Rolex 1908

The Rolex Perpetual 1908 launched at Watches and Wonders 2023 as the brand's first new dress-watch line in nearly two decades. Named for 1908, the year Hans Wilsdorf registered the trade name Rolex, the line replaces the long-running Cellini as Rolex's round dress reference. Cellini ran from 1968 to 2022; the 1908 is the modern reset.

The case is 39mm solid 18k gold (yellow or white), 9.5mm thick, with a fluted bezel and a fluted caseback that displays the hand-finished movement through sapphire crystal. The dial is sunburst with applied roman or arabic numerals depending on configuration, and a small-seconds sub-dial at 6 o'clock. Saxon blue dials (added 2024) and rose-engine guilloché variants extend the line beyond the original silver and black launch dials.

Inside is the new in-house Cal. 7140, the first new Rolex dress movement in years. 31 jewels, 66-hour reserve, Chronergy escapement, Syloxi silicon hairspring, and (most distinctive) vertical clutch second-stop for hacking precision. The bridges are decorated with a Côtes de Genève pattern, and the rotor is open-worked, all visible through the sapphire caseback, a first for a contemporary Rolex.

The 1908 sits structurally apart from the rest of the Rolex catalogue: not water-resistant to 100m+, not on a bracelet, not sport-coded. 50m water resistance, leather strap with 18k gold pin buckle, dressy stance throughout. Retail starts at ~€21,000 for the steel-no-such-thing — solid 18k gold only — with the rose-engine guilloché variants reaching ~€38,000. AD allocation is moderate; less waitlisted than the sport references but tighter than the Datejust.