Choosing a Rolex is like getting married: it’s better to think about it before you start! Who has not, consciously or unconsciously, associated Rolex with prestige and success? Do you know that there are five main reasons why we want to buy a Rolex? It is usually done to celebrate a success, to have an object of great value to others, to display a certain standard of living and success, to have a luxury watch or simply to wear a timepiece every day.
Are Rolex watches the best in the world? One thing is certain: it is the most powerful brand of luxury watchmaking and its timepieces are of very high quality. Thanks to an impressive marketing policy, the wealth of its ambassadors, its partnerships, and it’s cult advertisements, Rolex has become, since the 1970s, the archetype of the “beautiful watch”, known to all. Rolex is a brand that admires itself, appreciates little by little and understands itself over time. Before buying such a watch, it is necessary to know the technical force, the atypical aesthetic, the history and, above all, the effect that it will make, vintage or new.
The cult of vintage
During the 50s and 70s, Rolex designed beautiful watches full of stories, ideal to start a collection or fill any amateur watchmaker. In tribute to Jean-Claude Killy, one of the best skiers of all time, Rolex has made a sporting, glamorous and now legendary Chrono. In 1956, Rolex made the Day Date complication famous. Practical and legible, this feature that displays the day and date in two distinct windows gives a particular flavour to Rolex watches. Here are three good reasons to buy a Rolex Day Date. This is the first watch to indicate the day of the week in full. It is nicknamed “President” because the factory offered one to Dwight Eisenhower when he was president of the United States. Finally, we love his manly fluted bezel, easy to handle and radiant.
If there is a Rolex that unleashes the passions, it’s the Daytona! The object of all fantasies, especially thanks to Paul Newman who in the film Virages (“Winning”), in 1969, carried the reference 6239, the Daytona owes its myth to a reliable and well-designed movement, excellent manufacturing quality and an exceptional price on the used market. Few brands can boast of such success!
The Rolex watch has this image of the object used to commemorate a special event, a key stage in life: diploma, marriage, promotion. This is the cult of vintage. Want to buy one? Just visit Oris and you’ll get a lot of options.
Are Oris Movements In-House Movements?
Many of their calibers are derived from ébauche movements which are a template of sorts where Oris receives an unfinished movement that is modular and allows them to add their own features to accommodate the needs of whichever watch in which it will be used.
One example would be the Big Crown ProPilot Worldtimer which is a watch with a GMT (dual time zone function) the movement used in this watch is called the Oris 690 but the Oris caliber 690 is actually using a base of an ETA2836-2 caliber which is an automatic caliber made by ETA, a subsidiary of a watchmaking conglomerate called Swatch Group. So, is there an Oris in-house movement? If not, is that bad?
This is not to say that Oris movements are inferior. ETA makes great movements and Oris makes great improvements to them. Some believe that a brand’s prestige is directly linked to how many of its own components are made entirely in-house. Most watchmakers are not equipped to do everything in-house but the ones that do are widely celebrated.