For Those Complaining That Today's Releases Were Boring...

[904VT]

Originally Posted by WalterE

I think it simply underlines how much more important the Asian market and demographic is to Rolex’s market today compared to the traditional US and European markets. 36mm and PM combinations are much more important for success in those markets than the traditional die-hard SS tool watch Western fan.

Makes perfect sense... And explains the apparent disconnect / contradictions

Rolex knows very well what it’s doing

It’s strange that Rolex upsized the Submariner and Oyster Perpetual 41, while downsizing the Explorer. Very inconsistent approach imo. I’d take a guess most wanted a small downsizing of the Exp 2 to traditional 40 rather than a large downsizing of the Exp 39. I get the Exp was 36mm as a 5 digit, but it was due to move to 39mm for years. Explorer and Sub are historically linked so strange to see such deviation between the two.

In all honestly looks like Rolex just decided to save a few bucks and use OP 36 cases. New bracelet has a strange taper too whereas the 5 digit was imo better designed.

[Sub Capt.]

Originally Posted by msu_1972

Boring or not, for the most part the average Joe won't be able to get their hands on any of it.

The “average Joe” doesn’t buy a $6-13K piece of blingy jewelry for their wrist to tell time.

[lowmandfl]

I just think it was anticlimactic, especially the Explorer II. When you literally can't tell if a watch is a new version vs the old side-by-side without extensive watch knowledge, not much to get excited about. The same can be said about the Submariner and Deepsea, but ultimately they're still great watches and extremely popular, even if they're "boring."