The New Rolex Sky-Dweller watch

Only time will tell if buyers will accept the Sky-Dweller as a top tier offering from one of the world best known watch brands or if it will fail to find the same rabid fan-base that surrounds many of the marques more conservative models.

The way I see it, the Sky-Dweller is a bitter-sweet design from Rolex. On one hand, you have a complex but practical movement that integrates multiple complications into a simplified and pusher-free user interface and Rolex should be celebrated for the technical design and its implementation.

 I will do my best to explain these, but please see the included video as the visual is quite helpful. The annual calendar complication means the Sky-Dweller can account for how many days are in each month so, with the exception of leap years, the Sky-Dweller won’t need to have its date advanced for months with less than 31 days.
On the other hand, the Sky-Dweller is neither pretty or classic in terms of its visual design. It is essentially a large Datejust with a somewhat messy dial that may appeal to some well-heeled travelers.

Further more, the month itself is cleverly shown on the dial via an aperture at each hour marker (see photos, eight o’clock is a different color so the Sky-Dweller is indicating it’s August), very cool.
The fact that Rolex is not making a steel version of the Sky-Dweller could make this new model something of a novelty but I also I think that it is indicative of Rolex’s slow-but-steady march away from their tool watch roots.

Pricing has yet to be announced but given that a white gold 36mm Datejust (ref 116139) had a 2011 price of $20,500 USD, it’s safe to say that the Sky-Dweller, with its host of technical additions and improvements, will retail for far more.

Late last week, we showed you two new divers from Tudor and while they arguably stole the show from big-brother Rolex, that doesn’t mean Rolex didn’t come out and play at all.

The big announcement from Rolex this year is the new Sky-Dweller which offers some fantastic technology but unfortunately wraps it up in a dial design that seems to have left Basel attendees rather cold. This new 42mm model comes in the three variations seen below and offers a technological first for Rolex, a watch with both an annual calendar and dual timezones.