Just one day after its release, Rolex’s new video celebrating 100 years of the Oyster is already among the most viewed on the brand’s 14-year-old YouTube channel. With 33 million views in 24 hours, it trails only two clips in Rolex’s massive content library, which nears 1,000 uploads. At 23 minutes, it is also one of the brand’s longest videos, a format now favored by YouTube’s algorithm as more viewers consume content on TV screens, where audiences are less likely to skip advertisements.
In the final minute of the video, which beautifully recounts the history of the Oyster and its century-long legacy of adventure and exploration, the voiceover looks to the future, saying there “always will be new boundaries to break, worlds to discover, history to be made. And Rolex will be there, standing alongside the next generation of pioneers.”
But the rapid-fire montage tied to those remarks has little to do with pioneers, pilots, divers or polar explorers breaking boundaries or discovering new worlds. Instead, it shows tennis players, golfers, skiers, actors, musicians, equestrians and yachtsmen — celebrity athletes basking in victory. Rolex’s “next generation of pioneers” is making history at Wimbledon, in Augusta, at the Oscars and in concert halls worldwide.
In the next 100 years, it is hard to imagine Rolex not leaning further into sports and exclusivity, as it now counts a record 153 Testimonees and sponsors more elite sporting events than ever. Since 2025, it has also included actors for the first time. The only explorer shown in the final montage is filmmaker James Cameron during his Mariana Trench expedition 14 years ago. Since then, Rolex has stopped supporting exploration for discovery’s sake, focusing instead on exploration tied to protecting the planet, an important and laudable goal for its next century.
Still, those planet protectors, from Alain Hubert to David Doubilet, Sylvia Earle or Dawa Yangzum Sherpa, account for less than 10% of Rolex’s overall roster of Testimonees. If the brand wishes environmental exploration to define its next century, it may eventually need to give such figures a more central role than that presently occupied by Roger Federer, Zendaya or the PGA Championship.