While a sleek, classy timepiece was the easy solution to the Met Gala red carpet, many attendees have run in the opposite direction over the past few years. In this brave new world of watchmaking, sports watches have gone from everyday watches to being a natural on the red carpet. Federer has long been attracted to this type of watch, wearing GMT And Daytona in his playing days. However, it’s funny to look at back to visit the Rolex booth in Watches & Wonders as an opportunity for him Final detailed scouting for his Met Gala suit (notice the first watch he featured on Instagram, after the essential selfie, was the 1908!). Rolex couldn’t have asked for a better launch party for its new watch.
Signs of Rolex’s history all date back to 1908. The name alludes to the year in which brand founder Hans Waldorf trademarked ‘Rolex.’ The watch was directly inspired by a watch from 1931. The brand chose that particular ticker because it was the first watch to feature a “permanent” rotor, a small weight on the movement. The movement of the watch rotates throughout the day and automatically wound the watch. The Arabic numerals at 12, 3 and 9 o’clock are directly inspired by this nearly century-old timepiece.
1908 is landing in the Rolex catalog just in time. After years of dominating sports watches, apparel models are starting to be pushed back. “The popularity of traditional dress models, especially in precious metals, has grown exponentially,” said David Hurley, deputy managing director of Watches of Switzerland, which sells new Rolex watches. in the past few years. Even Cellini was experiencing some strong bullish momentum before Rolex made the ban, Hurley said. Starting around January 2021, Hurley said Watches of Swiss put customers on a waiting list to buy Cellini and no one was even there to look inside the stores.
According to Hurley, 1908 got off to a strong start. Many customers have expressed interest in purchasing the watch or at least coming to see it in person. “For Rolex to release a brand new model, just because of who they are, the quality of their watches and their popularity, that would create a huge wave,” says Hurley. Notably, many female customers inquired about the 1908 model, an auspicious sign in advancing our brave new world of genderless watches.
The Met Gala red carpet is often home to the loudest fashion statements of the year. There’s nowhere else to look Sebastian Stan in hot pink Valentino from head to toe or Rihanna like the trendiest omelette in the world. But when it comes to what’s on attendees’ wrists, there are few launch pieces bigger than Federer’s underrated white gold 1908.
