Observations and Takeaways at Watches & Wonders 2026
The biggest booth at Watches & Wonders 2026 (W&W;) belonged to Rolex, as it always does. Looming three stories high, the Rolex booth was home to some of the most talked-about and polarising watches of the fair, as it always is. Rolex took the occasion of the centenary of its water-resistant Oyster case to roll out a line-up of surprising watches, perhaps the most unexpected from Rolex in a while. The collection included a Daytona with a fired enamel dial, Boetti-esque Oyster Perpetual, and a return of the little-loved but technically impressive Yachtmaster II. The vast, three-story Rolex booth. Image – Watches & Wonders In a first, Rolex gave its popular sports chronograph a vitreous enamel dial, or grand feu enamel in watchmaking parlance. The industrial and engineering achievement is impressive; it’s not just a new livery and this Daytona is more than meets the eye. The enamel is melted glass, as is tradition, but instead of a metal base, the enamel is on a ceramic substrate that is in turn mounted on a brass plate. While there is some debate whether the ceramic substrate makes it enamel in the traditional sense of the word, I consider it enamel. The new enamel dial harks back to the “porcelain” dial Daytona of yore More importantly, the key characteristic of the dial is thinness, recording-setting thinness in fact, which means that Rolex has achieved an enamel dial with all of the qualities of enamel, lustre, fade-resistance, colour, without compromising thicknes...
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