Rolex: The Impossible Collection

The Library Essay

The Tool Watch Outranked the Jewel

Rolex built its name on usefulness proved in public. The Oyster case of 1926 made the wristwatch waterproof, and the young swimmer Mercedes Gleitze wore one across the Channel the following year; the self-winding Perpetual followed, then the diver's Submariner, the pilot's GMT-Master and the racer's Daytona. The paradox of the brand is that these instruments, designed for wet and dangerous work, became the most recognised luxury objects on earth.

Fabienne Reybaud selects the hundred references that built that standing, the milestone models and the rarities collectors chase, for Assouline's Ultimate Collection; this second edition of 2023 updates her 2019 original. Set in order, the watches show a company that changed slowly and deliberately for a century, which turned out to be the most desirable strategy of all.