Rolex
To the casual observer, it is easy to think a Rolex is a Rolex, is a Rolex. Catch a rush-hour Tube on certain London Underground lines and you’ll see near-identical Rolex on the wrists of the suited and booted. Check these replica watches.
But dig a little deeper into the Geneva firm’s range, and you’ll discover a broad portfolio of timepieces. We can’t possibly say there is a Rolex for every budget, because you’re never going to get much change from seven or eight thousand, but there’s much more to the brand than classy wristwear to show off in meetings or at dinner.
- T3’s guide to the best watches for men
- The best watches under £1000
- 5 best watches to invest in right now
As well as the classics, Rolex offers a ‘professional’ range, which includes timepieces developed for specific careers and hobbies, like yachting, diving, driving and flying.
Here then, is the T3 guide to the best Rolex to suit your lifestyle.
FOR THE TRAVELLER: ROLEX GMT MASTER II
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Launched in the mid-1950s and originally designed for airline pilots, the GMT-Master – as its name might well suggest – is a GMT watch. This means that, as well as the regular hour, minute and second hands, it has another hand for telling the time at GMT – that is, Greenwich Meantime, as observed by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London.
This extra hand rotates around a 24-hour bezel. That way, you can always tell what time it is in your current location, and GMT/UTC – handy when travelling for business or pleasure.
That 24-hour bezel, by the way, is made from extremely hard ceramic, and its blue and red finish gives the GMT Master the nickname of the ‘Pepsi Rolex’. At 40mm, the GMT-Master II is a surprisingly compact timepiece for its design.
- Buy the Rolex GMT Master II at Chronext
FOR THE DIVER: ROLEX SUBMARINER
The Submariner may look similar to the GMT-Master at first glance, but this is an altogether tougher timepiece, capable of being submerged up to 300 metres (1,000 feet). This is a significant improvement on the original Submariner, which was the first watch to be water resistant to a depth of 100 metres when it launched back in 1953.
Being a true diving watch, the Submariner meets the ISO 6425 standard, which means it is not only water resistant to great depths, but is also unfazed by salty seawater, condensation, magnetism, and rapid changes in pressure and temperature.
The watch features a unidirectional, 60-minute rotating bezel to help divers accurately and safely measure how long they have been underwater. The bezel is made from Cerachrom, the same Rolex-developed, corrosion-resistant, ceramic material as on the GMT-Master.
The Submariner has a 41mm diameter case, with a screw-down winding crown, magnified date complication at three o’clock, and an automatic 3235 calibre movement with approximately 70 hours of power reserve.
- Buy the Rolex Submariner at Chronext
FOR THE RACING DRIVER: ROLEX COSMOGRAPH DAYTONA
Watch just five minutes of the Daytona or Le Mans 24-hour motor races on television, and you’ll no doubt see an advert for the Rolex Daytona. Widely considered the motorsport timepiece, the Cosmograph Daytona has been with us since 1963 and has appeared on the wrists of some of the world’s most successful drivers.
Being a wristwatch intended for motorsport and time-keeping, the Rolex Daytona features a second hand which displays an accurate reading to one-eighth of a second, plus two dials showing elapsed time in hours and minutes.
Additionally, the 40mm non-rotating bezel can be used as a tachymeter, indicating the units per hour of any moving object you care to time. Say you want to work out the average speed of a land-speed record car as it passes through the measured mile (as we are sure all T3 readers do of a weekend). Click the button at two o’clock to start the second hand, then again to stop the hand once the car passes the mile marker; the number pointed at on the bezel is the car’s average speed in miles per hour.
The Rolex Daytona is water resistant to 100 metres and has a long power reserve of approximately 72 hours.
- Buy the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona at Chronext
FOR THE ADVENTURER: ROLEX EXPLORER
The Rolex Explorer is the brand’s most understated steel sports watch, but, for that reason, it’s one of our favourites. The Explorer has a rich history, which begins with a Perpetual Oyster that Sir Edmund Hillary’s pioneering ascent to Mount Everest in 1953. To commemorate his (and the watch’s) achievement, Rolex released the Oyster Perpetual Explorer that same year.
Today, Rolex offers two Explorer models, a 39mm Explorer, and 42mm Explorer II (pictured above). They may looks completely different, but both are designed for extreme environments.
The Explorer’s design remains very true to the original, with a black dial, large, legible numerals, and a durable Oyster case.
