Rolex novelties 2020:
An anti-reflective sapphire crystal to protect the dial
It’s fun to see how important information can go completely unnoticed in the age of all-out communication.
Would too much information kill the information?
We can ask ourselves this question in front of the Rolex textbook case that concerns us today.
For a (very) long time, the many Rolex watch enthusiasts have complained about the lack of anti-reflection treatment applied by the Geneva-based manufacturer to the sapphire crystals of its watches.
It is true that to date, only the cyclops magnifying glass – a system patented by Rolex in 1953 to enlarge the Datejust date and then extended to the other collections – was equipped with a double anti-reflective coating for optimal readability of the date (I quote the official website of the brand with the crown).
And even though the entire watch industry has been applying anti-reflective coating to watch crystals – inside or double-sided treatment – for many years, Rolex has remained as watertight as an Oyster to the pleas of watch lovers.
Everything comes to those who know how to wait?
In this case at least the answer is clear: yes.
Indeed, the manufacture has just decided to switch to anti-reflection.
The new Rolex Submariner 41 and the 2020 generation Oyster Perpetual are now equipped with an anti-reflective sapphire crystal.
To be continued below…
Rolex watches :
Towards a systematization of anti-reflective sapphire crystals
in the future?
This evolution which looks like a revolution when we talk about the Geneva house is however only very timidly evoked on the official Rolex website, which is satisfied with a few words that I quote in extenso: The anti-reflection treatment applied to the back of the sapphire crystal on the new generation of the Oyster Perpetual allows an optimal reading of the dial.
Rolex doesn’t even mention it in the technical data sheets of the watches concerned, which mentin a lapidary and incomplete scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.
The presence of an anti-reflective sapphire crystal on the inside of the Rolex Submariner 41 and Rolex Oyster Perpetual is completely ignored in the communication organized by the brand around the launch of its new 2020 models.
Why this surprising discretion on the part of Rolex, when the news has not failed to delight those who were aware of it and will not fail to excite those who were unaware of it?
I have no idea.
And it doesn’t matter.
In my opinion, the most interesting question concerns the extension of this treatment to the next references of the brand’s catalog.
Indeed, it seems unlikely that this improvement is only a one-shot or a test concerning the Rolex Submariner 41 and the new Oyster Perpetuals.
We can therefore expect to see the new Rolex 2021 models (all or some of them anyway) with an anti-reflective sapphire crystal.
A case to follow on The Watch Observer of course.
So stay tuned!
