40 days to go before Watches and Wonders and already the competition has begun in the enthusiasts' favourite sporting speciality: guessing which novelty Rolex will launch. Granted that one could make far more entertaining predictions about all brands, trying to come up with improbable complications, never-seen shapes or collections with the strangest names, I must admit that I too eventually get hooked on the game. More than anything else, though, I just nod at each hypothesis. Because, at the end of the day, they are all plausible.
This year, many seem to be betting on the colour red for the Submariner: black dial and red bezel or the reverse, to celebrate its 70th anniversary. Then there are those who foresee a left-handed Submariner, easier to make than last year's GMT-Master II, given the absence of a date.
There is no shortage of oracles predicting a Tiffany dial, on a random model, but most insistently on the Daytona. Other hypotheses are also crowding in on the Rolex chronograph, such as that of a titanium case, in the wake of the Deepsea Challenge of 2022.
The Daytona is at the centre of the most "daring" speculations, since 1963, exactly 60 years ago, is the year of birth of the first Cosmograph (Ref. 6239), on which the tachometric scale on the bezel makes its appearance and which is therefore considered by many to be the "first Daytona" (even if the Daytona inscription is not always present and the screw-down buttons will arrive in 1965). Here then are flourishing renderings of Rolex Daytona with a green dial and hypotheses on a complete restyling of the collection, with a case that would increase to 41 mm, one more than the current 40.
It would be nice to know if Rolex would follow the guessing game with amusement. In the meantime, I think: how come nobody predicted the launch of the Sky-Dweller?
When the game gets complex, it takes a truly creative mind.
And you, do you enjoy participating in 'fantarolex' or do you just watch?
