PROTECTING THE PLANET FOR PERPETUITY
Rolex continues its longstanding commitment to environmental protection and global exploration through the Perpetual Planet initiative.
When Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mount Everest in 1953, Swiss watchmaker Rolex played its part by equipping the mountaineers with robust Oyster Perpetual watches. The Explorer watch was introduced the same year in the wake of that groundbreaking ascent, and today, Rolex continues its decades-long association with modern exploration, not for the sake of discovery but with a mind to safeguard the planet for future generations. Embodying this ethos is the brand’s Perpetual Planet initiative, an ambitious long-term project designed to help key organizations and individuals find solutions to environmental challenges. Launched in 2019, the program encompasses three main pillars: the Rolex Awards for Enterprise; an enhanced partnership with the National Geographic Society to study the impacts of climate change; and support for legendary oceanographer Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue initiative to restore and save the planet’s oceans.
AWARDING THE SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE
The Rolex Awards for Enterprise were established in 1976 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Oyster, the world’s first waterproof wristwatch. Originally intended as a once-off celebration, the awards drew so much international interest that Rolex transformed them into an ongoing initiative that has since supported 155 laureates whose endeavors have made a significant contribution worldwide to improving life and protecting our planet. Across the globe, an estimated
5 million people have benefited from the program, which has also seen the planting of about 18 million trees, the protection of 34 endangered species and 26 major ecosystems, and the development of dozens of innovative technologies.
Last year’s Laureates included Felix Brooks-church, an American social entrepreneur who is fighting malnutrition in Tanzania; Rinzin Phunjok Lama, a Nepali biologist working to protect the richly diverse ecosystems of the Trans-Himalayan region; British climate researcher Gina Moseley, who will lead the first expedition to explore the planet’s northernmost caves to improve our knowledge of climate change in the Arctic; Brazilian marine researcher Luiz Rocha, whose aim is to explore the deep mesophotic coral reefs of the Indian Ocean; and Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim of Chad, an expert in the adaptation and mitigation of indigenous peoples to climate change. Together, these pioneers are not only making impactful and positive changes to our world, but also serving as an inspiration for the generations to come.
PARTNERING WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Rolex is supporting the National Geographic Society, a partner
since 1954, as it conducts a series of explorations of the planet’s most vital and least-understood environments to study the implications of climate change on people and wildlife. An expedition to Mount Everest took place from April to June 2019; it was the largest scientific endeavor ever undertaken on the world’s highest mountain. The team of more than 30 scientists, including some from Nepal’s Tribhuvan University, set up a network of automated high-altitude weather stations to provide a stream of data that will help to determine snow and ice projections. They also collected ice cores and samples of snow and sediment for analysis at the University of Maine in the United States.
Last year, the second National Geographic and Perpetual Planet Expedition successfully installed a weather station just below the summit of Tupungato Volcano in the Southern Andes. Perched at an elevation of 6,505 meters (which makes it the highest such facility in the Southern and Western Hemispheres), the new station will collect data for weather modeling and water-resource management. It now functions alongside three lower automatic weather stations that were installed with support from National Geographic in 2019—one at the upper Aconcagua Basin northeast of Santiago, and two on the slopes of the neighboring volcano of Tupungatito.
Considering mountains to be the world’s water towers, future expeditions will hone in on the Earth’s two other vital systems: its rain forests—as the planet’s lungs—and the ocean as its cooling system.
SPREADING HOPE WITH MISSION BLUE
Rolex has long been a partner in ocean discovery with indomitable marine explorers, none of whom are more venerated than Sylvia Earle. A National Geographic explorerin-residence and one of the world’s leading experts on ocean science and conservation, Dr. Earle founded Mission Blue in 2009 to advocate for the creation and enlargement of a global network of marine protected areas known as Hope Spots; her goal is to ensure that 30 percent of the world’s oceans are legally protected by 2030. Rolex has been supporting Mission Blue since 2014, and the results are deeply encouraging, with the number of Hope Spots almost tripling from 50 to 140 in the past eight years alone.
Among the latest additions to the roster is the Azores Archipelago, where underwater volcanoes host highly specialized fauna and rugged seamounts harbor vibrant, thriving sponges and coral gardens. Another new Hope Spot is Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, whose marine ecosystem National Geographic has described as “the most biologically intense place on Earth.” Traversed by creatures like humpback whales, great hammerhead sharks, and oceanic manta rays, this marine corridor encompasses a diverse cluster of ecosystems that are all essential for the survival of sea life, including the coral reefs of Caño Island and one of the largest wetlands of the Pacific coast of Central America. Unfortunately, it is also a place that has felt the impacts of industrial fishing, making its protection all the more urgent.