Cellini Dual Time Everose Gold Black Guilloché Dial
Rolex Cellini: luxury in majesty
It is said that some maisons referee the market. Rolex certainly set the tone with the release of new watches from the Cellini collection.
By Vincent Daveau
Contributor
Consumers’ requirements can be judged by just looking at the new Cellini watches: their balanced design, their sizes and their essential time displaying functionality. Their uniqueness resides in the fact that they are essential timepieces, they have all been designed for citizens of the world and their useful functionalities are both personal and universal.
These pieces were inspired by a design essentially in line with the Golden Section and the principles of Divine Proportion. It is said that mathematics can be used to express beauty. Here, this discipline takes shape in the form of the balance of sober and refined lines that are magnified by noble materials and polished finishes. There was no room for happenstance in this collection.
The new Cellini collection – consisting of twelve models in three different versions – shows how combining the use of tested methods and seasoned know-how gives outstanding results. By looking at the design of these 39-mm watches available in either 18-carat Everose gold or white gold, aficionados can ascertain the wish of the manufacture to go back to its origins. As an angular stone would do, the brand seeks to offer contemporary horology the opportunity to write its own future by getting the best out of its past.
Cellini Time
Undoubtedly the simplest piece of the lot, the Cellini Time is strongly captivating as it is the true essence of a watch. Besides, an expert eye would not need any explanation when contemplating the details that make it such an exquisite timepiece. It is after all the essence of a watch, as its design falls back on the basic lines a child would use to draw a watch. It was also a question of knowing how to distil bits and pieces of the brand’s history (Rolex was founded by Hans Wilsdorf in 1908) in the watch for those able to read between the lines.
Thus, some details of the design, such as the bezel’s fine teeth that are also found on the screwed tooth and subtly domed back, remind us of the coveted past Oyster watches affectionately nicknamed “bubble back” by its fans. Many contemporary urban timepieces are still inspired by their design and the sturdiness and reliability of these watches help define them as references that can be comfortably and easily worn in any kind of situation.
The watch’s fine bezel, which is obviously magnificent as it makes the case’s lines dynamic, gives the dial its true dimension. The dial –lacquered for the Time model and guilloché “Rayon de la Gloire” for the Date and Dual Time models – is fully revealed thanks to a rational and balanced design that gives the eye the opportunity to read time in an intuitive way. Rolex has also met aficionados’ requirements with its three new references. Experts – city dwellers at heart – will see the Cellini Time as the incarnation of essential watchmaking condensed in a sole timepiece. This watch is the symbol of a way of life whereby simplicity is the very expression of luxury. It displays time precisely with the tip of its hour, minute and sweep-second hands, and defies trends and eras: it is a timeless watch.
This wonderful COSC-certified chronometer wristwatch is driven by an in-house mechanical self-winding caliber that is unfortunately invisible under its slightly domed back. It is available in a sumptuous shiny alligator strap with a traditional pin buckle. The buckle may seem like a tiny detail but it actually speaks volumes of the refined taste of the man who owns this timepiece.
Cellini Date
Rolex also released the Cellini Date for date fans (they exist). The date of this day-to-day elegant watch is not placed in an aperture, as has been the brand’s tradition since 1945, but in a meter at 3 o’clock. This atypical choice at a time when almost all watches display the date in a blanked aperture, spices up this reference a bit and gives it a less conventional look. Available in a silvered guilloché “Rayon de la Gloire” dial, or in a black guilloché version, this watch is driven by the precise beating of its 31-ruby-incrusted mechanical self-winding and COSC-certified chronometer caliber, at 28,800 vibrations per hour.
The watch is also available with either 18-carat Everose or white gold dials with the index and Rolex crown placed at 12 o’clock. Both versions also traditionally feature an alligator strap with a pin buckle.
Cellini Dual Time
The Cellini Dual Time is obviously meant for ardent travellers looking for the ideal watch to wear on their journeys around the world. Furthermore, this wonderfully balanced timepiece opted for universality: featuring a black or silvered guilloché dial and placing emphasis on fine and long indexes, it is driven by an in-house COSC-certified chronometer, self-winding mechanical caliber housed in a finely polished case. It is also available in 18-carat white or Everose gold. As a matter of fact, once the winding crown – somewhat resembling an hourglass due to its slightly flared shape – is unscrewed, it becomes possible to adjust the two different hour indications on the dial independently.
The first one is readable via the main hands and is obviously meant for reading the time of the place where the owner actually is. The second one, “the home time”, is read on the counter that has also been equipped with a sober aperture indicating daytime and nighttime. Affixed at 6 o’clock, it balances the “Rayon de la Gloire” guilloché dial design, which is in turn enhanced by solid gold appliqué indexes. This timepiece – as is the case with the two other new watches – is water resistant to 50 meters and has been designed to meet the requirements of city-dwellers living or travelling all over the world, be it in dry or wet latitudes. Just like the previous versions, this pure marvel of a wristwatch – ideal to complete the look of a fan of tailor-made outfits – features an alligator strap with the classic pin buckle. It is the only acceptable folding clasp for this type of instrument. Its balance and both aesthetic and mechanical qualities allow the piece to blend on the wrist but also to be noticed by experts.
