Rolex Leads Watches & Wonders 2025 with Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller
It is just after midnight in Geneva and with that Watches & Wonders 2025 has begun. Leading the pack as always is Rolex, this year poised and already catching major attention with the introduction of its latest collection with the Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller.
The flagship model, which was first seen in stock imagery leaks earlier this year, was first officially teased via tennis star Roger Federer’s Instagram yesterday, now being officially-officially launched by the brand today. The collection marks the brand’s most significant debut in some time, with it serving as the watchmaker’s distinct entry into the ever-hot integrated sports watch category.
At launch, the Land-Dweller is available in 36 and 40mm options— in line with other collections like the Datejust and Day-Date. The integrated nature of the watch’s case quickly recalls the Rolex Quartz and Rolex Oysterquartz Datejust from the late 1960s and early ‘70s, respectively, with the design surely to be a hit among fans of this specific vein of style.
Other details to note on the case are the fluted bezel, integrated-style Jubilee bracelet, and primary use of brushed finishing throughout, with smart polished accents on the bezel and bracelet interlinks. The look as a whole quickly ties the watch both to the vintage models which obviously inspired it, but further to the modern Datejust, which it seems to be an alter ego of.
In terms of case material, the options include White Rolesor (Rolex’s name for steel with a white gold bezel), Everose Gold (rose gold), and platinum. The platinum edition comes with the brand’s distinct blue-hued dial reserved for the material, while all of the other options opt for a white tone; no matter the color, each display features a honeycomb motif texture.
Besides the honeycomb motif, which likely aims to “ground” the watch to its land-dwelling credentials, the dial otherwise features familiar Rolex details. These are seen in the sporty-ish hour markers, which include lume-filled Arabic and baton-style indices alongside a signature 12 o’clock crown, plainly printed details above and below the center of the aesthetic, baton-style hands, and a cyclops-magnified date window at the 3 o’clock position. Distinctly new, at least upon first glance, is the dial’s use of flush lume rather than accents on the indices and hands, as well as the skeletonized counterweight on the seconds hand.
In many ways, it seems the Land-Dweller is meant to serve as a watershed timepiece for the brand, and as such the watchmaker has launched it with a new and distinct movement. Inside, the in-house developed Rolex Calibre 7135 is at work, beating fastest of all the brand’s watches at 5 hertz. Capable of a 66-hour power reserve, the self-winding movement is accurate to -2/+2 sec/day, and features among its various technologies a Syloxi hairspring in silicon with patented geometry, high-performance Paraflex shock absorbers, instantaneous date with rapid setting, and a hacking seconds mechanism. According to the brand, “a total of 16 patent applications have been filed for this new movement, particularly in regard to the escapement and the oscillator.”
The movement is visible via a sapphire exhibition caseback, affirming the brand’s continued interest in this style of presentation after its first introduction in the Cosmograph Daytona line at Watches & Wonders 2023. Like the Daytona, in the Land-Dweller the calibre features Geneva stripes for its finishing alongside a partially-skeletonized rotor in gold.
Pricing for the Rolex Land-Dweller begins at $13,900 for the 36mm base model in steel, and spans up to $116,900 for the platinum 40mm edition with a diamond bezel. Availability is likely to begin later this spring, if not by the end of this month at certain authorized boutiques.
To learn more, visit Rolex, here.
