Almost defiantly simplistic, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual could be seen as the purest distillation of everything the brand’s founder Hans Wilsdorf wanted to achieve – the creation of the definitive Swiss-made wristwatch. This is Rolex at its most pure – incredibly well-made, democratically priced and with a design that manages to be both contemporary and timeless.

It’s also technically the entry point to the Rolex world, less than half the price of the famous Daytona and at least £1,000 cheaper than the Submariner or GMT. Just don’t mistake the Oyster Perpetual for anything less than stellar mechanical matchmaking.

“They are real Rolex watches through and through,” says Stephen Pulvirent, managing editor at watch website Hodinkee, “and shouldn’t be viewed as a compromise or lesser watch when compared to other models across the collections.”

The Story Of The Rolex Oyster Perpetual

Although Oyster Perpetual may seem a bit of an overly floral collection name, those two words are actually the description of its origins. The Oyster part refers to the world’s first water- and dust-proof wristwatch, which Rolex launched in 1926. Legend has it that Wilsdorf thought of the name while trying to open said mollusc at a dinner party; he figured his new case design was as hard to open as the shell in his hand and, similarly, needed special tools to do so.

The second half of the name is a nod to the self-winding movement Rolex invented in 1931, so named because it was powered by the perpetual motion of the wrist. As Rolex’s collection expanded, the name ceased to refer to one specific collection and instead became a prefix, on to which the likes of Explorer, DateJust, Day Date, Daytona, Yacht-Master and Milgauss were attached.

Oyster Perpetual denoted the watch’s water-resistance and automatic movement, while the second name alluded to the added extras such as a distinctive 24-hour hand on the 1971 Explorer II, a watch designed for cave and polar explorers who need to know whether it’s day or night. Or regatta chronographs as in the case of the 2007 Yacht-Master II. The un-suffixed Oyster Perpetual collection, with its simple three-hand design, remains the most affordable (and some would say wearable) watch in the Rolex collection.