HAPPY BUBBLES
For the Geneva-based watchmaker, it’s time to celebrate with a turquoise dial sparkling with colorful bubbles on three new steel watches unveiled in early spring.
A lyrical flight of colored balloons in a cerulean sky. This is the image that comes to mind when discovering the faces of the new Oyster Perpetual references presented last spring at the Watches and Wonders trade show in Geneva. Following on from the success of the plain shades – cotton candy pink, azure blue, sunshine yellow, coral red and emerald green – unveiled three years ago, Rolex has used this color chart to create “Celebration”, a festive decoration composed of bubbles of different sizes bordered by a thin black edging.
Gathered in the lower part of the dial, between 3 and 9 o’clock, on a turquoise background, in a joyful ensemble, some of which escape to join the crown, the symbol of Rolex, applied at 12 o’clock, these spheres are contained, like an enclosure, by a luminescent hour circle. In the center, two baton-shaped hands, also phosphorescent, flanked by a tapering second hand, display the essentials of time: hours, minutes and seconds.
The OysterPerpetual is available in three diameters: 41mm, 36mm and 31mm, with a water-resistant to 100m case in Oystersteel. The first two house the caliber 3230, an automatic movement equipped with the Chronergy escapement that delivers 70 hours of power reserve, while the latter houses the caliber 2232 providing 55 hours of energy autonomy when fully wound. Machined from the same sturdy steel, the Oyster bracelet, formed of rows of three links, is fastened to the wrist by a folding clasp equipped with an Oysterclasp and the Easylink system, which allows it to be lengthened or shortened by around 5mm in the twinkling of an eye, for optimum comfort.
