9 December 2015
Don’t be deceived by the unchanged aesthetics: the Rolex Day-Date, only recently in the stores, has a brand new mechanism. In fact its movement belongs to the latest generation: the self-winding Caliber 3255, a concentrate of technology that is the product of years of research, covered by no less than 14 patents. The whole of its structure has been redesigned, as have the majority of the components: from the rotor, which makes the winding system faster and more efficient, to the barrel, the source of energy, which is larger and more powerful; from the oscillator, the “beating heart” of the whole mechanism, impervious to magnetic fields and with an improved resistance to shocks, to the gear trains that transmit movement to the hands, for which new lubricants, produced “in house,” have been utilized. The result: a power reserve of 70 hours (almost three days, which means for example that you can take the watch off at the weekend and find it is still working on Monday), and a markedly superior performance in terms of efficiency, reliability and accuracy (the movement has passed more demanding tests than those of the COSC, the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute). At present the Caliber 3255 is only used in the Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 40: a watch with a 40-mm-diameter case, made entirely of gold (white, yellow or Everose, the manufacturer’s exclusive rose-colored gold) or platinum. But it is hoped that it will soon be adopted in other models, including those made of steel.
