Rolex: The Impossible Collection

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For this update to the 2014 original edition, British historian and journalist Nicholas Foulkes has selected the 100 breakthrough timepieces developed since the advent of the twentieth century, weighing the virtues of rarity, costliness, innovative functions, historical importance, grand provenance and pleasing design. The watch—a microcosm of hundreds of minute components interacting harmoniously with each other and bound within a case of precious metal—has the power to awaken emotions, excite the imagination and inspire the same passion as great art. Beautiful timepieces invite us to join a story, and the narrative that these 100 examples unfold is that of one of the most exciting and dynamic periods in human history.

The history of Rolex is rooted in the visionary spirit of its founder, Hans Wilsdorf. In 1905, young Wilsdorf founded a company in London for the distribution of timepieces, but his true dream was to produce wristwatches—in their infancy at the time, and not very precise—that would be technically durable and reliable, and supremely elegant. The history of Rolex is rooted in the visionary spirit of its founder, Hans Wilsdorf. In 1905, young Wilsdorf founded a company in London for the distribution of timepieces, but his true dream was to produce wristwatches?in their infancy at the time, and not very precise?that would be technically durable and reliable, and supremely elegant. The company first concentrated on producing the highest quality movements, and this quest for precision rapidly led to the first wristwatch in the world to receive the Swiss Certificate of Chronometric Precision, granted by the Official Watch Rating Centre in Bienne in 1910. Four years later, Kew Observatory in Great Britain awarded a Rolex watch a class A certificate, a distinction that had been previously reserved exclusively for marine chronometers.Owing to the decline of print media, luxury companies found in Assouline a venue to help showcase their products and adequately position their branding in front of consumers. From its earliest days, Assouline has published opulent hardcovers that broke the mold, from illustrated tomes celebrating fashion legends and high-society doyens to hand-bound limited-edition art monographs with Italian linen covers. Today, Alex Assouline, the son of Prosper and Martine, heads Assouline Publishing. Under his guidance, the brand developed a lucrative new branch that is focused on curating private libraries for homes, offices, hotels and other commercial properties. Selected by specialist Fabienne Reybaud, each of the exceptional Rolex watch models in Rolex: The Impossible Collection showcase the most valuable and technically innovative models the luxury watchmaker has produced, including watches never seen in print before.

The watches include some never seen in print, including the first Rolex wristwatch (early 1900s), the first Oyster Perpetual (1931), and an Explorer worn during Sir Edmund Hillary’s expedition to the summit of Mt. Everest (1953). Other watches range to the Submariner worn by actor George Lazenby in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and a recently auctioned franken as well.

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More than any other designer of her era, Gabrielle Chanel had the ability to predict the evolution of contemporary fashion. Self-inventor extraordinaire, Chanel revolutionized the lifestyle of her time by inventing a modern concept of luxe minimalism, elevating humble fabrics such as jersey and tweed to couture status, giving birth to a new Silhouette both sophisticated and discreet, setting her stamp on the twentieth century with her modern spirit of understated luxury. p>Last-Minute-Geschenke: Das verschenken Sie zu Weihnachten an Uhrenfans; By: Daniela Pusch, GQ Online (Germany), December 2022

p>Retrouvez en images notre sélection de beaux livres; By: Xaviere Laffont, Challenges Online (France) , December 2022

The house of Chanel represents modern fashion. Under its founder, the style of the modern woman was invented, through the image of Gabrielle Chanel herself. She dressed women to be free, and her emancipated clothes reflected the shifting landscape of society. Her designs fundamentally affected what we wear, and how we wear it. The work of the house under her successor Karl Lagerfeld has transformed fashion anew: He drew the template for a fashion designer reviving a moribund house with elements from its own history. Just as Chanel created modern fashion, Lagerfeld in turn established the blueprint of the modern fashion house. She reshaped the clothes women wear, he reshaped the industry that makes them. The history of Rolex is rooted in the visionary spirit of its founder, Hans Wilsdorf. In 1905, young Wilsdorf founded a company in London for the distribution of timepieces, but his true dream was to produce wristwatches—in their infancy at the time, and not very precise—that would be technically durable and reliable, and supremely elegant. The company first concentrated on producing the highest quality movements, and this quest for precision rapidly led to the first wristwatch in the world to receive the Swiss Certificate of Chronometric Precision, granted by the Official Watch Rating Centre in Bienne in 1910. Four years later, Kew Observatory in Great Britain awarded a Rolex watch a class A certificate, a distinction that had been previously reserved exclusively for marine chronometers.