Feature: 3 reasons to LOVE the Rolex everybody hates
Like a distant cousin that emigrated to Australia years ago, only to pop up at the occasional wedding or funeral, the Cellini collection is something of an unknown quantity within the Rolex family.
While words like “iconic” and “legendary” are frequently applied to Rolex sport models like the Daytona and Explorer, the Cellini (pronounced “chell-eenee”, in case you didn’t know) gets about as much praise from the Rolex cognoscenti as a pet dog with flatulence. You might even be able to buy one brand-new without joining a five-year waiting list.
Love for the Cellini is thin on the ground, but it definitely has its plus points
Indeed, type the words “Rolex Cellini waiting list” into Google and the comments on various forums attest to the contempt it incites. A few examples for your consideration:
“Your AD will love you if you actually want a Cellini.”
“If it’s in the store, you can buy it. Luckily they aren’t too sought after.”
“There are farrrrrrrr better dress watches to buy.”
Makes for painful reading, doesn’t it? Yet the Cellini, a collection that takes its name from an Italian goldsmith and sculptor of the Renaissance era, deserves so much better than this.
Here’s why…
It’s Rolex at its least “Rolex”
Picture a Rolex and a number of signature design elements come to mind, be it the Oyster bracelet, “Cyclops” date window, SuperLuminova indices or “Mercedes” hands.
These might well be some of the reasons people love the Crown. But Rolex is a big brand with a lot of collections, and they can’t all look the same. The Cellini is Rolex’s dressier range—every major brand needs at least one dress watch collection—and it rightly does things a little differently, though not too differently.
A late-seventies yellow-gold Rolex Cellini reference 4084. Image courtesy of Bonhams
Take that “Cyclops” date window. The Cellini collection, launched in 1986, has always used a more traditional subdial when featuring a date display, while you certainly wouldn’t find a moonphase complication on any other Rolex—at least not since the 1950s.
Add to that exhibition case backs and manual-wind movements (Rolex hasn't made a manual-wind movement for any model besides the Cellini since the 1960s) and its clear that Rolex has made a few rare forays out of its comfort zone with the Cellini.
Some past Cellini models offer the extremely rare sight of a Rolex movement
The Cellini collection also assimilated the discontinued Prince model, which was part of the Rolex catalogue decades before the Cellini name was even used. Aside from its highly un-Rolex rectangular case shape, some of which featured Cartier Tank-style brancards, the Prince line had some highly unusual features for a Rolex.
A rare little-known 1940s model, for example, even featured a quirky jumping-hours function, the kind of thing you’d expect to see on some of Gerald Genta’s more fanciful own-brand designs.
The President’s approval
The prestigious Day-Date is the watch commonly associated with America’s top job, hence its “President” nickname, having been worn by Ronald Reagan and Lyndon B. Johnson among other White House residents. But the 44th POTUS, Barack Obama, opted instead for a Cellini, albeit when his time in office was up.
A Cellini like this was spotted on the wrist of former US president Barack Obama
It’s a great choice. Like the Day-Date, the Cellini is a truly luxurious product, only available in precious metals and available on elegant reptile-skin straps, never a bracelet. If it’s good enough for a man as stylish as Obama, it should be good enough for you.
Something’s imminent…
The big Rolex event of 2022 was the release of the slightly baffling left-hand “Destro” GMT Master II.
But while the world was trying to make sense of this leftfield launch, Rolex was quietly whittling down its Cellini collection to just one model. Yes, the current Rolex line-up boasts only a Cellini Moonphase in Everose gold. A solitary Cellini to pick from if you’re in the market for a Rolex dress watch.
Sole survivor? Intriguingly, just one Cellini remains in the Rolex catalogue
We suspect that those ingenious boffins behind the Rolex curtain have got something big planned for the Cellini. And that could mean a complete discontinuation of the line or a major re-boot, which it already did almost a decade ago.
Either way, it could make all those Cellini versions of the past thirty-seven years more collectable, and with the passing of time, Rolex fans might actually look back on them with a little more fondness.
