New ROLEX Models

[TomBombadil]

I would shoot myself if Patek started to pull crap off like this.

Ditto! Fortunately we know that will never happen...

[eunomians]

The days of Rolex having a crown are over.

I sometimes comment upon the sheer nonsense of the contemporary entitiy of Rolex - but this time I'll say that the Richmont Group are to blame.

No more service for 1530, 1560/5 movements, no USA RSCs will not support 1570/5 movements; 1520s are being refused 90% of the time... It's a joke. If you can't support your historical lineage, you ain't worth sh*t. There are millions of 1680s, 5513s, 1675s out there. And no support??? No love for the MoD RN 5517s??? No love for the Comex dive teams? Or Tenzing Norgay reaching the summit of Everest??? Or Bond, James Bond? Or the entire Pilots' Assocation of PANAM 727s ushering in the Jet Age with Juan Trippe issued 6542s & 1675s????? Or Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier with 1675??? Or the countless military & civilian personnel who chose to wear Rolex due to its ruggedness and reliability??? Or the millions of scuba divers???? Or Apollo XIII? Or the trials at Daytona????

UTTER MICKEY MOUSE NONSENSE.

[eunomians]

[hk45ca]

i understand your opinion and i agree with you, but you can't go to ford and buy parts for your 1960 modle car either. no manufactuer that i am aware of supports their old products. i am not saying that is right but it is the world we live in. as much as their products cost, you should be able to get any help from them that you need. with all of that said i still want a rolly on the rocks with about 10 or 15 carrots of diamons set in it. a timex will tell you the time, but a rolex is about excess. it is a peice of jewlery that also happens to tell time. there is nothing conservative about it. if you don't like excess then go buy a pam ,vc, ap, patek or somthing else that says look i just spent a sl of money but it looks like a 200.00 watch. if you are going to roll high and hard, thats is all about excess and he who dies with the most wins. a rolex is a natural for that. it always has been and it always will be. rolex was loseing alot of money to the iceman in beverly hills. he is the one responsible for all of the very popular custom made jewlery that seem to be so unpopular with some you. these alterations were being done on a large scale. given rolexes status they pretty much had to show, if you can't roll with the big dogs stay on the damn porch and i agree fully. lets face it the reason you haven't see much of this done with the other high end watches is because the people that can afford this don't care about those other brands. if they did they would have them custom made. this area of the market belongs to rolex and it always will.

[By-Tor]

I agree 100% with Eunomians. They show no respect to their own history and customers... and vintage collectors.

For me Rolex means history. High quality stainless steel tool watches that are masculine and handsome. In the old days their watches were even reasonably priced.

The classic Sub/SD/Exp/GMT/Daytona line is still the #1 in the sports watch line but Omega is catching up them soon. The new PO chronograph was impressive and this is all Rolex can come up with: Horrible, tasteless, diamond wrapped gay watches like this.

6-0 to Omega in Basel.

[330cic]

They are trying to keep up with all the other bling, bling watches that all the celebs are wearing. I dont like any of them.

I was just about to mention that as well. Yes, Rolex has built itself on the reputaion of classic and CLASSY timepieces but ..... the dollar reigns supreme. If you dont believe me, as yourself. Do you think that these new watches WONT sell.

[By-Tor]

Do you think that these new watches WONT sell.

Unfortunately they do. But then again so do Britney Spears and MTV's this month's hottest rap artist.

It's still tasteless and embarrassing crap.

[archibald]

Man, i know Basel is all about getting press, and that there's no such thing as bad press, but those watches are an embarrassment. Maybe Rolex has finally embraced what many have known for a long time:People who buy contemporary rolexes tend to think of them as expensive pieces of jewelry primarily designed for wealth display purposes.

For me, Rolex represents the opposite aesthetic of the watches I love--Panerai, Muller, JLC, Parmigiani.

[eunomians]

As a wise man from Co said recently: you can take a Mercedes Gullwing to Mercedes Service Center and get it fixed. Ford, well, you can find every part for cheap... Wanna restore a freaky rare car like an Aston Martin Lagonda? No problem in the UK.

You can also take a 120 year old Patek petite sonnerie to their service centers and it is fully supported. You can take a trashed Omega Type 53 or a flooded SM300 to Bienne and Omega will service it. You can take an IWC MKX and send it Shauffhausen and sure enough, they will fix her up... Roll into Breguet AD with your great great great grandpa's pocket watch and Breguet will hook yo azz up!!!

Richmont is a jeweller/accessory peddler - not a watchmaking firm.

At this point, you can all put your 80s and earlier Rollies in the safe and forget about them since there is no more support for them.

[hk45ca]

As a wise man from Co said recently: you can take a Mercedes Gullwing to Mercedes Service Center and get it fixed. Ford, well, you can find every part for cheap... Wanna restore a freaky rare car like an Aston Martin Lagonda? No problem in the UK.

You can also take a 120 year old Patek petite sonnerie to their service centers and it is fully supported. You can take a trashed Omega Type 53 or a flooded SM300 to Bienne and Omega will service it. You can take an IWC MKX and send it Shauffhausen and sure enough, they will fix her up... Roll into Breguet AD with your great great great grandpa's pocket watch and Breguet will hook yo azz up!!!

Richmont is a jeweller/accessory peddler - not a watchmaking firm.

At this point, you can all put your 80s and earlier Rollies in the safe and forget about them since there is no more support for them.

i restore rare old cars and build custom hot rods, the stuff that you see on the barrette jackson auction. i have alot of cars i build go to that auction every year [especialy scottsdale az ] and i can assure you mb dosn't service anything on a gullwing door benz. every time i work on one of those peices of crap i always have to custom build every thing. that is one of the reasons those types of restos start at 75,000.00 and goes up from there. those cars are very cool but they are nothing but a pain in the butt

[hk45ca]

As a wise man from Co said recently: you can take a Mercedes Gullwing to Mercedes Service Center and get it fixed. Ford, well, you can find every part for cheap... Wanna restore a freaky rare car like an Aston Martin Lagonda? No problem in the UK.

You can also take a 120 year old Patek petite sonnerie to their service centers and it is fully supported. You can take a trashed Omega Type 53 or a flooded SM300 to Bienne and Omega will service it. You can take an IWC MKX and send it Shauffhausen and sure enough, they will fix her up... Roll into Breguet AD with your great great great grandpa's pocket watch and Breguet will hook yo azz up!!!

Richmont is a jeweller/accessory peddler - not a watchmaking firm.

At this point, you can all put your 80s and earlier Rollies in the safe and forget about them since there is no more support for them.

as for richmont, any body that deals in highend items, if it is broken, needs to be rebuilt or refinished, they will have the peices needed custom made, if you have the money. you have to remember we are talking about people that money is no object. it is the same in the car buisness, just because nobody services it don't mean it can't be done. i deal with this kind of thing all of the time. trust me, you will spend a $1,000.00 to have a gear made to fix a $100,000.00 watch, that is a no brainer. platinum, gold and diamonds will always have value. a ss watch? thats a very different story. they only have a value if somebody wants it. if not, it is just a worthless peice of metal. if you have to put your diamond set platinum rolly away because your worried you can't get it fixed you never had the money to own it in the first place. my customers still ware them. but on the other hand they have enough money to ware what ever they want.

[Hari Seldon]

I guess I don't know as much about Rolex as everybody else, but haven't they always had models like this as special order pieces? Maybe not the same exact models pictured but one can always order jeweled bezels, rare dials like meteorite or sodalite, etc. Obviously there is no supporting text with these pictures but I don't expect Rolex is saying these are the models that are going to be in every AD's window. So, since we all know Rolex doesn't have any "new" models to display at Basel, which is the shows purpose for many other watchmakers in the industry, they show their skill and breadth at modifying their current line with accessories. If there had been something new, like fitting a date to the Daytona or something like the suggested alarm on the GMT master (cool idea) I would expect them to display that. Isn't the fact that Rolex has the same line year after year with only small changes while the rest of the watchmaking world handles the innovation something that certain Rolex collectors admire?

[Kerbus]

i restore rare old cars and build custom hot rods, the stuff that you see on the barrette jackson auction. i have alot of cars i build go to that auction every year [especialy scottsdale az ] and i can assure you mb dosn't service anything on a gullwing door benz. every time i work on one of those peices of crap i always have to custom build every thing. that is one of the reasons those types of restos start at 75,000.00 and goes up from there. those cars are very cool but they are nothing but a pain in the butt

That's awesome! I'm addicted to watching Barrett Jackson. I recently went to the Amelia Island Concours and Rolexes ( probably most were gen given the clientele) were on loads of wrists. Saw a real live gullwing and a delapidated one for auction I'm sure that got some obscene price, but gotta love those cars and to wear a watch that fits right with them

[hk45ca]

That's awesome! I'm addicted to watching Barrett Jackson. I recently went to the Amelia Island Concours and Rolexes ( probably most were gen given the clientele) were on loads of wrists. Saw a real live gullwing and a delapidated one for auction I'm sure that got some obscene price, but gotta love those cars and to wear a watch that fits right with them

if you ever have the chance to go to scottsdale for the auction by all means go. you won't see as many highrollers in one place any where else at one time. it is a site to behold. there is a big differance between a rich person and a high roller. a rich person is seldom passionate about any thing. a highroller is very passionate about what ever it is that he likes. when it comes to cars, these people go crazy. if you go there you will see more than one bejewled rolex i promise you. and if you go up to one of them and tell them you think their diamond studded rolex is ugly they will tell you that they don't care what you or your patek think. then they will slam the door on their big block chevrolet, that they just paid $300,000.00 for and go screaming off into the sunset laughing their ass off at you and your watch. highrollers are a fun crowd to hang with. they like to have fun, not conservitive and not stuck up and they are totally unashamed of their money or their iceout rollys. they will tell you very quickly though if you can't roll with the big dogs don't even come out of the house much less get off of the porch.