As a journalist who covers mobile technology, the release of a new Rolex watch wouldn’t normally be something I’d write about, unless the brand suddenly made an unexpected push into smartwatches. While the Rolex Land Dweller is not a connected watch, the situation leading up to its announcement and the way it has been presented to the public afterwards, is right out of Apple and Samsung’s playbook, which makes it fascinating. Let me take you through how luxury watches and mobile tech have crossed over in a most unusual way.
Land of leaks
Brand new products leaking ahead of announcement is part of the mobile tech landscape. Whether it’s Apple or ZTE, information ranging from benchmark tests to dummy devices, and even the actual device itself being spotted before it’s official is both normal and expected. This information comes our way through well-connected individuals, sources inside the supply chain, and some more unconventional methods, such as sneaky spy shots.
Over the past weeks the new Rolex Land Dweller was gradually “leaked” prior to its official announcement. The leaks followed what we would consider a fairly standard pattern, starting with blurry photos with hints about what was to come almost obscured in the pixelation, and ending with “accidental” leaks on the official Rolex website and social channels, complete with spy shots of Rolex ambassador and tennis superstar Roger Federer being photographed wearing the unreleased watch. Like Apple, Rolex has a reputation of being secretive, and rarely shares much officially about its future products.
This helped make the unofficial images and video very exciting for watch lovers and industry observers, adding to the fact it depicted a model different to other Rolex watches currently available, plus it was expected to wear a new name too. The leaks made way for official teasers, helpfully confirming what was unofficially seen before. However, early on the leaks were treated with far more suspicion than we regularly see in the mobile industry, where we’re so accustomed to leaks happening, it’s far to easy to fall into the trap of believing everything we see because more often than not, they’re accurate.
A string of strategic leaks
Rolex’s April 1 launch date for the Land Dweller didn’t help instill confidence. For example, industry commenter Adrian Barker made videos titled “I call BS“, and “Rolex Leak or April Fools?” reacting to the rumors, and explaining why they are unusual. However, as the quality of the leaks improved, so did people’s trust in them. On Reddit, the most upvoted comment on a post sharing Rolex’s final accidental Instagram leak said, “I’m just going to assume that the leaks about the Land Dweller are true.”
What’s also interesting is that as someone who has covered mobile technology for more than 15 years is, practically all the “leaks” seemed to fall into the less common, but most intriguing “strategic leak” category, meaning it was likely Rolex itself sharing the details through trusted channels, rather than it being discovered in a less official way, or accidentally (but fortuitously) stumbled upon by a lucky fan. These are not unheard of in the mobile and tech industry.
It makes sense this way too. The Land Dweller is a brand new Rolex, an ocassion that doesn’t happen very often, and both the name and the design are unusual. To me, Rolex was working to soften the blow of, and at the same time gauging the early reaction to, the Land Dweller. It needed its new model to be the star of the Watches and Wonders 2025 show — think of it as the CES of luxury watches, held in Geneva, Switzerland — which begins April 1, but it didn’t want knee-jerk reactions clouding the coverage. Best to get all that out of the way early using “leaks.”
In the hands of influencers
Leaks are part and parcel of every industry, and this is far from the first new luxury watch to leak ahead of its announcement. However, because it’s Rolex, and because it was pretty comprehensively leaked ahead of April 1, it reached a lot more people than usual. In the same way Apple is many people’s go-to brand name for tech, Rolex is the go-to name for luxury watches. Even people who don’t really follow the watch industry may have heard about a “new Rolex watch” over the last weeks. Only a few brands are capable of generating that level of hype using blurry photos and a few short video clips, and Rolex leveraged its potential perfectly.
Now the Land Dweller is official, the comparison to how we’re introduced to new mobile tech continues. All major watch publications have written about the watch, along with mainstream media including Bloomberg and The Financial Times, but what’s happening on YouTube is really fascinating. By far the most watched video at the time of writing about the Land Dweller outside of Rolex’s own is a “hands on” from industry expert Teddy Baldassarre, who has 1.22 million subscribers. He mentions in the video that it’s an exclusive, and shares some stunning video of the watch and its inner workings, which we’ll come to in a moment. Nico Leonard, a polarizing figure on watch YouTube with 1.86 million subscribers has not posted a video on the Land Dweller for what we assume is an April 1 embargo, highlighting the gravity of Baldassarre’s scoop.
Rolex has clearly recognized Baldassarre’s influence and considers him a good fit for its strategy and brand, then rewarded him with great access. Following Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down for a relaxed interview with MKBHD, probably the best known tech influencer on YouTube. Apple saw the value in speaking to Marques Brownlee, and with the Land Dweller, Rolex also saw value in strategically presenting an ambitious new model with one of the most respected and knowledgeable industry influencers. In this situation, Baldassarre has suddenly become the MKBHD of luxury watches.
Talking watches in a tech-forward way
Then there’s the Land Dweller itself. We’re not going to go into much detail as this isn’t our area of expertise, but even as a somewhat casual observer I can see the Land Dweller’s sporty integrated bracelet is the brand entering an established trend in watchmaking for the first time. But, just as we see from Apple and its iPhone, Rolex has adopted the trend in its own unique way, setting a new standard, and ignoring the competition all at the same time.
It’s making a big deal of the 7135 caliber movement inside too, going into detail about how its different and why it matters, and even using a very Apple-like name — the Dynapulse — for the escapement, and claiming it’s 30% more efficient than the old way of doing things. This is the way Qualcomm and MediaTek talk about advancements made between processor series, as percentages sound really impressive, even if the performance jump isn’t that huge in reality. I realize there are only so many ways to talk about things, but the parallels are too strong to ignore.
Love it or hate it, Apple’s iPhone is an aspirational piece of mobile tech, and a Rolex is arguably the most aspirational luxury watch brand out there. It makes sense the two should present, hype, and market their products in very similar ways. But from beginning to end, Rolex’s approach to the Land Dweller’s launch was far more familiar to me, professionally, than almost any I’ve seen before. It’s something mobile tech fans should think about as we’re slowly introduced to unusual new devices like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge and the Apple iPhone 17 Air over the coming weeks and months.
The Rolex Land Dweller will undoubtably be harder to buy than either of these phones though, and its recommended retail price starts at $14,900.
