BREAKING NEWS: Mysterious Rolex Launch August 4th

Felix Scholz

UPDATE: To see all the details of the new Rolex Deepsea D Blue, click here.

Now, usually a website update – and a three word update at that – does not constitute “breaking news” status. But when that website is Rolex, and the update is a mysterious teaser, that changes everything.

Rolex, aside from making watches of the highest quality are the kings of tease marketing – generating almost as much gossip and rumour as Apple.

The update we’re referring to shows a the detail of a case which is probably the Deepsea Sea-Dweller, with a single drop of water on the side. On its own this isn’t much, but the distinctively blue hue of the image is tantalising. We suspect that this out of character announcement, well out of the usual new release schedule, has something to do with the incoming CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour, who may want to start his reign at Rolex with a bang. For newcomers to Time+Tide, we broke the news that Dufour was moving from Zenith to Rolex, and published a 5-minute crash course on him, here.

And while we’re not sure what Rolex are launching (the Time+Tide ninja team, very active this week, was no match for the Rolex security cordon) we can make some educated guesses. So with no further ado, in order from least exciting to most exciting, our speculation on the mysterious  August 4 announcement.

 

1. Something related to the release of the James Cameron Deepsea Challenge movie

While this could still be cool, if it’s something tied to Cameron’s recent exploration of the Mariana Trench it’s not likely to be a new watch. Which is less cool. If it’s just the movie about the mission – to be shown in Sydney on August the 8th to a select group, including us – then that would be just plain cruel.

2. A Blue Deepsea Sea-Dweller

Rolex have had the blues in 2014 in the best possible way. This year alone released the new Sea-dweller AND a Blue Milgauss, and Tudor hit a home run with the Blue Black Bay. SO, just maybe Rolex is releasing a hot new blue model in their top end professional diver. We’ve included a mock up of what this model could look like from our friends at Monochrome (who have an excellent track record for Rolex model prediction).

3. A New Case material or finishing – A blue Cerachrom case?

There is a thriving aftermarket industry in blacked out and otherwise modded Rolex. Yet, Rolex has never released an official black model. Probably due to concerns about the ability to refinish cases up to their high standards. Is it possible that Rolex have managed to come up with a wondrous new substance that allows them to produce coloured watch cases? Perhaps some sort of metal alloy? Or even a coloured cerachrom case. This would be freaking amazing. All we know is we can’t wait to see what Rolex launch August 4th.

Stay tuned for updates as we get them!