There is a New President
Wesley from Holland took these fantastic photos of the all new 41mm Rolex Day-Date II also know as The Rolex President. Rolex introduced this all-new from the ground up Rolex as part of the celebration of its 100th Anniversary. These first two photos are great and have a nice Autumn vibe.
The Rolex-Date date historically, since its inception in the 1950s has always been 36mm. Some people think the 36mm has become a little too small and others think it is just perfect as is. Rolex is moving forward by making the all new Day-Date II 41mm, which is bigger than a Daytona or Submariner.
Living Large
This next set of wrist shots really gives you an idea of how the watch wears. Like many readers of Jake's Rolex Watch Blog, I have not seen this all-new Rolex in person so these photos Wesley took give us a very good idea of how the watch wears.
To my design mind the all-new 41mm Day-Date II takes a little getting used to. In some ways it looks like a caricature of the 36mm version, but upon close inspection and analysis I notice this is likely a good thing. The fluted bezel it significantly wider and taller on the Day-Date II, than it was on the Day-Date.
By making the Bezel taller and wider it gives it more of an upside-down recess peanut butter cup look, but that design characteristic is trademark Rolex and I think they did a great job implementing it. In other words, this watch is distinctively Rolex.
Making the Case for the New President
I think another reason Rolex went so much larger is because the Rolex President has always been perceived as a leadership watch. A watch worn by men who tell other men what to do, and its new size gives it more largesse. It looks more abundant, more visible, thus more striking.
This particular watch has an interesting monotone dial in the sense the arabic numerals are black like the dial so from any kind of distance it almost looks like there are no indices.
All in all, I think I like the new Rolex Day-Date, but I have not tried one on yet. In this case (pun intended) bigger seems better. Will the new President by better than the last one? It appears that way, but only time will tell. It looks very promising though...
