It’s headline-making news when Rolex decides to adjust the size of its flagship Submariner a few millimeters or produce a piece in a new color combination. So, you can only imagine the stir when Rolex announced a brand-new model to its catalog at Watches & Wonders just last month.
The Perpetual 1908 is an elegant new dress watch from the brand known as the King of the Sport Watch, which lays its foundation with the rugged Submariner, Daytona, and GMT-Master lines. Now, barely a month after it was announced, Roger Federer is wearing a white-gold and black-dial version of the 1908 in public for the first time on the Met Gala red carpet.
“I believe style is found in the perfect balance of color and texture,”
said Federer, who is one of the hosts of this year’s Met. “It’s important to accessorize in moments of celebration and for me, the finishing touch and detail is always my timepiece. The new Rolex Perpetual 1908 adds timeless elegance to my look at this year’s Met Gala.”
Timeless elegance is the name of the game for the rest of Federer’s Met Gala look, a sharp black tuxedo with peak lapels. The 1908 is Rolex’s first entirely new model since it released the Sky-Dweller in 2012. It also replaces the now-discontinued Cellini as the dress watch in Rolex’s catalog.
It’s also important to note that, with this launch
Rolex seems to be gesturing towards something even more expansive in this space: the 1908 is the first of the “Perpetual” collection, which will focus on more tradition-minded watches.
In addition to Fed’s white-gold version, the watch also comes in white gold with a white dial and yellow gold with a white-and-black dial.
Rolex describes these dial colors as “intense” black and white.
While a sleek, dressy watch is the easy solution to the Met Gala red carpet, many attendees have been running in the opposite direction over the past few years. In this brave new world of watches, the sport watch has gone from everyday beater to a natural on the red carpet.
Federer has long gravitated toward this category of watches, wearing GMTs and Daytonas during his playing days. However, it’s funny to look back at his visit to the Rolex booth during Watches & Wonders as a chance for him to scout the final detail for his Met Gala tux (notice the first watch he featured on Instagram, after the requisite selfie, was the 1908!).
Rolex couldn’t have asked for a better coming-out party for its new watch.
Signs of Rolex history’s are all over the 1908. The name is a reference to the year that brand founder Hans Waldorf trademarked ‘Rolex.’ The watch takes direct inspiration from a piece from 1931.
The brand chose that specific ticker because it was the first with a “perpetual” rotor, the small weight on a watch’s movement that spins throughout the day and winds a watch automatically. The Arabic numerals at 12, 3, and 9 o’clock are inspired directly by this almost century-old watch.
The 1908 is landing in Rolex’s catalog right on time.
After years of sport watch dominance, dress pieces are starting to push back. “The popularity of traditional dress models, particularly in precious metal, has been increasing exponentially over the last few years,” says David Hurley, the deputy CEO of Watches of Switzerland, which sells new Rolex watches.
Even the Cellini, Hurley said, was experiencing some strong upward momentum before Rolex gave it the ax. Starting around January 2021, Hurley says Watches of Switzerland was putting customers on waitlists to get the Cellini and there were none even around to take a peek at inside stores.