Sport of Kings: The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Land‑Dweller Has Arrived

Jeremy Freed August 15, 2025

Watches and Wonders Geneva, the annual watch industry trade show that takes place each spring, is an information overload for watch enthusiasts. With 60 of the world’s most prestigious watch brands in attendance, this year’s trade show touted enough gleaming luxury timepieces to prop up the economy of a mid-sized country. As the biggest brand at the most high-profile event in the watch industry, Rolex is — unsurprisingly — often the centre of attention. This year, however, it was harder than usual not to sympathize with the 59 other brands presenting at Geneva’s sprawling Palexpo convention centre. That’s because there was only one watch that anyone wanted to talk about: the new Rolex Oyster Perpetual Land-Dweller.

To the uninitiated, the Land-Dweller might look more or less like a lot of other Rolex sports models, with its signature fluted bezel, Cyclops date window, and “explorer” dial layout. For those with a deeper knowledge of Rolex, however, the Land-Dweller was received like a hippopotamus dropped from a great height into a backyard swimming pool: first shock, then awe, then a frenzy of excitement. Any new Rolex line is bound to launch a thousand hot takes, but there are two main reasons why the Land-Dweller created such a commotion.

New men's watch, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Land‑Dweller. Photo courtesy of Rolex. — *Rolex Oyster Perpetual Land‑Dweller. Photos courtesy of Rolex.*

The first is aesthetic. “Rolex has always been about evolution, not revolution. They tend to make marginal changes, rarely straying too far from what works, but this model feels different,” says Perri Dash, co-host of the Wrist Check podcast. “The Land-Dweller has the name of what sounds like a professional tool watch, but the design is more fluid, more refined.” On first look, Dash and other Rolex enthusiasts were immediately drawn to new features like a case shape that recalls vintage Oyster quartz models from the 1970s, a sleek integrated bracelet, and a honeycomb pattern dial. They also suggest that Rolex — a brand famous for its conservative approach to aesthetic changes — is updating its look. “It’s almost as if Rolex is signalling a new era — one where the brand maintains its legacy, but begins to express what a 21st-century Rolex should look like,” Dash muses. “It’s subtle, but for those paying attention, it speaks volumes.”

Roger Federer wears new men's watch, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Land‑Dweller. Photo courtesy of Rolex. — *Roger Federer for Rolex. Photos courtesy of Rolex.*

Then, of course, there’s the movement. Another major departure from Rolex orthodoxy was the introduction of a sapphire caseback that provides a view of the all-new calibre 7135 automatic movement. Rolex is somewhat famous for being one of the only luxury watch brands to eschew exhibition casebacks on most of its sports watches, but no longer. That’s because the 7135 isn’t just a new movement, it’s a new kind of movement for Rolex, with an oscillator (a mechanical watch’s beating heart) that beats at 36,000 vibrations per hour and can measure time to one-tenth of a second. Thanks to something called the “Dynapulse escapement,” a snowflake-like assembly of silicon parts that metes out power from the mainspring to the gear train, the Land-Dweller represents a departure from 300 years of watchmaking convention.

“Many watch brands have attempted to develop silicon escapements, with varying degrees of success, so Rolex introducing a silicon escapement is certainly big news,” says Bradley Taylor, a Swiss-trained watchmaker who hand-builds timepieces under his own brand in Vancouver. The main benefit of silicon escapements, Taylor explains, is that they require little lubrication, making the watch able to run more accurately for longer than the steel lever escapements used in most high-end Swiss watches. “It’s also even more impervious to impacts and shocks,” Taylor adds. “Typically wear becomes an issue as you increase frequency, but the extremely wear-resistant qualities of silicon mitigate this.”

Photo courtesy of Rolex.