Rolex began 2024 with its art in the right place. Its heart was also in the right place but what I'm really saying is that the heritage watchmaker put craft first, kicking off the year with a staggeringly beautiful limited edition Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 36 watch.
As the Vienna Philharmonic's exclusive partner since 2008, Rolex has obviously remained quite close with the orchestra and is especially fond of its annual livestreamed New Year's concert, which Rolex has been sponsoring since 2009.
Rolex's new Day-Date commemorates the latter partnership as it enters its 15th year in 2024, yielding a suitably special Vienna Philharmonic-inspired 36mm timepiece.
Given how rare Rolex special editions are, this limited edition watch is particularly intriguing.
Chatter about Rolex's rare Day-Date first began in late December after Rolex promoted the watch in a New York Times print advertisement, the sole source for information about the timepiece until now.
A Rolex representative provided Highsnobiety with an image of said Day-Date ad.
Notice that along with a focus on the Vienna Philharmonic concert, the ad copy also has a marked emphasis on craft.
Rolex is really emphasizing the artisanal process that went into its limited Day-Date, especially underlining the hand-scored illustration that graces the timepiece's face.
For instance, Rolex's ad says: "The exclusive version introduced here is fashioned in 18ct yellow gold and adorns a finely crafted dial representing a violin and its volute, a decoration made using the champlevé method of grand feu enameling. Directly etched into the yellow gold base, the violin design is colored by hand in different shades of green."
Not that regular ol' Rolexes aren't nice but this watch is on a different level, one that's certainly worthy of being the year's first special edition Rolex.
To appropriately seal the deal, several performers and guests of the 181-year-old Vienna Philharmonc, including acclaimed piano soloist Yuja Wang and famed Roman opera singer Cecilia Bartoli, wore the violin-engraved Rolex Day-Date during the January 1, 2024 performance to cement the partnership.
You don't necessarily have to be a supremely talented classical musician to acquire one for yourself, though it'll definitely make things easier.
Rolex confirmed to Highsnobiety that "limited quantities" of the special Day-Dates have been produced for clients, though you shouldn't expect this edition to arrive at your local luxury watch dealer any time soon.
Anyways, this exclusive Day-Date was clearly meant to signify Rolex's canny partnerships as a physical manifestation of Rolex's own artistic inclinations.
Rolex aligns itself with classic music to propose that it is itself similarly refined, for instance, and it teams with Formula 1 to demonstrate that, like F1 drivers and the luxury cars they drive, Rolex is as rarefied as it is adventurous.
Obviously, any luxury imprint as powerful as Rolex has the wherewithal to pick and choose its associates as it likes.
Therefore the fact that Rolex has purposely entrenched itself with an orchestra that some consider to be the world's single most prestigious — that's a pretty crowded field of prestige, by the way — says plenty.
And whatever Rolex's intangible Vienna Philharmonic partnership doesn't say, the special Day-Date certainly does.
