Rolex Explorer Ultimate Guide

In this video we discuss the Rolex Explorer and the key features of Rolex’s original sports watch. Click here to shop all Rolex Explorer watches: https://www.bobswatches.com/rolex-explorer-1.html Click here for our Rolex Explorer Ultimate Buying Guide: https://www.bobswatches.com/rolex-blog/buying-guides/rolex-explorer-ultimate-buying-guide.html First launched in 1953 to celebrate the first successful summit of Mount Everest, the Explorer was Rolex’s very first sports watch, laying the groundwork for the range of legendary tool watches that would follow, such as the Submariner, Sea-Dweller, and Milgauss. The Rolex Explorer is a durable and highly legible time-only watch. Rolex had more-or-less been producing these watches as its Oyster Perpetual series for a number of years, and models such as the ref. 6098 and ref. 6298 are often considered to be ‘Pre-Explorer’ models. The first Explorer references to have the black 3-6-9 dials that now define the collection are the ref. 6150 and ref. 6350. However, not all of these watches featured the ‘Explorer’ name on their dials. These models were replaced by the reference 6610, and by the time the ref. 6610 was released, the vast majority of the Explorer’s core design was set. Its black dial featured large luminous hour markers with 3-6-9 Arabic numerals, and the ‘Explorer’ name and Mercedes hands were both present. Despite the variation and number of early Explorer references, Rolex released the reference 1016 in 1959, which woul