Since the 1930s, Rolex has been an active supporter of pioneering explorers who pushed back the boundaries of human endeavour. Ever present at the forefront of exploration, the Swiss manufacture accompanied these intrepid individuals to the highest mountains and to the ocean depths by equipping them with Rolex Oyster Perpetual watches that served as precise, reliable tools. These groundbreaking expeditions not only opened the unknown to the world, they also proved be the perfect “living laboratory” for the brand to test and develop its timepieces.
This involvement in exploration led Rolex naturally into an enduring partnership with the National Geographic Society. An organisation that has supported bold people and transformative ideas for more than 130 years, the National Geographic Society has made valuable contributions to exploration, science and conservation. In 1954, it featured an article in its eponymous magazine, National Geographic, detailing Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s history-making ascent of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest. This epic adventure became the impetus that brought the Society and Rolex together as the latter supplied the famous expedition with watches.
With a shared spirit for discovery, Rolex and National Geographic continued to support pioneers exploring new realms. Over the years, the two organisations have been involved in expeditions to the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the oceans, located in the Pacific. The first was in 1960 when the bathyscaphe Trieste, piloted by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, carried an experimental Rolex Oyster watch, the Deep Sea Special. Fixed to the exterior of the submersible as it descended to a record depth of 10,916 metres (35,800 feet), the watch returned to the surface in perfect working order.
Fifty-two years later, in 2012, renowned filmmaker and Rolex Testimonee James Cameron completed his solo dive aboard the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, which carried an experimental diver’s watch, named the Rolex Deepsea Challenge, on its robotic manipulator arm. The watch, waterproof to 12,000 metres (39,370 feet), resisted more than 12 tonnes of pressure on its crystal, kept perfect time and emerged from the water unscathed.
In 2017, the fruitful partnership between Rolex and the National Geographic Society was officially enhanced to promote exploration linked to the preservation of the planet. In line with the Swiss manufacture’s move from exploration for pure discovery to exploration as a means to preserve the natural world, Rolex launched the Perpetual Planet initiative in 2019. Lending support to individuals and organisations using science to understand the world’s environmental challenges and devise solutions that will restore balance to our ecosystems, the Perpetual Planet initiative currently embraces Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue initiative—which Rolex has partnered since 2014—to preserve the oceans through a network of marine-protected ‘Hope Spots’; an enhanced partnership with the National Geographic Society to study the impacts of climate change; and the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, which for 45 years has supported individuals with innovative projects improving knowledge of, and protecting, our world.
Remaining true to their shared commitment, Rolex and National Geographic are working together on different expeditions to explore the planet’s most extreme environments. Under the name Perpetual Planet Expeditions, they aim to harness world-renowned scientific expertise and cutting-edge technology to reveal new insights about the impacts of climate change on the systems that are vital to life on Earth: mountains as the world’s water towers, rainforests as the planet’s lungs, and the ocean as its cooling system. The first expedition supported by this partnership was to Mount Everest and ran from April to June 2019. The Everest expedition team, led by National Geographic and Tribhuvan University, set out to better understand the effects of climate change on the glaciers of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya that provide critical water resources to 1 billion people downstream.
The next expedition was in early 2021 when a National Geographic team of explorers and scientists installed a weather station—the highest in the Southern and Western Hemispheres—just below the summit of Tupungato Volcano, in the Southern Andes. With the installation of the weather station, scientists will have a window into atmospheric processes in the high Chilean Andes. One of the most vulnerable water towers in the world, these mountains provide fresh water to more than 6 million inhabitants in nearby Santiago.
In April 2022, Rolex and National Geographic launched a series of scientific studies over two years, spanning the entire Amazon River basin from the Andes to the Atlantic. Repeated and increased degradation such as deforestation, poaching, commercial agriculture, and climate change is decreasing the Amazon’s ability to adequately provide critical ecosystem services for the planet. Led by National Geographic Explorers, they honed in on the region’s hydrological cycle and the critical role that the river’s seasonal flooding has on access to fresh water and the survival of communities and wildlife.
This year, Rolex and the National Geographic Society launch the next series in the Rolex National Geographic Perpetual Planet Expeditions: the ocean. Teams of explorers will embark on a crucial two-year ocean voyage of discovery, covering all five ocean basins on the planet.
These projects go to the heart of the commitment Rolex has made to a Perpetual Planet and to future generations, by supporting individuals and organisations in their efforts to preserve the natural world and the systems that sustain life. The insights from these expeditions should prove invaluable to informing decisions on how the world—and the people that live in it—can best tackle the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges.
