With a sharper, more modern design, can we learn to love one of Rolex’s less understood models"

By Chris Hall
 
The Rolex Sky-Dweller is not one of the brand?s icons. It?s not a watch everybody understands, and it?s not a watch everybody loves.
It was launched in 2012, and is one of Rolex?s most complicated watches, combining a dual time zone function with an annual calendar. Partly thanks to that, and partly thanks to its looks, it often gets unfairly lumped in with the Yacht-Master II. Like that watch, it is mostly spotted in two-tone or solid gold (indeed, it?s not available in plain old steel).

This year, however, it has had a re-design that brings it much closer to ?heartland Rolex?. It now comes in six new references with baton hour markers instead of Arabic or Roman numerals; these are either steel and yellow gold or steel and white gold ?Rolesor? cases and bracelets, and it?s the latter that really caught our eye. They come with a choice of three eminently sensible dial colours ? black, white and blue ? and lend a stealth factor to a watch that previously knew only how to be conspicuous.
Thus altered, the Sky-Dweller becomes a watch that could almost pass for a Datejust or Oyster Perpetual at a glance. Even on closer inspection, a casual observer would not credit it with the full functionality that it possesses; the annual calendar isn?t represented by a multitude of subdials or windows. The month indicator does inject some colour contrast, be it i...