Rolex’s New Strategy for Launching Watches
Two Day-Dates, the Daytona Le Mans and the Deepsea are part of Rolex's new strategy with multiple single releases throughout the year
The new Day-Date unveiled at the Academy Awards outlines a new strategy that Rolex is getting its fans used to.
A few months ago it quietly unveiled another special Day-Date to celebrate the Vienna Philharmonic, with a unique enamel dial. This comes after a couple of other surprise "off-season" novelties in recent times, from the Deep-Sea Challenge at the end of 2022 to last year's Daytona Le Mans.
In this article we revisit these releases to try to understand more about Rolex's new strategy.
Day-Date 40 - 96th Academy Awards
Rolex has always linked its image and especially that of the Day-Date to excellence. In this sense 96th Academy Awards, where the world's best films are awarded, is the perfect setting to unveil a new limited edition of this iconic timepiece.
The unveiling took place a video where the maison showed some clips of films in which their watches appeared and then, at the end of the video, pop up a shot of this limited edition.
The crowned house chose to pair the rose gold, which it defined as Everose, with an ombré gray dial, a configuration that had not been seen before and which attracted the attention of many enthusiasts who greatly appreciated this special edition.
Day-Date Rolex 36 - Vienna Philarmonic
Another popular Day-Date among fans was the special edition presented at the end of 2023 for the Vienna Philharmonic.
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, is one of the most celebrated and respected orchestras in the world. Founded in 1842 by a group of Viennese musicians, it has a long and illustrious history that places it at the top of the international music scene. It is known for its unique traditions, including the famous New Year's Concert held annually on January 1 at the Vienna Musikverein. This concert, broadcast worldwide and for which Rolex has been a major sponsor since 2009.
To mark the 2023 concert, the crowned house presented the model you see in the photo with a magnificent grand feu champlevé enamel dial, finely handcrafted to represent different sections of a violin in a style reminiscent of 20th century modern art. Colored in three different shades of green, the dial harmonizes perfectly with the luxurious 18K yellow gold case, bracelet, and dial details, creating a harmonious and charming aesthetic.
Daytona Le Mans
Going back a few more months, in June 2023, Rolex unveiled a special edition of the Daytona for the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans motor race.
This is definitely the Rolex has caught the most attention during 2023, this is given by numerous factors that I had analyzed in this article.
Crafted in 18K white gold, this special Cosmograph Daytona sports a black ceramic Cerachrom bezel. On the tachymeter scale, the red ceramic number 100 pays tribute to the race's centenary. Standing out on the shiny black dial are deep white counters, whose graphic design is inspired by traditional Rolex dials. The Oyster case has a transparent case back, and this original timepiece is equipped with an exclusive movement, Caliber 4132.
Unlike the Daytona 2023 animated by the 4131 movement where the counter at 9 o'clock is limited to 12 hours as in most chronographs, the 4132 marks 24 hours equal to the duration of a Le Mans race. This makes it possible to count the hours of the chronograph function over 24 hours (another reference to the race) instead of the model's usual 12.
What has all fans jolted is the presence of a reverse-panda dial in the style of Paul Newman's Rolex, a clear reference to the Daytona 6263 of a time among the most iconic ever.
Deepsea Challenge
The Rolex Deepsea Challenge is designed to withstand an incredible 11,000 meters of depth, an extraordinary figure that testifies to the extraordinary capacity of this watch. This model takes inspiration from two very important events in the brand's history.
In 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste, a specialized underwater vehicle for extreme diving, was used to explore the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the oceans. On January 23, 1960, the bathyscaphe, carrying Swiss oceonographer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh, embarked on a historic journey to the deep sea. The Rolex Deepsea Special was the 'watch designed specifically to withstand the extreme pressures of the deep sea. During this mission, the watch was attached to the outside of the Trieste to test its ability to withstand the extreme pressures. The bathyscaphe Trieste reached the impressive depth of 10,916 meters, setting a new diving record. During this descent, the Deepsea was subjected to extreme pressures, thus demonstrating the extraordinary strength and reliability of Rolex watches even under the most extreme conditions.
The second event, on the other hand, dates back to 2012, when director James Cameron took the lead in exploring the Mariana Trench, again using Rolex's Deepsea.
For this reason, the case back of this special edition model bears the name "Mariana Trench" engraved along with the dates "23-01-1960" and "26-03-2012," thus commemorating the two epic dives in the Mariana Trench.
The other great feature of this timepiece lies in the material with which it was used, namely titanium. This choice, certainly innovative for a conservative maison like Rolex, was dictated by the large size of the watch. In fact to guarantee a water resistance of 11k meters the dial measures 50mm and if steel had been used the watch would have been too heavy so the maison chose the much lighter titanium. Incidentally, this material was first used on the Deepsea, but then last year it was implemented on the Yacht Master, a clear sign of how much the maison is focusing on titanium.
Final Thoughts
The world of watchmaking is increasingly adapting to the modern age, where everything is extremely fast-paced. For this reason, in order to remain on everyone's lips at all times, you cannot limit yourself to releasing your watches only once a year because you would end up being forgotten in no time, covered by other news or novelties. The new strategy, which more and more maisons are adopting, such as AP for example, is to make multiple releases throughout the year so that people are always talking about the brand.
Rolex has adopted this new strategy to perfection, managing, through truly superlative releases, to keep the attention to the brand's new offerings.
In my opinion, it will be a strategy that we will see more and more in the future and will spread to may maisons.
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