Celebrate Rolex’s Greatest Watches With This Lavish Photo Book
“Rolex: The Impossible Collection,” clocking in at $1,200, is a coffee table flex for watch aficionados.
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A certain rarified air surrounds style icons, from the ground up: The right pair of boots, an iconic pair of blue jeans, an eye-catching watch. And for some, that rarified air includes collecting Rolex watches in the flesh.
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For watch enthusiasts elsewhere pining for a new Rolex, a fresh Assouline book makes it easier to admire the world’s most envy-inducing timepieces from afar.
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There’s no shortage of eye-catching, groundbreaking Rolex timepieces on display in Rolex: The Impossible Collection (Second Edition), a handsome $1,200 tome that celebrates the watchmaker’s 100 most legendary pieces.
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The photo-filled book traces everything from modern achievements (tennis great Roger Federer sporting Rolex after winning the 2017 Australian Open) to impossibly precise timepieces that defied convention throughout the 1900s.
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It’s nearly impossible to quantify the scope and legendary status of Rolex timepieces: Sir Edmund Hilary wore a Rolex to summit Everest in 1953, George Lazenby as James Bond famously sported the Rolex Submariner, and Rolex produced the very first wristwatch in the early 1900s.
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Where the dawn of modern watchmaking exists, there lies Rolex—witness how the most iconic Rolex watch models continue to gain value on the secondary market.
That next-level status includes the Rolex Submariner, which was the most coveted watch on the secondary market last year.
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Luxury-focused journalist and watch expert Fabienne Reybaud delivers accompanying text spotlighting what publisher Assouline calls the “most coveted and most legendary brand of watches in the world.”
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The second edition itself builds off a first edition sure to stir envy among the most devout Rolex fans, and indeed, anyone who appreciates fine craftsmanship and stylish design (both understatements in their own right).
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The significance of the company, founded by Hans Wildorf in 1905, is not lost on Reybaud’s complementary prose or on the publisher itself.
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“It comes as no surprise that Rolex is the most collected watch label in the world,” Assouline said, noting that the impressive, lavish volume includes “never-before-seen images of the world’s rarest timepieces.”
This display of those exceedingly rare timepieces, even in luxe book form, doesn’t come cheap: The beautifully crafted volume can be found online now at Assouline.