Collector’s Dilemma Historical watch conversations often focus on provenance, which can most simply be defined as the story behind a specific watch. Provenance is what separates Paul Newman’s Daytona from every other “Paul Newman” Daytona. It’s what makes Buzz Aldrin’s out-of-this world, misplaced Speedmaster worthy of obsessio...
Fratello
We are back with another series of Fratelli Favorites. After a few more accessible price points, we are now looking at the best watches under €10K - or, at least, our favorites under €10K since this will always be highly subjective. As is often the case, I get the honor of kicking things off, leaving […] Visit Fratello Favorites: The Best Watches Under €10K -Thomas’s Picks From Rolex, Zenith, And IWC to read the full article.
Teddy Baldassarre
Sometimes, our editorial meetings produce the sort of nerdy, off-topic conversations that make us pause and say, "Wait, this should be an article." Okay, more than sometimes. As our team grows, it's become clearer that we should be sharing our takes (hot, cold, or lukewarm) here on the site for your reading pleasure – or just to stir the pot a bit. Today's topic of choice is the idea of expressing what we each would consider to be a one-watch collection. It's important to note that these picks are purely subjective and derive from the minds of our editorial staff. Our hope is that this thought exercise gets you thinking about what a one-watch collection might look like for you. So with that in mind, enjoy this story and let us know what you think of our choices in the comments! Danny Milton, VP of Content Not to spoil anything, but the team really went for it with the picks in our first real editor’s roundup here at Teddy. It’s hard to argue with any of the choices because – well – they represent the tastes and opinions of each individual writer. My approach to something like a one-watch collection is complex, perhaps unnecessarily so. My instinct tells me to go Rolex, but then I start to think about scenarios in my life in which I think “maybe I am not comfortable with a Rolex here.” It does happen. So then my mind delves into the more attainable price segment where I want to identify something bulletproof, something that packs undeniable value. If you’re ...
Monochrome
Back in April, the Rolex Deepsea 136668LB was one of the most talked about watches of Watches & Wonders. The Deepsea has always been Rolex’s biggest and boldest dive watch (until the 50mm wide Deepsea Challenge 126067 came along that is, but we’ll ignore that for now). It takes the iconic design codes of the […]
Fratello
I have just returned from my summer holidays (in Austria), where I brought a handful of watches to wear. Typically, I travel as light as possible. Especially when leaving the EU, I try to bring one watch to prevent problems with customs. This time, staying within the EU, I brought four watches with me: the […] Visit Fratello Favorites: The Best Summer Watches At Three Different Price Points - RJ’s Picks From Swatch, Rolex, And Blancpain to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
Ever since humans began exploring the ocean’s depths, watch companies have been creating timepieces capable of withstanding the pressures of SCUBA diving. In the 1950s and 60s, companies like Blancpain, Rolex, and Omega raced to create watches with the greatest water resistance. However, a small collaborative brand outdid them all with a watch capable of reaching a depth of 1000 meters. It took Rolex well into the next decade before they made a watch that could go beyond that. One of those collaborators was Ollech & Wajs, and the legendary timepiece was named the Caribbean 1000. Roughly thirty years later, when the internet was still in its early stages, if you were searching the web for dive watches, there’s a good chance you came across New Old Stock (NOS) Caribbean 1000 watches by Ollech & Wajs or Jenny. In its heyday, O&W; produced nearly 10,000 watches per year. There were still quite a few unused watches available, and collectors were thrilled to have access to them. Despite barely surviving the quartz crisis of the 1970s, Albert Wajs remained in charge until 2017, when the brand was sold to Charles Le Menestrel. Since then, the brand has been revived with reimagined models from the past, such as the Caribbean. To celebrate its 60th anniversary, O&W; is launching the most authentic reproduction of the original Caribbean 1000 to date, the C-1000 A. From its short, triangle-shaped lugs, affectionately referred to as ‘Vampire fangs’ by collectors, to its narrow 12...
Fratello
Welcome back to another episode of Fratello On Air! This week, we ask: What the hell is so special about Rolex, anyhow? Sure, the brand has been discussed heavily, but having had recent Submariner experiences, both hosts hash out what makes these watches so fantastic. For our faithful listeners, the watch content begins at approximately […] Visit Fratello On Air: What’s So Special About Rolex Anyhow? to read the full article.
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