(Photo credit: Rolex)
When Rolex introduced the Land-Dweller collection at Watches and Wonders 2025, an unexpected detail Coronet noticed wasn’t the 5Hz movement or the use of white Rolesor. It was the size — and the person wearing it.
Yuja Wang, a classically trained pianist from China, also known for her daring fashion choices, was picked by the brand to debut the smallest size in Rolex’s new Classic collection: a still-noticeable 36mm. The Land-Dweller on the pianist’s slender wrist looked bold for a dress piece but not incongruous.
Information about Wang’s actual height is hard to come by. But in Coronet’s research, she’s often described by herself or interviewers as tiny, petite and slender, barely over five feet tall. That’s why the choice to launch a 36mm timepiece with an integrated bracelet on Wang’s wrist felt counterintuitive and a bit radical for Rolex.
(Photo credit: Rolex)
Still, the brand’s decision to select Wang comes at a time when the lines between masculine and feminine sizes are blurring across watch fashion.
While men’s preferences have been trending smaller, eschewing the 43mm Sea-Dweller, for example, women are embracing larger, more conspicuous designs. By choosing Wang to debut its latest model, Rolex is signaling that 36mm is no longer too small for men or too big for women, a message reinforced by the presence of 36mm watches in its professional lineup.
“There is a definite trend towards smaller case sizes for men, and it has been an ongoing trend towards women buying bigger case sizes,” said Brian Duffy, the CEO of the largest Rolex retailer in the U.K., Watches of Switzerland, in a recent interview on the Luxury Society Podcast. “And they converge in the middle,” he said.