ULTIMATE ROLEX BOOK

Rolex: The Impossible Collection

For over a century, Rolex has stood out as the world's most coveted and legendary watch brand. A Rolex evokes many things: the quintessential luxury watch, a tool of power for movers and shakers, the symbol of coming of age. New labels appear, styles come and go, but the brand at the top never changes. Still a record-breaker - the Daytona that had belonged to Paul Newman was sold at auction by Phillips in New York in October 2017 for $17.8 million - it's no surprise that Rolex is the most collected watch brand in the world .

The history of Rolex is rooted in the visionary spirit of its founder, Hans Wilsdorf. In 1905, the young Wilsdorf founded a company in London for the distribution of watches, but his real dream was to produce wristwatches - in their infancy at the time, and not very precise - which would be technically durable and reliable, and of 'supreme elegance. The company initially focused on producing movements of the highest quality, and this quest for precision quickly led to the world's first wristwatch to receive the Swiss Certificate of Chronometric Precision, issued by the Center Official Watch Classification of Biel in 1910. Four years later, Kew Observatory in Great Britain awarded a Rolex watch a Class A certificate, a distinction that had previously been reserved exclusively for marine chronometers.

Since then, the Rolex wristwatch has been synonymous with precision. Over the past 100 years, Rolex's milestones include: the first waterproof watch, the first self-winding mechanism, the first wristwatch to fly over Everest, the first diver's watch waterproof to 100 meters, the first to withstand at magnetic fields of 1,000 gauss. , the first to descend the Mariana Trench.

Selected by specialist Fabienne Reybaud, each of the exceptional Rolex watch models in this magnificent, handcrafted Ultimate Collection volume features the most valuable and technically innovative models the luxury watchmaker has produced, including timepieces never seen before previously: from the first wristwatch dating from the early 1900s and the first Oyster Perpetual from 1931, to an Explorer worn during Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition to the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 and the Submariner worn by the actor George Lazenby in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, they are sure to amaze collectors around the world.

White gloves and a signature canvas tote bag are included with every purchase of Assouline's ultimate collection.

• Exchange or return: the product must be kept in its original packaging
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