STEVE MCQUEEN wore Rolex watches both on screen and in his private life. But he was never an official brand ambassador.
ROGER FEDERER, brand ambassador since 2001.
Jazz musician and composer
DIZZY GILLESPIE was known to wear a GMT-Master.
Rolex is everywhere – yet the company prefers to operate quietly behind the scenes. Has done so for more than a hundred years. Today, Rolex is the most successful and best-known luxury watch brand in the world – and remarkably restrained for it.
So let’s take a closer look.
IN THE WORLD OF ROLEX
The headquarters in Geneva’s Les Acacias district is a good place to start. Not a symbol designed to attract attention, but two parallel towers built in 1961 as a reinterpretation of the concept of a factory to house the company’s administrative headquarters and watchmaking workshops in a series of new buildings. The two-tower structure, designed by the architectural firm Addor, Julliard & Bolliger, is dominated by metal, concrete and glass. This is not about staging time, but about taking time seriously. You sense it immediately: quality begins with calm.
But the world of Rolex is actually more decentralized than many assume. Watches are produced at several locations across Switzerland. Geneva, however, remains the operational and strategic center – home to design and development departments, final assembly, and final inspection processes. The last look. The final responsibility.
How your watch enters into a relationship with your time. What you feel most acutely when it is stolen. And why you should never polish a Rolex.
FOR EXPLORERS, RESEARCHERS AND ADVENTURERS
May 28, 1953: EDMUND HILLARY (left) and Tenzing Norgay set off for Camp IX below the South Summit of Mount Everest at an elevation of 8,510 meters. The following day, they became the first people to conquer the highest mountain on Earth at 8,848 meters above sea level.
FOR PILOTS, GLOBETROTTERS AND STRATEGISTS
Some watches see you through the day. The Rolex Sky-Dweller accompanies you through the year – and around the world. It is the most complex model in the Rolex family and perhaps the most underestimated. It doesn’t trade on coolness, but on competence. It doesn’t shout for attention, but once you take a closer look, you know: something is different here.
Rolex Sky-Dweller –
Complexity for Cosmopolitans
DEFINING FEATURES
Developed for professional pilots, annual calendar and month display via the hour markers, 24-hour display on offcenter disc in dial
24-hour display on off-center disc in dial
Month display via the hour markers
Caliber 9001, annual calendar
DEFINING FEATURES
Professional sailing watch with regatta countdown function accessed via Ring Command bezel
Rolex Yacht-Master II –Mechanical Regatta Intelligence
If the Yacht-Master II were a person, it would be a navigator in sunglasses. Someone who knows exactly when the perfect moment has come – and never misses it. The timekeeper on deck: sunweathered, focused, with a chronograph’s eye for every detail. The Yacht-Master II doesn’t define the term “sports watch” through aggressive looks, but through technical sophistication.
Chronograph minute hand with red triangle and concentric 10-minute scale, small seconds
ROLEX YACHT-MASTER II
“Yacht-Master II” lettering on the bezel at 6 o’clock, no date display
Blue Ring Command bezel with Cerachrom insert and regatta function as chronograph with countdown timer
“IT’S NOT ABOUT THE TROPHY. IT’S ABOUT THE
WATCH.”
With his fifth victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2013, the Californian drew level with Hurley Haywood, whose record had stood for 20 years. Scott Pruett won the race in 1994, 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2013, along with the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2014 and the GTS class at Le Mans in 2001. In 2017, he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.
SCOTT PRUETT
Rolex has supported the Rolex 24 at Daytona – originally the Daytona Continental 3 Hour Grand Touring and Sports Car Race – since its inception in 1962. The winners receive an engraved Cosmograph Daytona – and yes, a trophy as well.
Crazy About Rolex
What turns a watch into a legend? And when does a brand become a cultural phenomenon? For more than a century, Rolex has been answering those questions – never loudly, never brashly, but with technical excellence, absolute consistency and a finely tuned sense of style and zeitgeist.
Today, Rolex is far more than the most recognized and successful watch brand in the world. It is an idea. A myth. Part of our collective cultural memory, part of pop culture, part of personal life stories. A canvas for aspiration, quality and values. Its tool watches have long since become icons – precision instruments whose designs have proven themselves over decades and whose aura needs no explanation. Submariner, Daytona, GMT-Master or Datejust: each translates a perfected idea – and at the same time tells the story of a brand that sets the standard. Time and again.
Crazy About Rolex is more than an entertaining compendium of references and calibers. It is also a deeply personal tribute. It knows the details – and at the same time casts a deliberate yet fresh eye on the bigger picture: on technology and form, on adventure and innovation, on people and moments. On the fascination of a brand that shows us that precision can be more than function – it can be a way of looking at the world.
Crazy About Rolex – a book for connoisseurs. For the curious. For collectors.
And for anyone willing to admit: it’s entirely possible to fall, just a little, under this brand’s spell.
“ROLEX IS THE BENCHMARK.”
JEAN-CLAUDE BIVER
Visionary and legend of the Swiss watchmaking industry
“Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality. Don’t put limitations on yourself. Others will do that for you.”
JAMES CAMERON Director and Rolex brand ambassador
Michael Köckritz
Publisher & Author
With supreme lightness and ease, journalist, author, artist and media creator Michael Köckritz consistently generates attention-grabbing content, leaving a lasting impression on current and future-facing themes and on the lifestyle and luxury worlds. The publisher and editor-in-chief brings to life a whole range of books and lifestyle magazines that have regularly won national and international awards for years. The car culture magazine ramp, the men’s lifestyle magazine rampstyle and the design magazine ramp.design appear internationally and are considered trendsetting publications in their respective genre.
