Rolex 2021 年全新錶款陣容正式登場
Rolex Just Unveiled 16 New Watches for 2021, Including a New Daytona and Two Explorers
The crown has come to sit on its throne. The new Rolex releases dropped this morning for Watches & Wonders and, as usual, it is one of the most anticipated debuts of the entire show. The highlights include a redesigned case and bracelet on the Explorer II, a surprising two-tone drop for the Explorer and a new meteorite dial for the Cosmograph Daytona. A few groovy jungle-motif dials debuted for the Datejust 36 and for the ladies, the emphasis was diamonds, diamonds and more diamonds.
Explorer
Time for the return of two-tone. The new Rolesor (the Rolex name for the combination of the dual 18-karat yellow gold and Oystersteel alloys) Ref. 124273 may be heralding a return to the blend of metals that saw its height of popularity in the ’80s. The model also marks a comeback of the 36 mm size in a nod to the original model launched in 1953 after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first explorers to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Another update is the lacquered finish on the black dial and features a Chromolight coating on the hour markers and hands that lasts longer than earlier luminescent materials.
Case Size: 36 mm
Case and Bracelet Material: 18-carat gold and Oystersteel
Caliber: 3230
Power Reserve: 70 hours
Price: $10,800
Explorer II
Rolex barely has to lift a finger for a new release. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Explorer II Ref. 216570, the new reference, 226570 has changed very little. While its bracelet is slightly wider and its case is slightly slimmer, it has the same brushed stainless steel bezel with 24-hour graduations (like the earliest Explorers debuted in the ’70s), the same 42 mm sizing and the same classic orange hue on the 24-hour hand and Explorer II inscription (the latter has been featured on the dial since 2011). It’s good to be king.
What is, relatively new, is that it now houses the upgraded caliber 3285 that Rolex debuted in 2018 and, like the Explorer above, it uses Chromolight to enhance its luminescence. Fitted on an Oyster bracelet, a hallmark of the brand since the ’30s, it has a modernized Easylink comfort extension allowing the bracelet length to be adjusted by roughly 5 mm in case your wrist needs some breathing room.
Case Size: 42 mm
Case and Bracelet Material: Oystersteel
Caliber: 3285
Power Reserve: 70 hours
Price: $8,550 for both variations
Cosmograph Daytona
Since prices for Daytonas have already reached into the stratosphere in the secondary market, it’s only fitting that the latest trio of models come dressed in material from an asteroid that exploded in outer space over 1 million years ago. Three versions in 18-karat white gold, 18-carat yellow gold and 18-carat Everose gold feature meteorite dials. The white gold model (Ref. 116519 LN) comes with a monoblock Cerachrom bezel in black ceramic, while the yellow gold (Ref. 116508) and Everose gold (Ref. 116505) editions have metal bezels. All three have the Daytona’s recognizable tachymetric scale, but in the Ref. 116519 LN is it molded into the bezel, while the other two are engraved in the precious metals. The bracelets also come with the Easylink adjustment. The only difference between the two, other than the metal, is the Everose version includes ceramic inserts inside the links for better flexibility. Production of these will be limited, which makes sense. It’s not every day a great dial material falls from the heavens.
Seasoned Rolex observers will note that this is not the first time meteorites have been used for a Daytona dial. A white gold version with a leather strap and a meteorite dial featured in the Rolex catalog from 2003 to 2016
Case Size: 40 mm
Case and Bracelet Material: 18-karat white gold on an Oysterflex rubber strap or yellow gold and Everose gold models on matching bracelets
Caliber: 4130
Power Reserve: 72 hours
Price: $34,050 for white gold, $41,000 for yellow gold and $43,700 for Everose gold
Datejust
There’s nothing quite like a little reinvention to update a classic. Rolex’s Datejust, the ultimate reference watch, now features new “palm” and “fluted” dial designs. The palms, a stylized take on those calming fronds you find in many tropical climes, is available in three configurations: gree palms on a steel Oyster bracelet; golden palms on a gold and steel Oyster bracelet with a fluted bezel; and silver palms on a steel and Everose Oyster bracelet, also with a fluted bezel.
The golden fluted dial, meanwhile, echoes the fluted bezel that has become so characteristic of the Datejust. Appropriately, it’s offered with a fluted bezel on a gold and steel Jubilee bracelet. Each of the dials is created by a single artisan using femtosecond, a new in-house laser technology using bursts of ultrashort laser pulses to imprint the design.
Case Size: 36 mm
Case and Bracelet Material: Steel, steel and yellow gold, steel and Everose gold
Caliber: 3235
Price: The Palm dials are available for $7,050 in steel, $11,050 in steel and yellow gold and $12,000 in steel and Everose. The fluted dial is $11,700.
Lady Datejust
Rolex has long understood that femininity shouldn’t come at the expense of technical expertise or strength. In fact, you might need a long history of resistance training to wear its new Lady Datejust, gem-set with over 1,000 diamonds: There are 291 stones paving the dial, 44 brilliant-cut diamonds on the bezel and a whopping 596 on the President bracelet. Leaving no surface untouched, the sides of the case and the lugs are also diamond-set for the first time, with a final 158 stones. All in, there are over 7.5 carats of diamonds on this piece; it’s available in yellow or white gold.
Case Size: 36 mm
Case and Bracelet Material: White gold, yellow gold with diamonds
Caliber: 3235
Price: $134,400 for white gold, $131,100 in yellow gold
Day-Date
Three vibrant and unapologetically luxurious versions of Rolex’s iconic Day-Date 36 watch are here, each set with hundreds of painstakingly selected diamonds: 450 on the dial., 52 brilliant-cut stones on the bezel and a further 254 in the same cut adorning the case. Rolex never makes a Day-Date in a non-precious metal, so these are encased with 18K white gold, 18K yellow gold and 18K Everose gold, Rolex’s answer to pink gold. The indices of each are enameled Roman numerals in turquoise (for the white gold), coral (for the yellow gold) and burgundy for the Everose; a polished alligator strap dyed to match the indexes secures each watch to your wrist. It should be noted that you won’t find these in stores: they’re not a part of Rolex’s official catalog and are available for special order only.
Case Size: 36 mm
Case Material: 18K white gold, 18K yellow gold, 18K Everose gold
Caliber: 3255
Straps: Coral, turquoise or burgundy alligator leather
Price: Upon request
The Biggest New Rolex Releases of 2021 Are…
For watch enthusiasts, today is Christmas, Coachella, and Super Bowl Sunday all wrapped into one. Wednesday marks the kickoff of Watches & Wonders, now the industry’s biggest trade show, and because of the digital nature of this year’s event, it feels like all the new goodies were announced at once. The result was a torrent of new models to ooh and ahh over and digest. Patek Philippe announced new examples of its highly collectible Nautilus model. IWC is shaving a few millimeters off its biggest watches. Which is all great! But nothing gets collectors going like new from Rolex. Here are the new releases from The Crown that everyone is talking about today.
The new Explorer 36 Courtesy of Rolex Courtesy of Rolex
A family of Explorers
Arguably the biggest news is a revamp of Rolex’s Explorer line. Both the original Explorer and its younger brother, the Explorer II, received makeovers.
To start, Rolex is trimming the Explorer quite a bit, taking it from 39 millimeters all the way down to 36, which is pretty small by modern standards. There’s historical precedent for the new measurements, though. The Explorer is now the same size as the piece that was released right after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to reach Mount Everest’s peak. (They did it wearing versions of the Rolex Oyster Perpetual but Rolex needed a way to capitalize on the achievement.)
The new size isn’t what has the watch community buzzing, though. What people can’t seem to get over is that after decades of the watch exclusively coming in stainless steel, the Explorer will now be made in two-tone gold and steel. Rolex makes many of its professional watches in this two-tone steel-and-gold combo, but the Explorer, one of the Crown’s more rugged pieces, always held out. Today, it finally gets invited to the party.
The Explorer’s successor, known as the Explorer II, got a slightly lighter touch. While the Explorer was made for those braving the heart of the jungle, or attempting to climb to earth’s highest peaks, the Explorer II was explicitly made for the opposite purpose: it was originally designed for cave divers, who used the luminous orange 24-hour hand to keep track of whether it was day or night while trudging deeper into darkness. Now, on the piece’s 50th birthday, Rolex is doing its best to not mess with a good thing. The adjustments here include switching out glossy black hands for the collector-preferred matte black, slimming down the piece’s lugs, and inserting a new and improved movement.
An Explorer II, too Courtesy of Rolex Courtesy of Rolex
Of all the big watch brands, Rolex’s intentions are usually the most difficult to decode. But let’s attempt to interpret what the brand’s done here. It’s no secret that Rolex has absolutely no problem moving its flagship professional pieces like the Submariner, GMT-Master II, and Daytona, but the Explorer and Explorer II have always been slightly underrated. It’s likely that Rolex sees an opportunity to build up the Explorer models so that one day people line up to purchase them, too.
The watch on everyone’s wish list just got hotter
Well, complaints about never ending wait lists for Rolex’s flaming-hot Daytona aren’t going to get any quieter. The brand is releasing the watch in white gold, yellow gold, and Everose gold (Rolex’s version of rose gold), all with meteorite dials. Meteorite is exactly what it sounds like: literally “a rare natural material from outer space,” as Rolex puts it in a press release. The watch model that already commanded out-of-this-world prices. Now, it’s made from rare space rocks. Guess what that’ll do to prices?
A trio of colorful new Day-Dates Courtesy of Rolex Courtesy of Rolex Courtesy of Rolex
Now we’re having fun!