All change
Landmark anniversaries combine with brand-new novelties and eye-popping colour to make 2023 a dazzling year for Rolex
Rolex isn’t known for enacting wholesale change. The watchmaker tends towards gradual refinement rather than revolution. Last year, key developments in the portfolio included putting the crown of the GMT Master II on the opposite side (thus creating a “left-handed” model) and enlarging the date window on the Deepsea by a very specific eight per cent. Such subtleties still managed to get the critics purring, so you can only imagine the brouhaha when this year’s “emoji” Day Date was unveiled in late March.
Yes, you read that right: emojis instead of dates, with emotional keywords including “hope” and “gratitude” in the display where the days should be. And a dial with a multicolour jigsaw motif, and multicolour diamonds for hour markers. The watch is, Rolex says, “an unexpected creative twist” that “brings an element of spontaneity into the wearer’s daily life”.
Understandably, the frolicsome Emoji-DayDate (an unofficial nickname) has been one of the watch world’s hottest topics since it first emerged. But it wasn’t the only big drop from
Rolex. Far from it. The Daytona — Rolex’s prototypical chronograph — is 60 years old this year and, to celebrate, a slew of upgrades and adjustments have been made. The sub-dials and hour markers have been slightly shrunk, giving the dial a new, slightly airier look, and there’s a new movement — the calibre 4131 — which is more efficient than its predecessor. And if you get the platinum model, you can see it through the sapphire caseback: a first for a Rolex sport watch.
Elsewhere, the brand unveiled the Perpetual 1908, a new dress watch available in four finishes. This is, we assume, the first of many, and a replacement for the Cellini, which was discontinued last year. A 39mm yellow- or whitegold case houses a matt-black or “intense” white dial, with a small-seconds sub-dial at 6pm — a combination inspired by a Rolex from the 1930s. “1908” refers to the year company founder Hans Wilsdorf coined the name “Rolex”. If he could only see how the brand has blossomed.