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The epithet “Dweller” is one that Rolex uses sparingly. First there was the Sea-Dweller of 1967, a watch for saturation divers. Then came the Sky-Dweller of 2012, a watch about which, as far as I am concerned, the less said the better. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard there was an entirely new Rolex called the Land-Dweller… excitement tempered with trepidation. Given the infrequency with which Rolex Dwellers appear, I might not live to see another one. Besides, once you have dwelt under the sea, in the air and on land, where is there left to go?
I liked the Land-Dweller immediately: mostly because I have a chronic weakness for ’70s design. Half a century ago, Rolex flirted with quartz-regulated movements. First came the brutalist monster colloquially known in today’s collecting circles as the “Texas Sundial”, followed a few years later by the Oysterquartz with its angular interpretation of the Oyster case. The Oysterquartz was the watch you would wear while driving your wedge-nosed Lotus Esprit from your flat at the Barbican to Denys Lasdun’s brutalist National Theatre. And its genes are dominant here.
Seldom has Rolex used a case like this to house a mechanical movement. I can only think of two occasions: the Ref 1530, which came and went in the mid-’70s leaving little trace of its existence, and the late Shah of Iran’s special-order platinum Day-Date. The Land-Dweller erases that taboo.
The design is defined by the brushed and polished integrated bracelet that forms a continuous visual narrative with the case. Think of a Jubilee bracelet, steamroller it flat, facet the edges of the outer links and now attach it seamlessly to a case that is equally decisive in its geometry. The flat surfaces and sharp angles of both case and bracelet unite to create a confident yet refined watch. But this is much more than an exercise in crowd-pleasing, retro-styled horology. Where the Oysterquartz was, well, quartz, the Land-Dweller is the expression and synthesis of the latest advances in modern mechanical watchmaking, pushing the boundaries of what an industrial giant is capable of producing in large series. It is, in short, a glimpse into how Rolex sees the future of mechanical watchmaking.
The calibre designated 7135 operates at an elevated frequency of 5Hz or 36,000 vibrations per hour – a significant departure from Rolex’s traditional 4Hz standard. This increased rate improves precision but requires more energy, presenting the engineers with the challenge of maintaining Rolex’s customary power reserve of around 70 hours (about 66 in this case) while enhancing chronometric performance and making the case slimmer, thus limiting the height of the mainspring.
The solution is what Rolex calls the “sequential distribution escapement”, also known as Dynapulse, the subject of seven of the 32 patents that protect the Land-Dweller. Dynapulse is, says the brand, 30 per cent more energy-efficient than the standard Swiss lever escapement.
I have seen funky escapements before, in watches made by Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin among others. But Rolex operates on a different scale and, having gone to all this trouble, you don’t have to be Mystic Meg to predict that this movement will wind up (shocking pun) inside many more Rolexes in the years to come.
There is plenty more. I could rattle on about the femtosecond-laser-ablated ceramic balance staff, the femtosecond-laser-etched honeycomb dial, the improved double-cone Paraflex shock-absorption system or the concealed system uniting case and bracelet, where a single axis serves both as a pivot and a fixing point. Suffice it to say there is plenty of clever stuff going on inside that 40mm case. As I mentioned, Rolex cannot be accused of overburdening its customers with new models, so I imagine that it will be some time before we see another Rolex launch of similar significance.
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