Excellence At Every Level

What does excellence mean? It is a quality, as defined by different schools of dictionaries, of being outstanding.

- Asaph Low

Some may say it is about breaking and setting records; others may concur it is a never-ending pursuit to go beyond one's limits or charting and venturing into new frontiers that others shy away from. In today's enriching moments of life, we have witnessed excellence across different aspects of life time and time again.

Pioneering individuals in the realms of exploration across the decades have pushed back the boundaries of human endeavour, by venturing the most extreme places on Earth to shed light on the natural world. In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first explorers to summit Mount Everest successfully.

Seven years later, oceanographer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh piloted the bathyscaphe Trieste on its plunge to the deepest point on Earth - a 10,916 metres (35,800 foot) depression called the Challenger Deep in the southern end of the Marina Trench. Their manned dive achievement was only bested half a century later when renowned filmmaker and Rolex Testimonee James Cameron completed the feat on 26 March 2012 in the record-breaking solo dive in the Deepsea Challenger submersible vessel to watery depths of 10,908 metres.

Amidst their various history-breaking moments, Rolex was present - the Explorer strapped on the wrists of the British Everest Expedition duo, the experimental Rolex Oyster Watch, the Deep Sea Special fixed to the Trieste's exterior and the Rolex Deepsea Challenge, an experimental divers' watch, attached to the Deepsea Challenger's robotic manipulator arm.