The smartest travel watch Rolex makes
By Rafael Ortiz, Mexico City ยท
I know what you're thinking: it's a big, flashy two-tone Rolex. And yes, it is. But look closer and the Sky-Dweller might be the cleverest travel watch on the market.
The fluted bezel is the control panel. Rotate it to one of three positions and the crown sets something different: date, local time, or home time. Home time sits on an off-center 24-hour disc, local time on the main hands, and the annual calendar (Rolex calls it Saros) shows the month through little windows around the dial. You only correct the date once a year, on the first of March.
Under the hood it's the 9002 with 72 hours of reserve, behind a closed back. 42 mm by 14.1 mm, two-tone with a blue dial, on a bracelet with 22 mm lugs.
Here is how that plays out on a trip. Before departure I set home time on the disc, Mexico City, and leave it alone for the whole rotation. When I land in Madrid I turn the bezel to the local-time position and click the hour hand forward with the crown, and the date changes with it. The disc never moves. It's a flyer GMT in spirit, just operated through the bezel instead of crown positions, and once you have done it twice it becomes second nature.
My real reservation is legibility. The off-center disc is small, and in a dark cockpit you need to look twice to find home time. And the two-tone is not for everyone (my daughter says it looks like a grandpa watch). At 17,000 to 18,500 dollars, it's a lot of money, but it's a lot of clever watch.