2019/20 JEWELS & TIME 17SEA FARERS
The Rolex Oyster
Perpetual Yacht-
Master 42 comes
with a Cerachrom
bezel insert in matte
black ceramic; in
1969, French sailor
Bernard Moitessier
made the world’s
longest non-stop
solo voyage, wearing
his trusty Rolex
watch. Opposite:
Rolex is deeply
involved in the
sailing world such
as sponsoring the
Rolex Swan Cup
2012.Indeed, the oft-used ‘stealth wealth’ descriptor popular
during the early Noughties would be appropriate for the
Yacht-Master 42. The watch boasts a black-on-white colour
combination that is subtly showy yet unmistakably cool.
Bearing a 42mm-wide Oyster case crafted out of white
gold—a fi rst for a Yacht-Master—the watch is paired with a
Cerachrom bezel insert in matte black ceramic with raised
and polished indexes and numerals, which in turn frames
a black dial with maxi markers and hands. The watch is
complemented by Rolex’s Oysterfl ex bracelet, an elastomer
strap fortifi ed by fl exible titanium and nickel alloy blades for
greater durability and comfort on the wrist.
Performance-wise, the watch is an
overachiever. Doing justice to its name,
the Yacht-Master 42 boasts 100m water
resistance. Inside, the watch runs on
the calibre 3235, Rolex’s new-generation
self-winding movement developed and
manufactured in-house. The movement
offers fundamental gains in terms of
precision, power reserve and resistance to
shocks and magnetic fi elds and features
technical innovations such as the Chronergy
escapement and Parachrom hairspring.
While one might think that this year’s Yacht-Master is
an evolution from the 2015 variant in Everose gold, the
Yacht-Master 42’s genesis goes deeper than that. The fi rst
Yacht-Master model was launched in 1992 and has quietly
evolved with a variety of incarnations, including a full yellow
gold version and a model in Rolesium, a combination of steel
and platinum that the watchmaker debuted in 1999.
Over the years, the Yacht-Master collection has borne
many of Rolex’s world-premiere developments, including the
aforementioned Rolesium, as well as the Cerachrom inserts
in black ceramic and the Oysterfl ex bracelets—a fact that
doesn’t escape Rolex devotees. And while you ponder over
the signifi cance of this, here’s another fact: demand for the
Yacht-Master 42 is said to be on the rise, and collectors who
know better ought to be making plans to beat the queue
for one.2019/20 JEWELS & TIME 17