Screen Time

While horology and cinema might be worlds apart, rolex has always supported excellence in filmmaking. Here, four legendary directors and rolex testimonees talk about mentorship and the passing on of valuable knowledge

- Caroline Suganda

Every second a Rolex timepiece ticks is a testament of the watchmaker’s pursuit of excellence. But beyond the realm of its own expertise in telling time, the Swiss brand brings the same beating heart to support various disciplines, from arts to filmmaking. The latter is something the brand holds dear, for it shares the same ethos for storytelling. Rolex’s story is punctuated by more than a century of innovation, told through a wristwatch. While this output is completely different from a movie, the worlds of horology and cinema share a lot in common, both employing the use of technology, imagination and creativity to bring stories to life.

The two worlds are brought even closer by Rolex’s long-standing involvement in film, an ongoing relationship seen in movies from the Apocalypse Now to In the Colour of Money to The Wolf of Wall Street and I Love You Phillip Morris. There have been a handful of watchmakers that have done product placement on the silver screen but Rolex watches are more than just props, and are often written into the script itself or a personal choice of the directors or actors when portraying their characters. Case in point: In his first James Bond book, Casino Royale, author Ian Fleming wrote, “He [James Bond] could not just wear a watch. It had to be a Rolex.”