Rolex: A History of Ground-Breaking
The Swiss luxury watch brand maintains its “timely” commitments to the Perpetual Planet initiative while breaking boundaries in technical innovation and pioneering human endeavours. By Sanjeeva Suresh.
Agood watch is so much more than just a wise investment piece or a wrist essential used for timekeeping. During the recent lockdown brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, most of us have spent our time indoors.The concept of time is different when we aren’t going about our hectic daily schedules. As a society, we crave adventure while we wait for the day when we can experience an escapade and travel unhindered by inhibitions. It’s easy to forget how powerful a watch can be until you are in a situation when you can’t tell the difference from day or night. Or just how useful waterproofness can be until you are out of our proverbial depth. Enter Rolex, a watch that is the proprietor of all things adventure. From the Himalayan mountains to the depths of the ocean, the rainforests to the South Pole and beyond.
Since the 1930s, Rolex has been the trusted companion of some of history’s most daring explorers, including the rst men who successfully climbed the world’s highest peak. During an expedition to Mount Everest in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were equipped with a Rolex. To honour the historic milestone, Rolex launched the Explorer watch that same year.The Explorer model would eventually be improved with a reinforced case and a more legible dial for extreme conditions. Not only did Hillary and Norgay enter the history books but the duo also gathered data that would pave the way for the launching of the Oyster Perpetual Explorer that same year followed by the Oyster Perpetual Explorer II.
From accompanying explorers to the world’s tallest peak, Rolex then plunged 10,916 metres to the deepest point of the ocean at the Mariana Trench, also known as “Challenger Deep”. With an experimental Rolex Oyster watch dubbed the Deep Sea Special, af xed to the exterior of their submersible, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh successfully braved the depths of the unknown in 1960. Despite the immense pressure it would have been subjected to at such a depth, the watch was working perfectly when the vessel resurfaced. Keep in mind, this was half a century before Hollywood director James Cameron made a record-breaking solo dive of 10,908 metres in 2012 where he also relied on a trusted Rolex to keep perfect time across the expedition.
Rolex’s spirit of exploration would stand the test of time with mountaineers, divers, explorers and scientists. Each breaking records and testing their endurance, often equipped with the ideal Rolex tool watch for the challenge.As science progressed and exploration moved to harsher conditions, Rolex adapted. In 1971, Rolex launched the Explorer II which enabled the wearer to distinguish the hours of the day from that of night.The watch featured a date display, an additional 2 -hour hand and a xed bezel with a 2 -hour graduation. These added features were essential for exploration in dark environments the likes of caves or in polar regions that experience six months of daylight and darkness at a time.
As cause for concern grew over environmental challenges and the balance of the Earth’s ecosystems, Rolex took action. Rolex championed environmental researchers and explorers as part of its commitment to a Perpetual Planet. In 1974, Rolex joined forces with the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society to provide funding for scholarships to young people considering careers as marine professionals. Rolex also created the biennial Rolex Awards for Enterprise programme.Through this program Rolex has contributed to the preservation of 21 ecosystems that are crucial for biodiversity and has assisted in the research of 150 individuals across the world. From explorers such as Francesco Sauro, who is leading scienti c expeditions deep into the caves of South America’s remote tabletop mountains to Cristian Donoso, who kayaks in the open seas of Western Patagonia while documenting the value of the dramatic region, and Joseph Cook, who studies the Greenland ice sheet to understand the in uence microorganisms have on global warming.
Rolex’s Oyster Perpetual watches have become loyal companions of many explorers. From mountaineers, to scientists, these pioneering men and women became associated with Rolex. This includes conservationist George Schaller who has helped establish more than 20 wildlife reserves around the world and been instrumental in preventing the destruction of environments. Renowned conservationist and paleoanthropologist Richard eakey, famed for fossil nds related to human evolution and his tireless campaigns toward responsible environmental management in East Africa. Then you have American mountaineer Ed Viesturs, who in 2005 completed his Endeavor 8000 project where he successfully scaled all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks without supplemental oxygen. Junko Tabei is the rst woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1975. She would go on to become a powerful advocate for the protection of the mountain environment. In 2002, explorer and mountaineer Alain Hubert created the International Polar Foundation (IPF) to support polar science as an instrumental move to understanding climate change. In 2006, Norwegian Rune Gjeldnes became the only person to cross the three big ice sheets which are Greenland, the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica unaided and purely on skis. These are just some of the remarkable individuals who have accomplished greatness with the Rolex Oyster Perpetual watch.
Precision and reliability is what Rolex has proven to provide to many an individual across the decades. Throughout the history of Rolex, robust evolutions and mechanical adaptations were made to withstand even the harshest of terrains all the while maintaining the brand’s signature aesthetic codes and visual appearances. Marine biologist Sylvia Earle successfully summed up Rolex’s journey of exploration when she said, “Every high- ying, mountain-climbing, spelunking, sailing, trekking, deep-diving explorer has lived adventures and made discoveries that have helped shape the nature of civilization, one way or another.Their stories have become legends. Ah! If only their Rolexes could speak.”
— Sylvia Earle, Marine Biologist
Start your own adventure at the Rolex boutique located at 2.40 - 2.41 Level 2 Pavilion Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 603 2148 8930).