Sign up to Esquire's About Time newsletter, style director Johnny Davis’s straight-talking take on the wonderful world of watches.
Rolex has announced its new watches for 2024.
While speculation among commentators, connoisseurs and comedians on Reddit ran the gamut from a full-gold Explorer 36 to the resurrection of the Milguass – discontinued as long ago as 2023 – in any number of forms from a version with a honeycomb dial to one with resistance to magnetic fields so strong it could survive time inside an MRI machine – Rolex has done what Rolex does and defied all predictions.
Under the tagline 'Where the Iconic meets the Unexpected', for 2024* we get the GMT-Master II in Oystersteel with the Cerachrom bezel insert in grey and black ceramic introduced to the range in 2023, in two versions – one with our Oyster bracelet, the other with our Jubilee bracelet.
There are new Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 40s. One fashioned from 18 kt Everose gold, with a slate ombré dial, with faceted, deconstructed Roman numerals and faceted index hour markers in 18 kt pink gold.
This second version of the Day-Date 40, crafted in 18 kt white gold, features a pearlized white mother-of-pearl dial: a first for this model.
There's a new light blue version of the 1908 dress watch debuted last year with a rice-grain motif on the dial is created via guillochage, or engine turning.
The Rolex Deepsea now comes in 18 kt yellow gold, decked out in blue and featuring a new combination of materials: gold, paired with elements in ceramic and RLX titanium.
The Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller now comes in 18 kt Everose or yellow gold and is available on a Jubilee bracelet for the first time.
There are also two new versions of the Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona with dials that contrast white and black natural mother-of-pearl and a bezel set with diamonds.
*so far
