Category Archives: Rolex

News, Rolex

Rolex Is Official Timepiece of Sebring International Raceway

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Written by: K. Amanuel

Sebring International Raceway has announced that luxury Rolex watch will be the Official Timepiece for the Sebring International Raceway and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring fueled by Fresh From Florida. The president and general manager of Sebring, Tres Stephenson, said, “Sebring International Raceway is honored to be affiliated with the prestigious Rolex brand. We look forward to the promises to be a truly special year at Sebring, and we look ahead to 2014 and the beginning of an exciting new era.” The Florida raceway is set to host America’s oldest sports car endurance race, the 2013 American Le Mans Series, on Saturday, March 16th.

Sebring International Raceway
Sebring International Raceway

The raceway was built on what was known as the Hendricks Army Airfield, which is the famed WWII U.S. Army Air Forces training base. It is America’s oldest sports car endurance race. Sebring’s legendary 3.74-mile circuit will be hosting the unified sports car series the following year, which resulted from the merger of ALMS and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. For the upcoming event, the gates will open at Sebring on Wednesday, March 13, and they will stay open for four days of racing events and finish off with the 12-hour classic on Saturday. There will be many options for spectators throughout the event.

One of the most famous watch brands in the world, the Swiss watch, Rolex, has enjoyed success for many years. Founded in London in 1905, Rolex moved its headquarter to Geneva in 1919. This global and largest luxury watch brand has various popular collections and produces thousands of watches a day. It introduced the first waterproof wristwatch “Oyster” in 1926. It was the first company to create a water resistant wristwatch that could withstand 100 m depth pressure. The Oyster watches have all been certified as chronometers for their precision. Rolex then introduced the first Perpetual rotor self-winding mechanism in 1931. The brand had a hand in the development of the original quartz watch movement in the late 1960s, and introduced to develop the Beta 21 quartz movement in the Rolex Quartz Date 5100 in 1968. This leading brand, which is known for its quality and expertise, now has various watches that are suitable for different occasions and circumstances, ranging from deep-see diving to aviation and everything in between. This collaboration of a prestigious brand such as Rolex with America’s oldest sports car endurance race only seems fitting and appropriate.

Rolex

Rolex Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA sighted in this year’s Best Picture Oscar Winner Argo

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  ARGO

Argo, 2013 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, is loosely based on actual events surrounding the rescue of six Americans during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Actor Ben Affleck’s character, Tony Mendez, wears a Rolex Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA in the movie. An amazing star studded feat considering the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA was introduced in 2008. Proving that timing is indeed everything, and that this watch delivers both style and transcendental presence that’s iconically in-depth – sea depth that is.

sea-dweller deepsea

Rolex Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA presents with a bold Oyster 43 mm 904L steel case and bracelet along with a titanium alloy case back. It displays a beautiful black ceramic unidirectional rotating bezel with embedded graduations made of platinum.  The black dial features a date aperture window at 3 o’clock, luminescent hour indices, hour/minute hands with a sweeping seconds hand. It has the helium escape valve with a water resistance of 12,800 feet. It has a mechanical self-winding 3135 movement with a paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring. Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA is officially certified Swiss chronometer (COSC).  This timepiece has such a rich history that other watch manufacturers envy its time tested beginnings.

rolex-sea-dweller-deepsea

Rolex Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA has an impressive historical background that dates back to 1950. Professional divers saw a need for a diving watch that could withstand sea depths of 300 meters while maintaining its water resistance and functional integrity. Rolex answered the challenge and launched the development and experimentation of its watch “Deep Sea Special”. August 1953 Rolex tested Deep Sea Special with rewarding outcomes. Deep Sea Special successfully plunged three times to depths of approximately 3,543 feet, then again to approximately 10,334 feet; and later that same year the watch descended to amazing depth of 10,334 feet. In 1956 Deep Sea Special descended to an astounding depth of 12,138 feet, this dive test set the worldwide deep sea stage for Rolex to establish history in 1960 when US Navy submerged experimental bathyscaphe, the Trieste.

The Trieste    ROLEX Deep Sea Special

Rolex Deep Sea Special was literally strapped to the exterior of US Navy bathyscaphe, the Trieste, and launched into the depth of the Mariana Trench, said to be the deepest depression on the Earth’s surface.  The deep sea dive established records for both the Trieste and Rolex Deep Sea Special, as both emerged from ocean depths of 37,800 feet unscathed and perfectly functional. This amazing dive changed both deep-ocean exploration and established Rolex as the most water resistant and reliable watch manufacturer. Such an amazing beginning for a watch that has managed to evolved from the iconic Sea-Dweller Submariner 2000 (Reference 1665) to the ever illustrious Oyster Perpetual Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA timepiece. This is one transcendental watch connoisseurs will definitely want to add to their watch collection. (Reference 116660)

News, Rolex

New Rolex factory completed in Bienne

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Rolex, the world famous brand for more than a century, has completed its new manufacturing facility in Bienne, Switzerland. For the duration of its existence, Rolex has also made all its movements in Bienne and then transported them to Geneva for final installation and casting. While Rolex previously had to manufacture its movements in Bienne, other parts of the watch, such as the cases, bracelets and dials, and their production and final assembly took place across sites in Geneva. Now, this new facility and decade long project allows Rolex to manufacture and assemble all the essential elements of its watches, including cases, dials, and movements in one setting. This new building allows Rolex to integrate and bring together the sites that were scattered about different places. Rolex now manufactures its products across seven buildings in the Champs-de-Boujean area of Bienne. Most of these buildings are separate from each other and optimize projection level for the brand.

The new building, which is 230,000 sqm is now combined with two previously existing units, bringing the total space of this production facility to 400,000 sqm. This massive unit brings together a lot of Rolex activities and allows for optimal use of production space. This specific space allows the brand’s machining, stamping and surface treatment to occur in one place, again optimizing use of space and time. It brings together sites that existed across Bienne and Geneva. The building has four floors above ground and three below and a highly functional automatic stocking and retrieval system that allows for timely delivery of parts to their designated, rightful places. Aside from its already mentioned benefits, this new building and system has top notch security and damage prevention components.

 

The new system and facility utilizes and entirely computerized system. The routing system coordinates 60 programmable controllers that manage the movements of the parts and projects and guides them between stocking areas and workshops. The automated storage space is said to consist of 14 aisles of shelves which have the ability to store millions of parts and components. Each aisle has a conveyor robot that picks up components and trays from the designated shelves and automatically places them on distribution conveyors, which then are transported to specific working areas. According to Rolex, the whole system is overseen 24 hours a day, everyday, by an extremely sophisticated software program. This world-class facility is sure to be a huge asset for Rolex going forward.