CAN ROLEX SAVE THE SEA?

The luxury brand with a history of supporting intrepid exploration now strives to make our endangered planet “perpetual.” By Christen Fisher

A trusted instrument of discovery for nearly a century, the Rolex chronometer has accompanied explorers and adventurers into the planet’s wildest, most challenging realms—from its deepest oceans to its highest peaks, its remotest caverns to its lonely poles—unfailingly keeping track of time and helping to advance our knowledge about the world we share.

The founder of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf, saw the world as a living laboratory. He used it as a testing ground for his watches throughout the 1930s, sending them to the most extreme locations, supporting explorers who ventured into the unknown. But as the world has continued to change, exploration for pure discovery has given way to exploration as a means to preserve the endangered natural world. Through the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, Rolex is continuing the legacy of its founder, supporting the explorers of today on their new mission: to make the planet perpetual.

Since 1976, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise have supported and championed exceptional individuals who take on the major challenges of our time, sharing a spirit of enterprise and a desire to make the world a better place. These awards are designed to stimulate new ways of thinking about common problems and to celebrate those who embody the belief that anyone can change everything. Associate Rolex laureate and marine bio-geochemist Emma Camp, Ph.D., is one such individual.

With Rolex’s support, she is working to repopulate coral reefs ravaged by a warming climate, acidifying water and other human-inflicted damage. In 2016, Camp led a dive team to New Caledonia that documented, for the first time, 20 species of coral thriving under conditions previously considered by science to be too hot and too toxic for them to survive. Most corals prefer clean, crystal-clear waters low in nutrients and sediment, stable in temperature and rich in oxygen, but the corals Camp and her team found thrive amid hostile conditions, in the murky waters around mangroves where “conditions are comparable to, or even exceed, what is predicted for the open ocean under climate change in the year 2100.”

By identifying similar hot spots of resilience along the 2,000 kilometers of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral assemblage, and studying the behavior and genetics of these ultra-tough coral survivors, Camp hopes to uncover the mechanisms supporting these corals’ unique ability to tolerate stress, to establish a network of hot spots of reef resilience, and most importantly, to understand how the “super corals” can be used in adaptive reef management. She plans to partner with ecotourism companies to further these aims. Camp is, in essence, striving to make our coral reefs perpetual.

If you share Camp’s enterprising spirit to make our planet perpetual, then consider one of Rolex’s extraordinary dive watches: the Submariner, the Sea-Dweller or the Deepsea.

Launched in 1953, the Submariner was originally created specifically for underwater exploration and diving, but over the years, it has become a go-to watch across all walks of life in, on and out of the water. The Submariner’s Oyster case is waterproof to a depth of 1,000 feet and provides optimal protection from water, dust, pressure and shocks. The Submariner’s unidirectional rotatable bezel is key to the functionality of the watch. Its engraved 60-minute graduation allows a diver to monitor diving time and decompression stops accurately and therefore safely. Manufactured from a hard, corrosion-resistant ceramic, the Cerachrom bezel insert is virtually scratchproof, and its color is unaffected by ultraviolet rays, seawater or chlorinated water. Beginning at $7,900, the Submariner and Submariner Date are available in Oystersteel, Oystersteel and gold, and gold with a variety of dial and bezel colors.

For the dedicated diver, Rolex offers the Sea- Dweller, launched in 1967, and the Deepsea, unveiled in 2008. They are the fruit of decades of collaboration with diving professionals. Rated to a depth of 4,000 feet and sized at 43 millimeters, the Sea-Dweller’s 60-minute graduated, unidirectional rotatable bezel enables divers to safely monitor their dive and decompression times. For those who want to go deeper, the Rolex Deepsea is waterproof to a depth of 12,800 feet. Housed in a 44-millimeter Oyster case reinforced with the patented Ringlock System, the sleek black dial features large Chromalight hour markers and hands filled with luminescent material that emits a long-lasting blue glow for legibility in dark conditions. Beginning at $11,700, the Sea-Dweller is available in Oystersteel and yellow gold or Oystersteel. The Rolex Deepsea is available in Oystersteel and begins at $12,600.

Through the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, associate Rolex laureate and marine biogeochemist Emma Camp, Ph.D., is working to repopulate coral reefs that have been impacted by climate change and other human-inflicted damage. She and her team have been studying coral found throughout the globe, including New Caledonia in the South Pacific and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

Lab Grown Diamonds

A New Consumers’ Choice

Over the years, lab grown diamonds have gained popularity among the jewelry lovers. These innovative man-made diamonds come with benefits that will persuade you to invest in them.

1. Innovation and Breakthrough

After half a century of research and development, scientists have successfully perfected their manufacturing process and created beautiful man-made diamonds inside a laboratory. With advanced technology and innovation, lab grown diamonds are now grown less than a month while still retailing at 30 to 40% less than traditional diamonds.

2. Lab-Grown Diamonds and Mined Diamonds are 100% Identical

Lab-Grown Diamonds have the same chemical, physical and optical composition as traditional diamonds. They are made in a laboratory mimicking the same heat and pressure as grown underneath the earth. A highly trained gemologists cannot tell the difference between the two without the difference between the two without rigorous testing as they both have the same molecular structure.

3. Lab-Grown Diamonds are Earth Friendly

Lab-grown diamonds are made using a small number of resources and are produced in laboratories with little or no environmental impact. It has significantly less carbon-footprint.

SMILING ROCKS

Smiling Rocks is a lab grown diamond jewelry brand based and born in New York. It is a sustainable and ethical brand with unique and most sought-out jewelry. It aims to build a chain of smiles through sustainable luxury. The brand gives back with every purchase on your behalf. The co-founders dream is to refashion the industry with fresh concepts and engagement with the community through philanthropy.

HENRI DAUSSI