Innovating Rolex

"A Crown For Every Achievement"

Rolex S.A.

A company that is known for their reliability, durability and precision needs to be innovative . Not only because the customer demands, and competition is fierce. But to ensure continuity with your business you need to push the limits!  

The basics of the Rolex watch as we know it today, hasn’t changed much since the first issued patents. Most people may find this contradicting with a company that is always striving for perfection and innovation. The Key word is “over engineering”. Rolex is king in improving and upgrading their products. If you split the various parts like the case, movement and bracelet. You will notice that all have underwent some major improvements over the years. But without losing their Rolex DNA and look.

The Case

Every oyster case made by Rolex works with the same principles. You have the case itself. A glass pressed on top. The case-back screwed down on the back of the case. The crown is screwed down into the side of the case. In theory, the deeper you go the more pressure is applied to the watch. And the tighter the gaskets and parts fit together. Although the different models look the same. The minor size differences contribute immense to the waterproofness! The crown also plays a great part off course. That’s why they use the triplock crown i.e.  for the Submariner 300m . Whilst the twin-lock is used for the GMT-Master 100m. who are easily identified by the number of dots they show on the top part of the crown.

The Movement

Rolex is known for their precision! Producing the most wristwatches with an official COSC chronometer certificate in the world. Just the certificate isn’t enough they are still looking to improve their movements. Introducing i.e. the new Parachrom hairspring made from a paramagnetic alloy making it unaffected to magnetic fields. A part from improving individual parts from the watch they are also improving their functions.

The GMT-Master is a great example.  Starting in 1965  with theGMT-Master, working on the 1575 or 3075 Cal. with fixed second hour hand. The GMT-Master II was presented in 1977. Over the years it used the  different Rolex Cal. 3085, 3185 and now 3186 adding the quickset and  the ability to set your watch exactly to two time-zones. And an additional third time-zone making use of the bezel.

Despite the changes the GMT-Master has not lost its original look and charm. Maintaining this charm whilst constantly upgrading and improving is a challenge! Especially if you notice  that once they’ve discontinued a part or a colour. Rolex is most unlikely to use it again. This to prevent launching a “re-edition”.  

The Bracelet

Out of all the different components used over the years by Rolex. The bracelet was by far in need of some improvement! And that they did. To summarize the past 40 years.

The three most used bracelets are the Oyster, Jubilee and President bracelet. The oyster is used for all sports models and optional for i.e. the Datejust and Day-Date collection. Whilst the Jubilee bracelet originally came on the Datejust it was also sold on the GMT-Master for a very short period back in the days. The President bracelet is reserved for the Day-Date.

The major improvement was switching from ”Rivit” or “Folded” to “solid” links. And stop making use of ”endlinks” and switching to solid fixed end links. Still the clasp was a bit flimsy and unchanged for nearly 40 years!  The new Bracelet with easy adjustable clasp is a real improvement. They currently stock four different types off clasps. Being the Crownclasp, Easylink, Glidelock and Glidelock (fliplock).

Kind Regards,