Watches & Wonders 2024 is right around the corner, which means that Rolex will soon be unveiling its most exciting novelties for the year. Traditionally, the brand has been known for its conservatism and incremental changes. Rolex usually doesn’t take big swings. In past years, simply releasing a new dial color for the Submariner or a new size for the Explorer was enough to send hordes of enthusiasts to their nearest AD with hopes of getting put on a waiting list.
But that wasn’t the case in 2023. Rolex was full of surprises last year, rolling out a bunch of watches that quite literally no one saw coming. The “Celebration Dial” Oyster Perpetual with its colorful bubbles. The wild “Puzzle” Day-Date with its emojified date wheel. And, a few months after Watches & Wonders, the “Le Mans” Daytona with its custom movement and revival of the Paul Newman-style exotic dial.
After Rolex’s shocking and exciting 2023, it’s become clear that no one really knows what Rolex is going to release this year. But I can make my best guesses, based on the direction the brand is headed along with actual rumors floating around the aether. So with that in mind, here are five watches we could see from The Crown in 2024.
A “Coke” GMT-Master II
Out of all the hypothetical watches laid out in this article, this is the only one that has some tangible evidence to back it up. Just last month, a patent that Rolex had filed in 2022 came to light. And what was on that patent? Oh, just a description of a bi-color ceramic bezel in red and black.
The “Coke” bezel of course has a strong history within the GMT-Master II line. In fact, the original GMT-Master II that was released in 1982 had a Coke bezel, distinguishing it at the time from the “Pepsi” GMT-Master that would remain alongside it in production for several years. The Coke GMT was produced from 1989 — 2005, but only in an aluminum variant — we’ve never seen a Coke bezel in Rolex’s durable Cerachrom ceramic material. It certainly seems like Rolex is working on one, though, and hopefully, we’ll get to see it this year.
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