After two long years of amplified phone calls, the annual Watches & Wonders conference returns. For those new to the world of luxury watches, the Watches & Wonders conference is a major trade show where some of the world’s biggest and most prestigious watch brands come together to showcase their new products for the new year. For our soccer readers, to use a sports metaphor, think of it as the Super Bowl of luxury watches. With over 40 brands in attendance, such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tudor, IWC and more, it can be overwhelming to follow everything that’s happening, especially for those new to the industry. That’s why in this article we will analyze some of the new releases, especially Rolex, and what this means for the Rolex brand.
Rolex GMT Master II 126720
First, we’ll turn to the new Rolex GMT Master 126720. it goes without saying that this new model has garnered a lot of attention, both good and bad, due to its quirky design choices. The design change here is obvious, with the crown and date wheel placed on the left side of the replica rolex air king watches, which you could argue is an odd decision given that only 10% of the population is left-handed. Understandably, the internet has had some very unkind comments about this. Many commenters mocked the watch, claiming that it looks like the people who made it did it upside down, and that the GMT Master II is one of Rolex’s serious watches, so why they would make it a “funny” model that makes it look like a left-handed watch doesn’t make any sense. To put things in perspective for Rolex, if some people aren’t left-handed, they might like the design because the crown doesn’t press against their hand. Depending on how many people end up liking the fact that there is no longer a crown pressing down on their hand, this new design could actually end up being a huge hit and could influence the way watches are designed in the future. Every strange fashion trend that ever became mainstream started with a bold designer who wasn’t afraid to question the status quo. However, the innovations of the GMT Master II 126720 are not limited to the crown and date wheel, but also to a new colour combination, namely black and green. Previously, in terms of colour combinations, the Rolex “Pepsi” featured a combination of red and black, while the Rolex “Batman” featured a combination of black and blue, as seen in the image above. While it remains to be seen how the watch community will react to the new colour choice, if history is any indication, it should be well received, although that may be hard to say due to the fact that the design will cause many watch enthusiasts to avoid the watch altogether.
To continue, we will introduce the new Rolex Day-Date 228236. Here, the biggest change is that it features a fluted 950 platinum bezel, the first time Rolex has done this. This is a big change compared to the previous year, as the previous Day-Date had a round bezel, even though both cases were still made of platinum. Aside from the bezel, not much has really changed with the Day-Date: it still has an ice-blue dial, Roman numerals for the dial numbers, and it’s the exact same size as the previous model. Given how similar the new model is to the previous year’s model, and how successful the previous year’s model was, it is expected that the new Day-Date for 2022 should be a great success for Rolex.
Next, we have the new Yacht-Master 42. This new model contrasts with last year’s model in that it is made of yellow gold instead of the white gold of the previous year. Apart from the colour change, there aren’t really many other changes to talk about, as almost everything else remains the same. It still has the same 3235 movement, the 42mm case, and the Oysterflex rubber strap, just to name a few. The Yacht Prestige line has traditionally done well in the luxury watch industry, so there is no reason to think that this year’s model will be any different.
Finally, we will analyze arguably the most popular of all new Rolex releases, the Rolex Air King 126900. the biggest change that everyone is talking about is the decision to change the design of the dial numerals. Whereas in the previous year, the number 5 on the dial was only shown as “5” on the timepiece, this year it is shown as “05”. Now you may be wondering why Rolex would do this and what does it matter? While the extra “0” may seem so insignificant, there is an important reason why Rolex made this change, and that is for symmetry. In design, it is a widely accepted principle that symmetry equals beauty, so it makes perfect sense for Rolex to go down this path. It is also a differentiator for Rolex, as this design is not common in the watch world, so it will be interesting to see if this new symmetrical dial design ends up being copied by many other rolex replica watches usa brands, just as other famous Rolex designs such as the Submariner have been copied.
What is important to understand here is that Rolex has not officially announced which products will be discontinued, thus creating speculation in the watch world as to which models will be discontinued. If you’re new to the world of luxury watches, trying to figure out which models will be discontinued is a big deal because the value of whichever models are discontinued soars, so it becomes a game similar to speculating on the stock market. So, in this section, we will speculate ourselves on the models we think might be discontinued, but it is important to note that this is all speculation and is not meant to be taken as a recommendation. First of all, the first model we will speculate on is the GMT Master II “Batman”. The reason behind this is that this could theoretically be discontinued since Rolex introduced the new GMT Master II with a green and black dial, as Rolex is currently limited in the number of models it can make. Another model that we speculate will be discontinued is the Oyster Perpetual with the Tiffany dial. The reason behind this hypothesis is that Rolex has reduced their offerings of the 41mm Oyster Perpetual, specifically the Tiffany dial. If Rolex continues this trend and discontinues the Oyster Perpetual Tiffany Dial, you can expect the price of this watch to skyrocket even more than it already has since the Patek Philippe Dial was auctioned for $6.5 million.
Summing up
Now that we’ve covered the new Rolex releases this year, we now know the new models and how they differ from the previous ones. Looking ahead, we will see what speculation we have about which models will be discontinued. While new models have been released, it remains to be seen how these models are received and which ones will be discontinued and which ones will not.