Before leaving for my trip to Barbados with the Doxa Army a few weeks ago, I had a strange inkling that I might “get the call” for the Rolex Land-Dweller 36mm. At this point, I had been waiting about 9 months, as I had expressed my interest right on release day back in April 2025. It didn’t happen while I was away, but literally the day after arriving home I received the very exciting notification from my favorite Rolex Authorized Dealer in Toronto – they have the Land-Dweller Ref. 127234 waiting for me if I want it. I immediately scheduled the pickup date and swapped around my schedule to burn a full day picking up the watch, as this would require a 6 hour drive both ways from Montreal to Toronto and back.
The Land-Dweller had been a watch that I immediately knew deserved a place in my personal collection, and at the time of seeing it on its release day at Watches and Wonders, I was already in the market for an integrated bracelet watch with my sights set on the Royal Oak 37mm. This was the perfect Royal Oak equivalent for me, and it came with some notable benefits, such as increased water resistance (100 meters) over the RO, and lower pricing if we’re comparing retail value. I like to wear my watches in all conditions, whether I’m swimming in the sea, relaxing in a hot tub, or perhaps travelling, often carrying gear with me. Rolex truly aligns with my current active lifestyle better than Audemars Piguet. The RO would need to be babied a little bit, perhaps reserved to occasional wear, and so I switched my mindset to the Land-Dweller.
First Impressions on Pickup Day
Like many difficult to obtain Rolex models, it can be a struggle to try one on, especially if you’re juggling family life and work like me. Before picking up the watch I had only seen it in the Rolex display windows, and I knew just by eyeing it, that the 36mm would be the right size for my 6.5 inch wrist. After all, I currently own a 34mm Air-King that’s probably just a hair too small on me, and of course my daily wear Daytona 116500 that’s excellent for a sporty size, but it wouldn’t hurt to drop 1-2mm. I was also aware that the integrated bracelet, combined with the vivid white dial, would at least bump up the actual real life sizing to about 38mm. Luckily this all turned out to be an accurate thought process, and when sizing the watch at the AD I knew this was going to be the best fit I’ve ever had on any Rolex.
The watch sits squarely in the middle of my wrist, with the curvature of the integrated lugs just beginning their slope near the edges of my wrist. There’s just the right amount of room to allow for the watch to slide around on my wrist without looking sloppy, and while also allowing a good portion of the absolutely stunning bracelet to show when looking straight down at the dial.
The flat jubilee bracelet is one of the most incredible feats of simple engineering I’ve seen Rolex produce. It contours the wrist elegantly, catches the light like a disco ball, and has that iconic Rolex jingle noise to it when you shake your wrist. The bracelet in combination with the lugs is very retro 1970’s, much more so than I had initially thought, and I do believe it’s a better built bracelet than that on the Royal Oak, at least after my experience handling multiple RO’s at the Audemars Piguet House here in NYC.
The Honeycomb Dial and Calibre 7135
Apart from the overall integrated shape, and new release hype of the watch, there’s two big standout design additions never seen before on any Rolex; the “intense white” dial with its honeycomb pattern that’s been femtosecond laser engraved, and the introduction of the brand new and in-house automatic calibre 7135.
The intense white color of the dial is very interesting, and to me it looks like a divergence between a satin and sunburst finish. As many of us know, Rolex loves to create dials that seem to have chamealon like hue shifting abilities, and this dial here can look completely different depending on lighting. In direct light it retains the vivid white appearance, but as dusk sets in, or in lower light indoor settings, the dial can take on a warmer almost silvery appearance. The honeycomb engraving is very futuristic and precise in appearance, a big difference between this and say the old school linen or tapestry dials from vintage Datejust models. This here can be more closely compared to the recently discontinued Datejust motif dials, but with a more 3 dimensional appearance due to the actual engraving process. The markers are all applied, and lumed filled, with the use of inverted 3 and 6 arabic numerals, as well as nice clean and squared off baton markers. One point of contempt for this watch was its dial, but I love it and truly appreciate the out of the box thinking Rolex has finally applied on a modern offering.
The calibre 7135 came as quite a surprise when intially launched, especially combined with the fact that it’s vivisble through a sapphire exhibition caseback. This was one of the biggest atractions for me personally, a Rolex with a visible movement not only availabe as a precious metal platinum variant, how weird and quirky. To add to the excitment, the movement is a brand new high-frequency creation from Rolex, with their newly dubbed Dynapulse Escapement, it beats at a sharp 5 Hz or 36,000 vibrations per hour. As someone neatly described it in a video online, this is like buying a BMW sports car with an exclusive and production limited V8 engine. I’m also very happy to report that the finishing of the movement is excellent, complete with Côtes de Genève bridges, polished chamfers, and a really cool Syloxi hairspring that you can watch pumping away.
Final Thoughts
It’s safe to say, that once again, I’m absolutely on cloud 9 with this purchase. I’m incredibly fortunate to add this watch to my growing Rolex collection, and the watch itself has exceed all of my expections from a technical perspective as well as emotional. This is essentially Rolex doing a modern re-issue of their Oysterquartz, with a fun twist on the movement and manufacturing standards that far exceed those of the past.
With this watch being the first reference of a new line, it’s safe to assume that it may not stick around very long in its current form, as Rolex has a track record of commencing new collections with undeclared “special editions”. It’s entirely possible that Rolex begins to add new dial variants and slight modifications to the Land-Dweller of all sizes in the coming years, as they phase out this version. So far I’ve been wearing this watch more than my Daytona, and I’m curious to see if this trend continues for me.
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