Rolex

A charitable foundation owns it

Hans Wilsdorf founded the business in London in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis, registered the Rolex name in 1908 and moved to Geneva in 1919. He died childless in 1960 and left the company to the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, which still owns all of it. Rolex publishes no accounts, has no shareholders to satisfy and cannot be bought.

Independent estimates put production at about 1.24 million watches in 2023 on revenue of around CHF 10.1 billion, which makes it the largest Swiss watch company by a wide margin. In 2023 it took over the retailer Bucherer, moving into its own distribution. For an owner the relevant consequence is that this supplier will exist in thirty years and will still service a watch bought today.

The Yacht-Master, and what it is not

The Yacht-Master arrived in 1992 as reference 16628, in 18 ct yellow gold, and it was never a tool watch. It is an Oyster with a rotatable 60-minute bezel, a 100 m case and nautical styling, and it now runs in 37 mm, 40 mm and 42 mm across Oystersteel with platinum, Everose gold, yellow gold, white gold and RLX titanium.

The bezel is bidirectional, which is the detail that settles the argument. A diving bezel turns one way only, so that an accidental knock can only ever overstate elapsed time. A bezel that turns both ways cannot make that promise. The Yacht-Master is a beautifully made watch with a sailing name, and an owner who wants a genuine dive watch is looking at a different Rolex.

A bezel that turns both ways is a convenience and not a safety instrument, which is the whole difference between a Yacht-Master and a dive watch.

The 2026 Yacht-Master II

The one Rolex that actually does a job on a race course is the Yacht-Master II, and it was replaced in 2026. The new references 126680 in Oystersteel and 126688 in 18 ct yellow gold keep the 44 mm case and carry calibre 4162, running at 4 Hz with a 72-hour power reserve, a Chronergy escapement, a column wheel and a vertical clutch.

The function is a programmable countdown for the minutes before a start, synchronised to the committee boat's sequence and resettable on the fly when the sequence changes. The 2026 generation drops the Ring Command bezel and programmes the countdown from the lower pusher alone, with the countdown hands running anticlockwise. Anyone who found the previous system awkward under pressure at the pin end should try the new one before deciding.

What the range costs

United States list prices in July 2026 run from USD 12,500 for the 37 mm in Oystersteel and platinum and USD 13,200 for the 40 mm, through USD 16,050 for the 42 mm in RLX titanium, to USD 37,700 for the 40 mm in Everose gold, USD 38,100 for the 42 mm in yellow gold and USD 40,000 in white gold. The Yacht-Master II is USD 20,300 in steel and USD 57,800 in yellow gold.

List is not what most buyers pay. Steel and titanium sports Rolexes have traded above retail for years, and in 2026 an unworn titanium Yacht-Master 42 with its full set was listed on the secondary market at USD 27,091 against a USD 16,050 list. An owner who wants one at list joins a waiting list at an authorised dealer, and the length of that list depends on his history with the shop.

One hundred metres, and what it really means

The Yacht-Master case is guaranteed waterproof to 100 m. That covers swimming off the platform, snorkelling and being caught in a squall, and it is not a diving depth. Rolex's dive watches are rated far deeper for a reason, and the difference is not marketing.

The failure mode is almost always human. A screw-down crown that has not been fully screwed home after the date was set is the single most common cause of water inside a Rolex. Gaskets also age, so a watch that has never been serviced and has been in Mediterranean sun and salt for a decade is not carrying the rating on its case back. Have the pressure test done at every service.

Guarantee, servicing and where to get it done

New Rolexes carry a five-year international guarantee alongside the Superlative Chronometer certification, and the company recommends a service roughly every ten years, with a two-year warranty on the service work itself. Independent watchmakers commonly advise a shorter interval for a watch that lives in salt air and gets wet regularly.

Service is genuinely international, which matters more for a yacht owner than for anyone else. A watch can be handed in at a service centre in Geneva, Fort Lauderdale, Dubai or Sydney and collected in another. Turnaround is measured in weeks, so it is a job for the winter lay-up and not for the week before a regatta.

The sponsorships, and what they buy

Rolex is title sponsor of fifteen major international events. It has backed the Sydney Hobart and the Middle Sea Race since 2002, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup since 1985, the biennial Fastnet as the Royal Ocean Racing Club's first naming-rights partner, and since 2024 the SailGP championship, whose 2026 season ran thirteen races across five continents.

For an owner who races, this is not decoration. Rolex's calendar is effectively the calendar, the winner of each event receives a watch, and the brand's presence at Porto Cervo, Cowes, Malta and Hobart is part of what those weeks feel like. For an owner who cruises and never crosses a start line, the sponsorship buys nothing at all, and the watch should be chosen on the same basis as any other watch.

Holding value, and the awkward part of that

Rolex holds value better than almost any comparable object an owner buys for a boat, and steel sports models have often sold above list on the secondary market. That is a real financial characteristic and it is worth knowing. It is also volatile, and prices for the most speculative references have moved sharply in both directions since 2022.

The practical risk is theft. A recognisable watch worn ashore in a Mediterranean port in August is a known target, and insurance for jewellery carried aboard is usually a separate policy from the yacht's. Check the wording before the season, particularly for items worn off the boat.

Who it suits, and who should buy something else

The Yacht-Master II suits an owner who actually races and starts under a five-minute sequence, and no other mechanical watch does that job as cleanly. The rest of the Yacht-Master line suits an owner who wants a robust, serviceable, internationally supported watch with a nautical face and does not mind that the nautical part is styling.

An owner who dives should buy a dive watch. An owner who needs a start timer and does not care what it looks like should buy a purpose-built electronic regatta watch for a fraction of the money, and it will be easier to read wet. An owner who wants a watch nobody else at the dock is wearing is in the wrong shop entirely.

Buying pre-owned without buying a fake

Every Rolex carries a serial number, engraved behind the bracelet lugs at six o'clock on watches made before 2005 and on the inner rehaut from 2005 onward, exclusively on the rehaut from 2008. On a genuine watch that engraving is crisp and laser sharp; on a counterfeit it is often dotted or slightly blurred under a loupe, and the case weight tends to feel light rather than the solid, balanced heft of the real thing.

Papers and a box are not proof by themselves, because counterfeiters now fake those too, sometimes convincingly. The reliable check is to have an authorised dealer or an established pre-owned specialist verify the serial number and movement against Rolex's own records before money changes hands, which is a service worth paying for on anything bought outside a dealer's own counter.

Who it is for: Owners who race under a starting sequence and want the timer on their wrist, and cruising owners who simply want the best-supported watch in the world with a sailing name on the dial.