Watches and Wonders 2026

Rolex spent 14 to 20 April 2026 marking a hundred years of the Oyster case. The Yacht-Master II that arrived ran its countdown the other way, on the flange. The Daytona came in Rolesium, enamel on the dial, sapphire over the movement. The Oyster Perpetual put 100 Years at six o’clock. Cartier brought the Roadster back as a large automatic in steel.

Yacht-Master II

The Yacht-Master II has always been the awkward member of the family: 44 mm, a blue Cerachrom bezel, and a job that has nothing to do with looking expensive. It is a regatta watch. The 116680 still behaves like one. White dial, calibre 4161. Ring Command remains the point. A quarter turn of the bezel programs a countdown of one to ten minutes. You are setting a race, not decorating a flange.

The 126680 that arrived in April keeps the 44 mm case and the blue ceramic. It does not keep the ritual. Calibre 4162, a bidirectional 60-minute bezel, and a countdown on the flange that runs counterclockwise, set from the lower pusher. Rolex turned the timing around. I prefer the older idea. A bezel you program is a tool. A scale that counts the other way is a diagram of a tool.

The 116680 sits at about SAR 67,206 on 18 August 2026. A yellow-gold 116688 is another watch, about SAR 167,292 that day, and mixing the two would be a failure of attention rather than of taste.

Daytona with a sapphire back

The April Daytona is the 126502. Platinum on the bezel ring and the caseback ring, a white grand feu enamel dial, an anthracite Cerachrom tachymeter, calibre 4131 under sapphire. Rolex let you look in. That is not nothing. For most of its life the Cosmograph has refused the courtesy.

The 126500LN keeps the door shut. Oystersteel, a black Cerachrom tachymeter, 40 mm, a solid back. I do not mind. Enamel and platinum are beautiful. They are also a different Cosmograph Daytona. The steel watch with the door shut is the one that still looks like work.

Oyster Perpetual, or 100 Years

A century of the Oyster deserved a dial that says so. The 134303 does: yellow Rolesor, a slate face, 100 Years at six. Gold on the bezel and the crown. The steel 134300 from 2025 does none of that. No date, no caption.

I would take the steel. The Oyster Perpetual is at its most convincing when it is not narrating the anniversary. Two-tone with a caption is a souvenir of a hundred years. Bare steel is the thing being commemorated, and the reason a no-date Perpetual still belongs in any honest argument about Rolex.

Cartier’s Roadster

Cartier’s returning Roadster, the WSRD0020, is 47.2 × 38.8 mm, a bracelet that lets you swap to a strap. Leather is a choice. In heat it is a poorer one. Keep the bracelet if summer is the point.

The W62016V3 is not a shy version of that watch. It is a previous-generation Roadster in 31 mm. Read the two sizes twice. One fills a cuff. The other occupies a corner of one. They share a name and a rounded rectangle. That is most of what they share, and the smaller watch is not the lesser object for it.