Watches and Wonders are upon us, which means we get a bevy of new watches, but none more highly anticipated or debated over than the new watches from Rolex. This year was a big one for the brand, with some notable updates and discontinuations, but none was as significant or impactful as the newest Yacht-Master. This year with the latest Yacht-Master Rolex did something it very rarely does, it completely changed the personality of Yacht-Master brand.
This is a big deal because, for Rolex, the personality of their watches holds a lot of weight; it’s what separates them from so many other luxury watches which perform essentially the same tasks. The personality of a Rolex is also what makes it distinct from its siblings. When someone buys an Explorer, it’s because they see themselves as an explorer, and they buy into the romantic images of climbing Everest or exploring the artic that the watch conjures. They could just as easily have purchased an Oyster Perpetual or Air-King, which both offer almost identical feature sets, but they identified more with the “Explorer” persona. The Rolex marketing team has artfully crafted the personalities of these watches for decades, and changing one as drastically as Rolex has with this latest Yacht-Master is a big deal. Rolex introducing this watch in titanium fundamentally changes the persona of the Yacht-Master from “fancy” to “innovative”.
Until this titanium Yacht-Master was released, the Yacht-Master persona was distinctly swanky and luxurious and its whole purpose was simply to seamlessly go from the deck of a yacht or sailboat to the yacht club all while pairing perfectly with your Sperry boat shoes. This quote from Jack Forester about the Yacht-Master sums it up nicely “It is certainly not a tool watch; the Yachtmaster is offered in either platinum and steel or gold and steel (that’s Rolesium and Rolesor, lest we forget) and is either quietly or unequivocally luxurious depending on what size and metal you go for” From the legend himself, the Yacht-Master was previously regarded as certainly not a tool watch. But now, with this new titanium variant, the Yacht-Master collection is home to arguably the most toolish watch the brand makes and this totally rewrites the Yacht-Master story.
To better understand where this leaves the Yacht-Master and what it means for the product line’s future, we should go back a bit to when it was introduced.
Legend has it that initially, when the Yacht-Master was going to be introduced in 1992, it was intended to be the next generation of Submariner, ushering in a new age where Rolex firmly asserted itself as a luxury brand and pulled further away from its humble, tool-oriented, roots. However, in the final hour, some executives realized that the Submariner was too vital of a brand to change this drastically. Instead they decided to give this new watch its own name the and thus the Yacht-Master was born. This decision to keep certain longstanding brands unchanged is a crucial turning point for the Rolex and has become a trait that has defined them over the last few decades. It also set the precedent that the Yacht-Master was not one of those precious untouchable brands allowing it to be a platform for innovation later on in its life.
Because the Yacht-Master is not and never will be considered as legendary as, say, the Submariner, GMT, or Daytona, it’s allowed to adopt a whole new personality, one rooted in innovation rather than opulence. The first hint of this new personality was seen when Rolex introduced their first-ever rubber bracelet, the Oysterflex. This was a huge leap for the notoriously conservative brand and one that could not be done flippantly. The rubber bracelet could have suited any of their aquatic watches, but the Yacht-Master was the brand chosen because it is the least precious historically. Then, when things went well, and the new bracelet proved itself, it made its way to other models.
That’s what we see again with this titanium version. This new Yacht-Master is the brand’s first broadly wearable titanium watch, and it’s the first Yacht-Master that can be described as a true tool watch. The Yacht-Master 42 in titanium definitively drives home that the Yacht-Masters personality has been promoted from a luxury yacht club accessory to Rolex’s most innovative aquatic timepiece. It’s the watch Rolex chooses to be the first through the wall with its newest technologies and materials. Going forward, I suspect we’ll continue to see the Yacht-Master blaze the trail for the rest of the Rolex professional lineup with new innovations and styles, and I think this new persona will earn the watch more respect than it ever could have gained previously.
Mainplate & Bridge 