By Harlan Chapman-Green
Back for another, instalment of the Top 5 segment, the ever popular recurring series where we get to choose our personal choices in watches without influence from outside sources. This time I’m going to look at the world’s largest and most widely known watch company, Rolex. It’s a little tricky choosing my top 5 Rolex watches as there are so many models and so many variations of said model that it becomes awfully confusing, neither am I the type who can switch to talking in reference numbers like some of those more passionate about the brand. So, here goes.
5. Milgauss Z-Blue
The Milgauss is an interesting little number. It’s basically a watch designed to be anti-magnetic to the extreme, with the lightning bolt seconds hand to remind the onlookers of this fact. The watch places the movement inside a soft iron core, which helps protect the movement. Up until recently this was the best way of making a watch anti-magnetic, when Omega’s 15,000 Gauss movement took the crown firmly away from the Millie. Nevertheless, it’s still a lovely watch and is a nice mix between sports and dress.
4. Submariner Green Cerachrom
Often sharing the name of a certain angry superhero that turns a funny colour when mad (no, the Incredible Hulk, not our Masthead), I particularly like this one because it’s much more unique compared to the black or even the blue versions. The Submariner is the sports watch of sports watches so I don’t need to go on about it too much. It’s a bit tricky to find yourself a green one, but they are versatile when it comes to pairing the watch with clothes. Even in green the Sub goes well with dress suits or swimsuits.
3. Sea-Dweller 43mm
Such a hullabaloo was made about this one when it was released. So much fuss over an extra three millimetres as if it’s the end of the world. The way I see it, the Sea-Dweller is now more than just a Submariner with a bit more water resistance and a helium escape valve that made the silly monocle over the date fall off, except now it’s back. Now the Sea-Dweller is its own line with new red lettering and an updated movement.
2. GMT-Master II WG
I do love the GMT-Master line of watches, the BLNR, the two tone, I even like the black bezel with green GMT hand. The GMT-Master watches were designed to accompany Pan-Am flight staff on their travels and the rest, as they say, is history. My favourite is the White Gold version which I have worn myself and I can say personally that I love it dearly. The mass, the size, the colours it all just works so well. There’s also the Pepsi bezel which has been given an interesting security feature. In order to prevent people purchasing this bezel and putting it on their steel watch, the ratchet system inside this bezel is a different size to that on the steel watch, so they will not fit, clever right?
1. Sky-Dweller Steel and White Gold with black dial
This was a really cool idea from Rolex. The Sky-Dweller is a very clever watch with an unusual setting system, just like the Yach Master II but much less fiddly to use. The problem was though that the Sky-Dweller only came in precious metals, meaning such a clever watch was out of the reach of most people. Now the watch comes in steel and whute gold with some cool new colours, black being my favourite, such as white and blue. I can tell these are gonna do really well in the future and it was definitely a good decision to get more interest in the Sky-Dweller line. For more info, please visit rolex.com
