Winners of Le Mans Won't Be Awarded a Rolex 'Le Mans'

(Photo credit: Motorsport)

On June 15th at 4.00 p.m. local time, 186 drivers across 62 cars will contest motor sport’s legendary race against the clock, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Rolex, which has supported the French race since 2001, uploaded a one-minute clip Saturday. And though the video features a two-tone Daytona, it’s not the watch that will be awarded to the triumphant drivers gracing the podium, we've been told.

It won't be the Rolex Daytona “Le Mans” either — which comes in precious metal only — but the black-dial Daytona in steel, reference 126500LN, the same model that’s been awarded to drivers last year.

Rolex Reaches Tennis Summit Again

(Photo credit: Rolex & Jannik Sinner’s Instagram)

Jannik Sinner, a 22-year-old brand ambassador for Rolex, has become the No. 1-ranked tennis player in the world dethroning Novak Djokovic who has held that spot for 428 weeks in his career.

Sinner, the first Italian to become No. 1 in tennis, was wearing a two-tone Rolex GMT-Master II on Tuesday, when he was awarded the ATP World No. 1 trophy by the association.

Rolex holds both top spots in tennis now that Sinner and female player Iga Świątek are ranked first. Rolex has been recruiting players increasingly young, as these pages reported, sometimes in their teens. When Sinner was signed by Rolex, in early 2020, the 18-year-old Italian had never reached past the second tour of any Grand Slam tournament.

Rolex's position at the peak of tennis seems secure, at least for a while, as the No. 2 spots for both men and women — Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff — are also Rolex Testimonees in their early twenties.

Rolex's Real Estate Empire Grows... in Subsidized Housing

The first two buildings in this rendering were bought by Rolex. (Image credit: Favre et Guth SA)

Rolex’s real estate arm has acquired two apartment buildings out of the five that are projected to be built in Lancy, Switzerland, near Geneva, a 33-million-franc investment, according to la Feuille d’Avis Officielle, Geneva’s public notices.

Rolex's real estate portfolio has been well documented, including in these pages. The acquisition in Lancy is the latest sign the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a non-profit organization and the sole owner of Rolex SA, still has millions to park despite the projected decline in the Swiss watch industry and Rolex’s upcoming 1-billion-franc tab for a fifth facility slated in Bulle.

Still, if Rolex watches appear more luxurious than ever, its real estate empire provides an interesting contrast. In 2022, the Crown bought three hotels and turned them over to a group of charities to help the unhoused. For this acquisition in Lancy, only 10% of the apartments will be condos for sale while the majority will provide government-subsidized housing: 60% of the apartments will be rent-free; 30%, low-rent.

Rolex Reshuffles Leadership After Employee Complaints

(Photo credit: Rolex)

Rolex said it has reshuffled the department which oversees warranty care worldwide after employee reports of harassment at the “highest level” prompted the brand to cancel job contracts, a rare peek inside the watchmaker's employment practices.

“After noticing a breakdown in one of its services, Rolex immediately took the necessary measures to put an end to the situation,” a spokesperson at Rolex said. “The measures taken led to contract terminations at different levels of the hierarchy, including at the highest, and resulted in the complete reorganization of the service in question.”

According to Unia, the largest labor union in Switzerland, Rolex employees who work at the World Service department had reported a drop in work conditions — prompting some to quit, go on sick leave or retire early — after a change in leadership in 2016.

Still, the union said Rolex had been good to communicate with. “Rolex SA, signatory of the watchmaking CCT [Labor Collective Agreement], has provided a stable social partnership, one that has even improved in recent years in Geneva,” Unia said.

What a Weekend for Rolex

Rolex is more omnipresent in sports than ever, the latest sign the brand’s long-term marketing strategy to be the mark of success — as it breaks record earnings — seems to be paying off.

In a Grand Slam tennis tournament sponsored by Rolex, both Men's Singles and Women’s Singles were won this weekend by Rolex ambassadors, raising trophies with a Daytona and a Datejust, respectively.

Meanwhile, the No. 1 golf player in the world, Scottie Scheffler, a Rolex ambassador, logged his 5th PGA Tour win of the season, also wearing a Datejust, in an event attended by legendary player Jack Nicklaus, a Rolex ambassador for more than five decades.

Jamie Chadwick, a 26-year-old car racer recruited by Rolex two years ago, won the Grand Prix of Road America also on Sunday, the first woman to win an INDY NXT road race since 2010. Rolex ambassador Kent Farrington logged his first victory in the CSIO Jumping International de La Baule, an event sponsored by the brand.

And that’s just for this weekend. The world’s leading monohull yacht racing circuit, the 52 Super Series, began Monday, an event sponsored by… you guessed it… Rolex.

New Discovery Reveals Mystery Rolex in Hands of Founder

(Photo credit: Jake’s Rolex World)

A mystery Rolex featured in a famous photo of Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf was finally identified. The discovery was made by Jake Ehrlich of Jake’s Rolex World after coming across a 1943 edition of the Revue Internationale de l'Horlogerie.

The Rolex reference 4257 — a ghost if you research it on the internet — has a design so bizarre that Rolex has altered the famous photo and replaced the watch in the hands of its founder in “The Man Behind the Crown” video released last November.

(Screenshot from Rolex.org)

Rolex 4257 features a wavy bracelet that contains a small square dial concealed by a clasp, as seen on page 23 of the Revue Internationale de l'Horlogerie from 1943.

Rolex Reveals Details of Bulle Project

(Image credit: Rolex)

Rolex has revealed new details ahead of an application for a building permit published Friday in the Feuille officielle du canton de Fribourg, including the first rendering of the project, which is estimated to top one billion Swiss francs.

No fewer than eleven cranes will be used to build the new manufacture, Rolex’s fifth, in Bulle, Switzerland, a project that will be completed in phases by 2030. The manufacture will span 380 meters, or 415 yards. Rolex said the idea is to give it a “campus feel.”

All four buildings will be used for production and be connected for “administration, support, catering, meeting and rest areas,” Rolex said. At the southern tip, a fifth building will house the main entrance to the site.

Rolex will also set up a system to collect and treat rainwater for the grounds; no drinking water will be used for the 32,000 square meters [7.9 acres] of landscaping planned. The brand will also add 2,750 square meters [0.7 acres] of “wet surface friendly to amphibians.” Rolex will plant 500 trees, and all roofs will be equipped with solar panels.

Rolex Readies Video Launch for World Oceans Day

(Credit: Rolex)

Rolex will release a new video on its social media channels for World Oceans Day on June 8.

The 1:17 video will highlight explorers and oceanographers leading the discovery and protection of the seas — and Rolex's involvement to support them. The video, which opens with Trieste’s deepest dive in 1960, will emphasize how the brand has switched from supporting exploration projects for the thrill of discovery to one for the protection of the planet.

“As we discovered more, we found a greater purpose: not only to explore but to protect,” Rolex said in the video.

Stallone's Rolex Sells for Nearly $100K

(Image credit: Sotheby’s)

Sylvester Stallone's Rolex has exceeded experts’ expectations. As reported in these pages, the Academy Award-winning director and actor is letting go of his collection, including a 2016 olive-green-dial Rolex Day-Date in rose gold with "SLY" engraved on the caseback.

Auction house Sotheby's estimated Stallone’s timepiece to go from $25,000 to $50,000. But it sold for almost double that — $96,000 plus auction fees, the latest sign watch provenance still wields power at auctions.

“This watch provided hours and hours of joy,” Stallone said in a video by Sotheby's.

Swiss Watch Exports 'Surprisingly Strong'

(Photo credit: Jake’s Rolex World)

The monthly statistics presented Thursday by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry surprised luxury experts. The decline recorded in the first quarter did not continue in April. Watch exports for April are up 4.3% compared to the same month in 2023.

At the opening of Watches and Wonders last month, Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour predicted 2024 would “be a challenge. A phase in which all manufacturers were doing well is coming to an end,” Dufour told Swiss newspaper NZZ.

Jean-Philippe Bertschy, a luxury goods analyst at Vontobel, a private banking and investment management group based in Zurich, said in his morning notes on Thursday: “The April statistics turned out to be surprisingly strong, at +4.5%. We expected a decline of 10%.”

China was the only one of the top ten export markets to show a drop, at -7.5%, a decline that was less than expected. The Swiss leading market, the United States, was up a robust 11.6% year-over-year. Japan registered the highest increase of all markets, at 13.6%.

In New Louis Vuitton Ad, Roger Federer Sports Rolex

(Photo credit: Annie Leibovitz/LV)

Tennis legend and Rolex brand ambassador Roger Federer rocked a Rolex Daytona next to Rafael Nadal during Louis Vuitton’s latest ad campaign shot by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz.

The newly released campaign features the tennis champions in a “rare off-the-court pairing, ascending to the summit of Italy’s Dolomites mountain range,” according to Louis Vuitton. Besides the white-gold Daytona on Federer’s wrist, the tennis players were sporting LV bags.

For the campaign, Nadal and Federer are “not competitors but instead companions for one another on the journey up the mountain — a visual metaphor for their careers,” the luxury brand said. Federer’s meteorite-dial Daytona sits prominently on his wrist while it’s unclear if the Spaniard is wearing a Richard Mille, a brand with which he’s had a partnership.

Kevin Costner Rocks Rolex 'Pepsi' for GQ

(Photo credit: Fanny Latour-Lambert/GQ)

The cover star of GQ’s Summer 2024 issue is Kevin Costner in a bright orange anorak — a callback to the actor’s first appearance on GQ's cover in May 1987 — with a Rolex GMT-Master II ‘Pepsi’ 126710BLRO on the actor’s wrist.

Costner is the first star on GQ's cover to wear a watch since Donald Glover wore a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso in April of 2023.

The Rolex GMT is not part of Costner's personal collection, we've been told, just an accessory that accompanied Costner throughout the shoot for the magazine’s main feature, where he’s interviewed about “Horizon,” his latest project.

The Rolex is featured with Costner’s cable-knit cardigan as he’s enjoying a beer and again when he gazes into the Pacific Ocean in a faded crewneck sweatshirt. See more photos here.

Rolex Unsuccessfully Sues Perpétuel

The “Perpetual” element of Rolex SA's trademark is not so distinct that it merits protection from “Perpétuel,” the name of a United Arab Emirates-based luxury watch boutique — that’s according to the ruling by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office.

From similar-sounding names to customized watches bearing its logo, Rolex has been on a war path against trademark dilution lately. These pages reported this year alone on Rolex’s fights against Artisans de Genève, Texas-based BeckerTime and even the greeting card company Hallmark. Rolex is still in a lawsuit against a Florida-based real-estate firm called “Roleks Group LLC.”

In its latest lawsuit, Rolex was trying to block Perpétuel from registering a trademark series in the U.K. But Rolex failed to prove that consumers could confuse “Perpétuel” with the watchmaker's “Oyster Perpetual” brand name.

In an interesting twist, Perpétuel countersued, trying to block Rolex from protecting its international “Perpetual” trademark in the U.K., but was unsuccessful, as well.

Rolex 'Pepsi' Value Drops After W&W

(Data: WatchCharts.com)

The value of the Rolex GMT-Master II 126710BLRO has reversed trend since April 2024, when rumors of its discontinuation proved wrong at Watches and Wonders, a sign speculators are still very much active on the Rolex market.

The GMT Master II with the red and blue “Pepsi” bezel had been defying Rolex's pre-owned market trends since last autumn, as first reported in these pages, amid speculation Rolex would be discontinuing its ultra-popular BLRO at this year’s Watches and Wonders.

Rumors suggested that the failure rate for the manufacture of the iconic blue-and-red 24-hour bezel for the GMT is so high that Rolex would cut the watch from its catalog.

Even publications like WatchPro reported rumors in November that production of the Pepsi bezel was proving problematic, and the reference would be facing the axe in 2024.

New Discovery Shows Rolex Used to Alter Photos

A watch writer based in Australia has recently made an interesting discovery about a Rolex brochure. Nick Gould posted on his Instagram account on Saturday that Rolex tinkered with a picture to show a navigator in the 1950s wearing a GMT-Master while in fact he wasn't wearing one, a sign of how far the brand was willing to go to market its watches as professional tools.

Nick said he had recently stumbled upon the original photo by accident. The 1955 photo shows a navigator taking Loran readings, an early radio system used for long-range navigation. In the original photo, the man wears a white-dial watch that looks nothing like a Rolex.

The picture used by Rolex and captioned “…for pilots, ships' captains, navigators, travellers and members of the Armed Forces” shows a GMT-Master on the wrist of the navigator. Rolex seemed to have super-imposed a drawn GMT-Master 6542 on his wrist — an early method of “photoshopping,” as Nick puts it — and used the picture for the cover of the GMT-Master booklet included with the watch.

Federer Rocks Rolex Daytona 'Le Mans' in New Film Poster

(Credit: Amazon Prime)

Amazon Prime announced this week the documentary exploring the final twelve days of Roger Federer’s career will premiere on June 20, and the official poster released shows the tennis star wearing a Rolex Daytona “Le Mans.”

“Federer: Twelve Final Days” is directed by Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia, and takes a behind-the-scenes look at the 20-time Grand Slam champion’s final moments in his career. A trailer was released on Wednesday.

Anachronistically, Federer is wearing a Daytona “Le Mans” on the official poster though the final days portrayed in the film take place at the Laver Cup in September 2022, nine months before the watch was released.

Rolex High-Profile Brand Ambassador Arrested

(Image source: Rolex)

Scottie Scheffler, a Rolex brand ambassador and the No.1 ranked golf player in the world, was arrested on Friday morning as he tried to make his way into the PGA Championship in Louisville, Ky.

The 27-year-old was booked on four separate charges: felony assault of a police officer, misdemeanor criminal mischief, misdemeanor reckless driving and misdemeanor disregarding signals from officers directing traffic, according to jail records.

It’s unclear if the arrest will jeopardize his contract with Rolex. The brand stuck by Tiger Woods after the pro golfer pleaded guilty to reckless driving, in 2017.

The records show Scheffler has since been released. “I never intended to disregard any of the instructions,” he said in a statement. “I'm hopeful to put this to the side and focus on golf today.”