Rolex Cellini Prince
There has never been a watch company as successful as Rolex in the history of the world. It doesn’t matter what happens to the world around us: financial crashes, global pandemics, Elon Musk – Rolex carries on making watches and making money. They seem to be masters of all they survey, except……that they are useless at reissues. While firms like Tag Heuer and Cartier reissue their ‘greatest hits’ to universal acclaim, Rolex has failed with every single one of their reissues.
Their first reissue in recent years was The Prince, or the Cellini Prince, to give it its proper name. Rolex really went all in with this reissue, with four different case and dial designs, a brand new movement, and their first production watch with a sapphire caseback.
But the problem was twofold: the original Prince was elegant and almost austere in its case design whilst the new one was chunky and over-decorated. Also, people didn’t see it as a Rolex – half a century’s worth of advertising and promotion told the public that a Rolex was waterproof and automatic and told you the date. The Prince did none of these, it struggled valiantly for a decade but vanished from the catalogue in 2015.
Rolex Milgauss Ref. 1019, image credit: Amsterdam Vintage Watches
I have never understood why Rolex brought back the Milgauss in 2007, the model had been launched twice previously, in 1956 as the 6541 and 6543, it was so unsuccessful that Rolex USA was still giving them away as prizes almost ten years later, seven years after the replacement reference 1019 had been launched.
The 1019 fared little better, it was the firm’s slowest seller for almost all of its existence and was finally delisted in 1988. Despite developing a special green sapphire glass for the watch and later a blue dial version to go with the original white or black dials it never really took off and was discontinued in 2022.
Rolex Turn-O-Graph Ref. 116264, image credit: Analog:Shift
If any Rolex should have succeeded, it was the Turn-O-Graph; the initial version, the 6202 from the early ‘50s may not have been a huge success, but the follow-up Datejust Turn-O-Graph progressed through models 6309, 6609 and 1625 and became really popular after the USAF Thunderbirds adopted it as their team timepiece. If Rolex wanted the new Datejust Turn-O-Graph to succeed, all they would have needed would have been to replicate the bezel of the 1625 and fix it to the new watch.
But Rolex chose a different path, the rotating bezel was completely redesigned, it now looked like the bastard offspring of a regular Datejust bezel and the 1625’s with fluting for almost 75% of the surface and the 10 minute markers crouching down between the fluted areas as if they were ashamed. Maybe Rolex were ashamed of the watch, after only 7 years in the catalogue it disappeared in 2011 and hasn’t returned.
If you look at people like Tag Heuer and Cartier who are very successful with their reissues, what they get right is that their reissues stay close to the originals, and even when they are different – look at the original Heuer Monaco and the current one – they retain the ‘spirit’ of the original, and this is something that Rolex have avoided, instead of issuing a homage to the original, they insist on producing a pastiche.
Rolex Land-Dweller
Ironically, the best reissue that Rolex have ever done was this year’s launch of the Land-Dweller, a watch which perfectly captured the spirit of the Rolex Datejust reference 1630 from the late 1970s, it’s not a one-to-one recreation, but it perfectly captures the style and feel of the original case and bracelet.
What I love about the decision to produce an homage to the 1630 is that they chose to base the new watch design not one of their best sellers, but on probably the most niche watch they ever made. The 1630 was made for only two years, sold only in the US and looked unlike any contemporary Rolex model. It’s as if someone rediscovered it in the Rolex archives and thought to themselves “This design deserved better, let’s relaunch it”. And I am glad that they did and I guarantee this will be the exception that proves the rule.
I love the 1630. I own an OQ. I am one of the few who didn’t want a reissue of the OQ aesthetic. I am done with this trend of looking back and throwing out something that resembles the past. Watches and their beauty lie in their ability to tell the time correctly and with an element of panache. Use these 2 barometers to move watchmaking forward. If you want to past its there to be consumed.
Good evening James – great article. It just showed up in my Google feed and took me straight back to my days living in the TZ Rolex forum!
The problem is Rolex do not have much to work with. All their watches are variations of the datejust. They can only vary that design so much. Some will work and some will not. When they try something new with the Cellini for example nobody wants it.