The Rolex Sky-Dweller is an underrated watch. Hell, you can still sometimes find precious metal examples of this hefty-cased wristwatch in Rolex boutiques. Try doing that with a Daytona. But unlike many other Rolex pieces, the Sky-Dweller is a complicated companion despite its relatively simple design. In fact, while you might not immediately suspect it, this is the single most complicated Rolex according to its movement. Featuring the pretty remarkable Rolex in-house caliber 9001 (which holds more than a dozen patents in its design), the Sky-Dweller offers the time, date, second time zone, and month on its display, which also makes it an annual calendar.
How does it display the month? Above all of the stick indices around the dial is a small aperture that you might miss if you weren’t looking at it, which displays the month in red. There are 12 hours in a day, but also 12 months in a year, so Rolex decided to make the hour markers slightly more useful than they are normally. The ring you see at the 6 o’clock position displays the second time zone, with the red arrow you can see just below the Rolex crown at 12 o’clock. But how do you operate and set this complicated wonder that was first released in 2012?
This is a topic that is somewhat shrouded in mystery. Everyone knows that it involves the crown and the bezel, but no one seems to know exactly what you do with them, or in what order. Well, fear not, because our friend Wei Koh has put together a fantastic video where he not only shares details on the history of the most complicated Rolex, but also exactly how you set and operate the watch. It’s well worth a watch, so check it out here.
