Launched in 2012, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller has, in its eight-year life span, become an object of cult collectability and one of the most desirable modern classic watches around. Jay-Z’s got the 18K yellow gold and champagne-coloured dial model, “The Notorious One” Conor McGregor’s got the 18K Everose gold and chocolate-dial model, and even Tom Hardy, one of the finest actors of his generation, rocks the 18K white-gold and ivory-dial model. But beyond its obvious wrist swagger represented by its 42mm case size and 14mm case height, did you know that this watch is the equivalent of a mechanical supercomputer, combining two of horology’s most functional complications, the annual calendar and the GMT function? Further, the way the watch has been set up provides unparalleled legibility and clarity when reading the month, date and time for both local and home time. Using an innovative and totally unique Ring Command system that interacts between the rotatable bezel, the winding crown and the movement, the Sky-Dweller is also the easiest and most intuitive-to-use annual calendar around. Before delving into the specifics of how to use, set and read the Sky-Dweller as both an annual calendar and a multi-timezone watch, let’s first look at the history of these complications.
WHY THE NAME SKY-DWELLER?
While it might be an amusing play on the words “Sea-Dweller” — the name given to Rolex’s famous saturation diving watch — the objective of the Sky-Dweller is quite different from that tool watch’s pragmatic roots. Instead, leading up to the model’s launch in 2012, Rolex realised that travel had become an everyday reality for the majority of business people and even the tribe of transglobal luxury travellers all circumnavigating the earth multiple times a year. Rolex understood that for many of us who go through extended stretches waking up each day in a different city, it is our wristwatch that keeps us rooted and oriented, helping us navigate our way through the adventures that comprise modern life. So what Rolex did with the Sky-Dweller was to create the ultimate companion watch for the modern traveller. A watch that, at one glance, gives you a perfect reading of time at home and also where you are right now. A watch that gives you perfect and easy reading of both date and month. A watch that is so intelligent that it knows which months have 30 days and which months have 31 and adjusts the date for you accordingly. And finally, it is a watch that, despite all this incredible ability, is fun, intuitive and easy to use. Welcome to the world of the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller.
WHAT IS AN ANNUAL CALENDAR?
What is an annual calendar, and why is it, to me, the most pragmatic and useful complication around? What you need to know is that the Sky-Dweller is genius-level smart despite its fun, easy-going affability. Like a MENSA-qualified supermodel with an IQ of 162 that reads Martin Heidegger in her free time and solves seemingly impossible mathematical problems while performing Ashtanga inversions yet is
