Rolex and TED meet at the crossroads of Technology and Design. A proud sponsor of TED, Rolex honors the traditions of craftsmanship and beauty while striving for constant innovation.
Rolex has always been relentless in the pursuit of technical perfection. In 1910, the company received the first official chronometer certification ever awarded for a wristwatch. Rolex revolutionized watchmaking in 1926 with the world's first waterproof case, and again in 1931 with the perpetual rotor, the automatic winding mechanism. Today, Rolex upholds this rich tradition of innovation, combining craftsmanship and technology for unprecedented watchmaking.
Over the coming weeks, Rolex and TED will bring you inside the fascinating world of watchmaking with a series of web videos, highlighting Rolex's passion for perfection.
The Rolex movement: Beautiful in its simplicity. Inspiring in its reliability.
In our complicated world, a key TED value is simplicity -- allowing yourself to pare away the details and focus on what is important. It's an idea that finds expression in the elegant Rolex movement.
The movement found in the Cosmograph Daytona is the perfect illustration of Rolex's watchmaking expertise. It is elegantly simple, incorporating a mere 290 components, far fewer than a standard chronograph. This exceptional architecture reduces complexity while maintaining chronometric precision and guaranteeing an improved reliability. Conceived and assembled exclusively by Rolex, the movement took more than five years to develop and features elements unique to Rolex, such as the blue Parachrom hairspring. This level of innovation and expertise is found in watches across the entire Rolex range, ensuring that every watch is a masterpiece from the inside out. See for yourself:
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Everose gold: Alchemy by Rolex.
In a lovely melding of design and technology (with a dash of the perennial TED question "What Makes Us Happy?"), Rolex dove into a long and painstaking research process to produce something perfectly pink. Watch the video below and dive into Everose gold.
The challenge: How to make pink gold stay pink forever? Pink gold contains copper, the only red metal chemical element. Over time, the alloy loses copper as it is exposed to the environment, particularly chlorine found in the sea, swimming pools and even drinking water. To preserve the beauty of its watches, Rolex put its foundry to work, creating and patenting its own pink gold alloy: Everose gold. The 18 ct Everose gold beads pictured below contain 76% gold and more than 2% platinum, the most noble chemical element. The platinum locks in the copper, and thus the colour.The exclusive colour of 18 ct Everose gold marries perfectly with the steel of Rolesor models. Tests specifically developed for this new alloy all prove the same thing: that your Rolex will remain as beautiful as the day you first set eyes on it. See for yourself:
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Look for a new feature -- and another astonishing video -- coming soon!
