Rolex: New Watches 2023

FEATURE: LONG READ

Words by ROBIN SWITHINBANK

Around this time each year, Rolex – the world’s best-known luxury watch brand – introduces a collection of new watches. Typically, there’ll be a fresh material spin on a classic favourite, a new case size, and the sort of mechanical movement upgrade that accelerates a Rolex watch away from the chasing pack. At Watches and Wonders Geneva this week, there’s been some of that – but, there have also been some huge surprises, including an all-new model, a totally unexpected premier on a bestseller, and a watch with 31 emojis on it. Here are my highlights.

Oyster Perpetual 31mm, 36mm, 41mm

Surprises are everywhere this year at Rolex, not least of all with its Oyster Perpetual. It’s now got a turquoise lacquered dial dotted with multi-coloured bubbles, dubbed the ‘Celebration’ motif. If the bubble colours are familiar, it’s because they’re in the candy pink, turquoise blue, yellow, coral red and green hues that were used as solid dial colours in the collection introduced in 2020. Under that poppy, deliciously vital mosaic of colour are the same exacting credentials that have made the Oyster Perpetual so popular. Superlative chronometer movements, waterproof Oystersteel cases (to 100 metres) and a three-link Oyster bracelet with an Easylink comfort extension link finish the job. Expected? No. Memorable? Yes. Desirable? You bet.

ROBIN SWITHINBANK, CONTRIBUTING WATCHES EDITOR

“Surprises are everywhere this year at Rolex, not least of all with its Oyster Perpetual”

Oyster Perpetual 31mm, 36mm, 41mm

Perpetual 1908

Recognise the name? Neither did anyone else when Rolex unveiled its 2023 roster at Watches and Wonders Geneva earlier this week. The 1908 is a new collection with a new name and a new look. This is of the classic, modestly dressy variety – a position formerly occupied by Rolex’s outgoing Cellini – achieved via a 39mm case in 18-karat yellow or white gold that’s surrounded by a gently fluted bezel. It slides onto the wrist at a slimline 9.05mm thick. Doubling down on the classic vibe is a small-seconds at 6 o’clock, which is backed by a particularly modern mechanical movement, calibre 7140, new this year and visible through a transparent case-back. As well as accuracy, it promises benchmark reliability thanks to Rolex’s cornerstone developments, such as the hyper-efficient Chronergy escapement, and the hyper-resistant Syloxi hairspring and Paraflex shock absorbers. Perpetual 1908, incidentally, is a nod to the year Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf settled on a name for this company – one he hoped people would find easy to remember. Mission accomplished.

Cosmograph Daytona

It’s been 60 years since Rolex’s all-conquering Cosmograph Daytona hit the road running, but that’s not really the story this year. Instead, it’s that Rolex has fixed a sapphire crystal case-back to the platinum version of its iconic chronograph – a first for an Oyster Perpetual watch.

This piece signals a newly refined, new-generation Cosmograph Daytona collection (there are Oystersteel, 18-karat yellow and Everose gold versions, but with solid case-backs), and showcases Rolex’s new calibre 4131 chronograph movement, right down to its 18-karat yellow gold rotor and patented Rolex Côtes de Genève movement decoration.

“This piece signals a newly refined, new-generation Cosmograph Daytona collection”

Day-Date 36

Rolex has made an emoji watch. With a puzzle motif on the dial. It’s wildly unexpected – a playful, joyful reimagining of a watch so dependably proper it’s known as the President on account of its popularity with heads of state. But now, where normally a Day-Date would show the date in an aperture at 3 o’clock and the day of the week in the curved aperture at 12 o’clock, Rolex has blown convention out of the water and replaced them with 31 emojis and seven inspiring words. So, it could be a Wednesday – let’s say 6th September – but in place of such mundane detail, this watch may read ‘happy’ or ‘peace’ and pitch a love heart or smiley face in the date window. You can have it in either 18-karat yellow, white or Everose gold. Just astonishing, all of them.

GMT-Master II

With links back to the second-time zone watch made for Pan Am commercial jetliner pilots in the 1950s, Rolex’s GMT-Master II is a perennial favourite. Its two-tone 24-hour bezel design is iconic in its own right, not least when it’s split into red and blue halves to indicate day and night. This year, it returns in new material and colour combinations; a yellow Rolesor (steel and gold) version and another in solid 18-karat yellow gold. Both feature a Cerachrom ceramic bezel insert in grey and black ceramic with yellow-gold PVD-coated detailing, while the GMT-Master II marking on the dial is in yellow – a first that will mean a great deal to aficionados of the brand.

ROBIN SWITHINBANK, CONTRIBUTING WATCHES EDITOR

“With links back to the second-time zone watch made for Pan Am commercial jetliner pilots in the 1950s, Rolex’s GMT-Master II is a perennial favourite”

GMT-Master II

Yacht-Master 42

This is the first time the much-loved Yacht-Master 42 has appeared in RLX titanium, Rolex’s spin on grade 5 titanium – a line extension to a model minted in 2019. Otherwise, it remains as before, with a seaworthy calibre 3235 automatic onboard and a bidirectional rotatable 60-minute graduated bezel, here in Rolex’s intense black Cerachrom ceramic. Monochromatic, stealthy and deceptively strong given its feather-weight profile, it feels reassuringly competent on the wrist. The sort of thing many would no doubt cross a few thousand seas for.

Explorer 40

Another line extension, but one that will be welcome to people with larger wrists. The watch named in honour of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s successful summiting of Mount Everest in 1953 – 70 years ago on 29th May – is now available with a 40mm case, adding to the 36mm piece already in the collection, and replacing the 39mm that was discontinued two years ago. Otherwise, it’s the same watch, cased in Oystersteel, powered by the calibre 3230 automatic, and distinguished by its Arabic numerals at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock that are finished with Rolex’s zingy blue Chromalight luminescent display.

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