Spring is here and summer is around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, and below we see a cool beach wrist shot of the Tudor Chronograph which is arguably represents the first Tudor model that relaunched the Tudor brand, and set the benchmark for the retro-future of the brand...BTW: I LOVE the design of this Tudor model, and think it's really cool...
I have noticed in my life, that most people who wear Rolex are conversationalist, in the sense they enjoy having or observing great conversation. Joe Rogan recently met for the first time and spoke with Tucker Carlson and they had a brilliant conversation, which should not come as a surprise from two men who are both wearing Rolex watches.
Joe Rogan is rocking his D-Blue DEEPSEA, and Tucker is rocking his two-tone Datejust on a Jubilee Bracelet. They even show some footage of Alex Jones, rocking his Submariner, and like with many long conversations, it gets really deep and profound toward the end, particularly what they begin discussing just after 2:33:00.
Now that the Watches and Wonder show has ended in Geneva, Switzerland, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back in the rear-view mirror at some of the novelties Rolex introduced and share my insight with you.
Grey &BlackGMT Bezel
A New Point of Differentiation
Rolex recently introduced a new GMT-Master bezel insert model variant at Watches and Wonder 2024—in Geneva, Switzerland—which features a Black and Grey Bezel insert. When a bezel features a 50/50 split bezel like the Rolex GMT-Master historically has, it is commonly referred to as a First Quarter Moon bezel design, or a Half Moon Bezel design.
I believe Rolex created this color combination as a potential replacement for the standard all black GMT-Master II bezel insert model they discontinued several years ago. I assume this model is for people who prefer a much more subtle and low-key color combination, as apposed to the much bolder, colorful, popping Pepsi, Batman, and Sprite GMT-Master Models.
It is worth noting the all-black bezel Rolex GMT-Master was the very first Rolex model to be introduced with a ceramic bezel insert, which was introduced in 2005. That first model came in the form of a yellow gold GMT-Master II Reference 116718.
Next, Rolex came out with the all-black Cerachrom bezel on the stainless steel Rolex GMT-Master Reference 116710LN. After Rolex introduced the new stainless steel "Pepsi" GMT-Master with the red and blue bezel, the surprised everyone by discontinuing the all black bezel GMT-Master, and now we might have a clue as to why:
Frame Of Reference
I remember talking with T. Walker Lloyd, back in 2008, who was a former long time Rolex USA employee, and he said that back in the mid to late 1960s many commercial airline pilots complained about the Pepsi GMT-Master saying it didn't look serious enough, or looked too Fisher-Price, which explains why Rolex eventually introduced a black bezel GMT-Master variant around 1967-1968. In the photo below we see Gunter Sachs rocking his all black dial GMT-Master back in 1968, which is one of the first known photos I am aware of that shows somebody wearing the all black bezel GMT-Master variant.
The great challenge with the all black dial GMT-Master is that it looked so similar to the Submariner, that it regularly confused customers at retail, in a "You can have any color you want, as longs as it is black"—kind of way.
Also, for many years the GMT-Master had a much smaller winding crown than the Submariner, but with the advent of the Reference 116710LN family they showed up clad with supercases—and more importantly—the exact same JUMBO Big Crown, winding crown that the Submariner models historically featured, so now more than ever they looked almost like identical twins.
The image above appears courtesy of Bob's Watches and shows how similar the Submariner and all black Rolex GMT-Master Bezel Insert looked several years ago, when they both had supercases and Big Crowns.
Beautifully Boring
One could argue, this super low-key Rolex GMT delivers on the original promise of what a professional looking, or perhaps serious looking pilots watch would look like. Or one could argue the new black and grey bezel GMT-Master II is like a naturally beautiful woman wearing no makeup, or lipstick, with plain fingernails, who is wearing a very plain professional business suit. Contrast that with a Pepsi GMT-Master II, which is like the same naturally beautiful woman all dolled up, with perfect warpaint (makeup), high gloss red lipstick, with matching red fingernails, wearing a form fitting yoga outfit :-)
As uneventful as a grey and black bezel insert may seem, it appears Rolex finally found a way to create a meaningful point-of-differentiation with this new model, that now lives up to the purpose of a split in half bezel insert, whereby the top hours represent nighttime and the bottom represents daytime. Basically, Rolex discontinued the all black GMT-Master bezel model years ago, and have now replaced it with the black and grey bezel variant as pictured below as shown on both Rolex Oyster and Rolex Jubilee trademark bracelets.
I recently was talking with Captain Danny about the new GMT-Master and he said he was surprised that Rolex has not yet replaced the SuperCase with the much more old-school, retro, streamlined case like Rolex updated with the the Single Red SEA-DWELLER as well as with the newest Submariner, which is a pretty profound point if you think about it.
My understanding is Rolex used to have a physical museum located in Geneva that was open to the public. If memory serves me correctly, it was located in a home in Geneva. One day, many years ago, Rolex closed the museum and moved all of its contents into a private museum collection in Geneva, located in Rolex's private archives. For years, I have wished Rolex would created a new Rolex museum, similar to the Patek Philippe Museum, located in Geneva, Switzerland, which is a masterpiece in and of itself. If you are ever in Geneva, be sure to visit the Patek Philippe Museum.
I can see the future Rolex Museum in my minds eye. It would be located in Downtown Geneva, on Lake Geneva, and the building would be in the shape of an enormous Rolex five point crown, but only from a top-down satellite view.
The bottom of the crown would contain the museum itself, and would be similar to the Guggenheim Museum in New York in the sense visitors would take an elevator up to the fifth (top) floor, then descend down a continuous circular ramp, and see exhibition pieces all over the outer walls as well as Rolex watchmakers working on actual Rolex watches. If guest walked over to the inner walls, they would be able to look up to a huge glass ceiling or down to the basement level.
The center of the building would be open so you could see the roof from any place in the museum, and there would be a basement floor that would have a large water feature that looks like beach, and it would have Jacques-Yves Cosuteau's Calypso floating in it, where visitors could come on board and explore the great historic ship.
There would be a coffee store/cafe in the basement that would constantly bake cinnamon buns, so the entire Rolex Museum would always smell great. The five circles of the Rolex Coronet crown would have meeting rooms, for special Rolex events and training. I think if Rolex creates such a museum it would be like Disneyland for Rolex watch fans, and would become an international tourist destination where people could get a heaping helping of the Rolex Experience at it's finest.
Unfortunately my idea does not exist yet, but at Watches and Wonders 2024, Rolex put together what appears give us a glimpse into what an actual Rolex Museum might look like. The superb image below appears courtesy of Jason Heaton, via our Captain Danny's Coronet Rolex blog and shows the Rolex GMT-Master Exhibition.
People have already come up with nicknames for the new GMT-Model including The Dark Knight, and the Bruce Wayne. I think what was MUCH more interesting was the super cool Rolex GMT-Master History Exhibition, which was open to all attendees. Cameron from Craft and Tailored took all these superb photos of the GMT-Master Exhibition so we can get an idea of what it looks like.
Rolex also showcased many historically significant Rolex GMT-Master models, including the one below that belonged to one of the early pioneering Pan Am Pilots.
Cameron took the photo below that showcased the history of the differently Rolex GMT-Master Movements begging back in 1955, and moving up to current date.
The image below Shows the raw material elements that make up the pigments and ceramic material that Rolex refines into their Pepsi Bezel insert, which is totally fascinating!!!
Rolex put together this super cool all-new Rolex GMT-Master History video that offers some significant Rolex History puzzle pieces, which is really cool.
Stuart Roosa
Apollo 14 Commander
The entire Apollo 14 team which consisted of Alan Shepard (center), Stuart Roosa (left) and Dr. Edgar Mitchel (right) all wore Pepsi GMT-Master models as their personal watches.
NASA Apollo Astronaut, Stuart Roosa took this super cool photo of his Pepsi GMT-Master aboard the Apollo 14 Mission and profoundly wrote "MY GMT MASTER 200,000 MILES FROM GENEVA" —Stuart Roosa, APOLLO 14".
In a rare media moment during Watches and Wonders, Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour allowed the Swiss television to film him as he sat down with Georges Dubois, a Geneva watchmaker almost 103 years old who worked under Hans Wilsdorf.
Jean-Frédéric Dufour: So you worked [for Rolex]?
Georges Dubois: In '41.
Dufour: In 1941! How many employees were there back then?
Dubois: About 15. There were only one atelier.
Dufour: Can you imagine, we are now 15,000!
Dubois: That's crazy. Crazy!
News narrator:Usually Jean-Frédéric Dufour stays away from the cameras. But he decided to make an exception today because Georges Dubois worked with Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf.
Dubois: When Mr. Wilsdorf would walk in, he'd say, "Gentlemen My Watchmakers!"
[Dufour repeats: "Messieurs Mes Horlogers!"].
Dubois: I think that was very nice of him.
We can see Dufour double-wristing with an OP on the left wrist and the new, hyper-rare, off-catalog Daytona Le Mans in gold on his right wrist. See the full news segment here.
I've written how it seems Rolex is having more fun with its novelties, a trend that has become obvious when it introduced color OPs, Palm motif dials, left-crown GMTs and Emoji Day-Dates recently.
This year I feel the new full-gold Deepsea is the latest sign Rolex is having fun, creating a great contrast with the monochromatic GMT in its basic metal also released at Watches and Wonders this year.
When I asked Rolex whether we should consider the full-gold Deepsea a fun piece, a rep for the Crown told me: "Outside the Deepsea Challenge, it is our most waterproof piece, our largest piece, our heaviest piece and our most visible piece. So, yes, it is a bit of a pied de nez."
But Rolex also told me this release was about wanting to create something unexpected and unconventional.
"Of course, to offer a piece in full yellow gold, with a blue dial, a blue bezel, a blue Ringlock is more fun and more visible,"Rolex said."But then again, we've always tried out different colors, different materials and we've often used yellow gold. It has always made for very visible pieces. We wanted to enrich the Deepsea line for all tastes, all aspirations."
The Deepsea line is being enriched more than ever, and it's not just because of the material used: For the first time, the Deepsea has been pulled from the Sea-Dweller line and is a standalone collection in the Rolex catalog.
At 320g, or 11.3 oz, the gold Deepsea is Rolex's heaviest watch. And at 44mm and a thickness of 17.7mm, the Deepsea can go to depths fatal to humans: 12,800 feet, or 3,900m.
The gold Deepsea is the piece of all extremes, and it is a piece with three colors and three materials, a rare design concept for the Maison: yellow gold, blue ceramic, grey titanium (the RLX titanium is used for the caseback and the helium escape valve).
The blue ceramic is not just for the bezel. This new version incorporates a technical innovation never seen before at Rolex: the compression ring within the Ringlock system, which allows the watch to withstand pressure at extreme depth, is made from ceramic.
As a reminder, the Ringlock system is a patented case architecture developed by Rolex which has three elements: a thick sapphire crystal (5.5mm), a high-performance compression ring to withstand the water pressure, and a case back in titanium.
The compression ring was in steel in previous versions; in this gold version, it is made in blue ceramic, a first for this component. It is the first time Rolex is using ceramic inside the case and not just on the outside.
When I asked Rolex why specifically ceramic, the rep told me using ceramic for the compression ring had little to with durability though durability was part of the equation. Rolex's goal was to have a complete uniform color for the bezel, for the dial and for the ring lock system, a first for the brand.
"We had to find a material that met not only the esthetical requirements — to have that blue — but also the technical requirements to resist water pressure to 3,900m. With much R&D and testing we found that it was ceramic that met all those requirements best."
This release is exemplifying what the Crown has always been good at: mixing jewelry with patented innovation. Mixing celebration with adventure. Mixing precious metal with extreme engineering. To paraphrase Cyndi Lauper, Rolexjust wants to have fun!
Tudor surprised everybody by introducing this magnificently beautiful new Tudor Black Bay Chronograph with a gorgeous "Barbie" pink dial. I am so impressed with this new model, I am giving it the Editors' Choice Award for BEST OF SHOW at Watches and Wonders 2024.
Tudor does not formally refer to this color as being "Barbie" pink, and I admit that I have not seen the recently released Barbie movie, but I am nicknaming this watch "The Barbie Tudor Chronograph" as it sure looks Barbie-like to me.
Pretty In Pink
David Beckham
Legendary Soccer Superstar and Tudor Brand Ambassador is pictured below rocking the all-new Tudor Black Bay Chronograph with a pink dial, and it looks super RAD!!!!! Speaking of "Barbie" pink, as a society many people believe that pink is only a feminine color, and that it's not for men, but I would argue the opposite, in the sense that pink can look great on men, particularly as an accent color. There is something REALLY FRESH looking about the color pink...
Cameron Barr from Craft and Tailored took the photo below at the Tudor Pavilion at Watches and Wonders 2024, in Geneva Switzerland. This is probably the single most interesting novelty launched by Rolex and Tudor this past week.
Historically Rolex has always been extremely secretive and discreet, and no journalists in the past have ever been invited "INSIDE ROLEX" to explore and report on all four Rolex Manufacturing faclities in Switzerland.
In November 2013, this changed when Rolex invited Jake to take an unprecdented journey into the heart of Rolex to learn and report on everything he witnessed and learned.
This Super-Detailed 3 Part Story is a "MUST READ" story for anybody who wants to understand what really makes Rolex tick.
