Two Rolex Maniacs Debate the Brand’s Most Important Models

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We just published our big, comprehensive list of the “best” and most significant Rolex models in the brand’s history—ranking everything from the Prince and King Midas to the Submariner and Daytona. I spoke with quite a few Rolex experts and dealers along the way and, of course, they all agreed my list was perfect. Just kidding: Any effort to rank the best of anything is always going to be a hotly contested subject. The word “best” simply invites all manner of interpretations and personal preferences.

Analog:Shift’s James Lamdin and Menta Watches’ Adam Golden were two noted Crown experts I conferred with who held very different opinions on how these watches should be ranked. So, in the spirit of debate, I opened the floor to let them settle it like men: over a Zoom call nearly 1,100 miles apart—Lamdin from his home base in New York, Golden in Miami.

GQ: What are you guys wearing?

Golden: Four line, tropical, Big Crown [Submariner]. Nothing too fancy.

Lamdin: [Patek Philippe] 3940.

I want to lay down one ground rule before we start, because where I netted out with the Oyster Perpetual is that we differentiated between the actual watch model and the Oyster Perpetual technology, which is the most important advancement in Rolex history. And with that, we’ll start our battle to the death for the soul of collectors.

Golden: James, in my opinion, if you put Oyster Perpetual at the top of the list as a model, most people are not going to understand what your actual intentions are. And they’re going to be like, “Are you fucking crazy? Why? Because it has the Tiffany-blue on it?”

Lamdin: I think the delineation you just made solves the problem, right?I recognize that there are two things going on here. There’s what’s commercially important, what’s sort of in the cultural zeitgeist. And then there’s historically—if we’re going to be academic about it—what is the most important thing in the Rolex lineup? It’s a waterproof, automatic watch. That’s, conceptually, at the core of everything that Rolex does. But as a model, I totally agree with that, and I think that’s a good way to delineate it.

So, is the list most popular or most important? Semantics matter.

It’s most important, but that factors in cultural, historical, and technical contributions as well as popularity. It’s an alchemy of all of these things. So here’s the top 10, starting from the top: Submariner, Daytona, Datejust, Day-Date, GMT, Explorer and Explorer II, Oyster Perpetual, Milgauss, Sea Dweller, and Air-King.

Golden: I can make the argument for both the Sub and Daytona being number one. You’re not wrong to say the Sub is number one—it’s the most iconic watch in the Rolex lineup. It’s the biggest dive watch in the world.