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Rolex Basel 2015: A new movement, the Cal 3255.

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-09:31

An exciting news in the Rolex World.

When the novelties are not breathtaking, at least from my point of view, this year, with an exception, the new Yacht Master Ref 116655 in rose gold and its black cerachrom bezel.

A new movement is born, the Cal 3255. For the moment it is only housed in the new Day Date 40 mm platinum, if I got it right, but no doubt that in a not too long future, we'll see it in more Rolex watches.

Here it is, in picture:

14 patents have been registered for that movement, whose prupose is to have a beter precision- twice more precise than an official chronometer-, a bigger power reserve, which reaches 70 hours, now, which is 50% more than the current Roelx movements, and an improved resistance to shocks and magnetism, due to the combination of a " Chronergy " escapement, made of nickel phosphorus and the blue parachrom hairspring which is said to be optimized ( in what way, I still don't know ).

Another improvement, the new barrel architecture.

Not the most spectacular novelty from this year, in the Rolex World, but not the less important!

To be followed.

Best,

Nicolas

I noticed this...

By: Mark in Paris : March 19th, 2015-09:34

and as I think Rolex makes great movements in terms of accuracy and reliability, I am very happy to welcome this novelty in my watch world.

Cheers, Mark

Thanks for your feedback, Mark. [nt]

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-09:41

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and to be honest.....

By: Baron - Mr Red : March 19th, 2015-09:39

....at least to my mind..... this is what Rolex is about

Good to see them improving their already excellent movements. [nt]

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-09:41

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Nice to see this.....

By: Andy : March 19th, 2015-10:07

But to improve on what they have already is impressive. I've been wearing my Sub for 2 weeks and it's not even a second different from the speaking clock, very impressive already

I am however dissapointed not to see a new SS Daytona with cerachrome bezel...maybe next year.

Yours,

Andy.

Maybe next year, indeed. [nt]

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-10:09

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On the other hand.....

By: Andy : March 19th, 2015-10:12

They have saved me 7-8K as I would have to have it...ha ha

You see? Not a bad year! :) [nt]

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-10:15

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Cal. 3235 in the Pearlmaster as well

By: Thevenin : March 19th, 2015-10:35

is the updated 3135. Will probably propagate down to the other date models and calibers.

Hard to notice through all the bling

Cheers,

Dogu

3235 [nt]

By: Thevenin : March 19th, 2015-10:36

But 3235 is not 3255, is it? [nt]

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-11:48

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Same updates, just Date vs Day-Date [nt] [nt]

By: Thevenin : March 19th, 2015-13:02

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Ok, thanks for the clarification! [nt]

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-13:12

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Interesting.. And quite promising, I would assume.. The "silent" step.. :)) [nt]

By: hs111 : March 19th, 2015-12:15

It is exciting to witness the birth of a movement which will be used in many Rolex

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-12:39

Probably.

Best,

Nicolas

Hey Nico....

By: Andy : March 19th, 2015-12:51

Would they use this as a module in a chronograph (aka Daytona) or just use the patented new sexy parts in a possible new Daytona movement in the future, if at all..? Just trying to gauge where this would get used in the future. My Sub already has some benefits in the upgrade 2 years ago....the hair spring for example, and this movement is amazing compared to my slightly older GMT and Datejust.
I am impressed that they have shown their prowess in bulletproof movements, and I love a Rolex..!!!

Andy.

My logical guess would lead me to answer you that most probably...

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-12:59

Rolex will use all these improvements in most of their movements, yes.

But only Rolex has a definitive answer on that.

Best,

Nicolas

more accuracy...

By: GhostInTheMachine : March 19th, 2015-13:23

Nice to see the results of R&D at work! How long until the new features are in all the watches?

One per year....

By: ciaca : March 19th, 2015-14:18

So every Basel for the next N years will have their novelty

Regards

Same guess than Ciaca. [nt]

By: amanico : March 19th, 2015-14:53

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Repost

By: ciaca : March 23rd, 2015-04:53

I write here something i already wrote elsewhere

The new family of calibers Is in my opinion the unique interesting new thing came out from Rolex this year in Basel, the others are merely annoying.

It is a very interesting machine from different points of view, first of all because denotes a great research in optimizing the straight lever escapement with completely renewed geometry of the pallets, fork and dents of the escapement wheel.

The form of the escapement wheel itself is interesting too, a miracle of the new technologies (electro erosion) which shows us something barely impossibile till some years ago.

The declared improvement rate in energetic efficiency, power reserve and chronometry for a pretty traditional escapement and without using new spring or other parts in silicon (maybe the siloxi spring will do its debut in the future) is absolutely remarkable from a company which is not used to do it often and still uses movement conceived more than an half century ago.

Another really "exciting" (it could appears humorous but it isn't because a lot of people were waiting it since a long time) detail is the decision to mount the winding rotor, at last, with ball bearings abandoning the traditional (and pretty faulty) pivoted architecture used until now in the most part of their movements (excepted the new ones like the 4130). This should solve once forever the problem of the "sliding" rotor crawling against the bridges of the movement when the pivot consumes itself.

On the finishing side these first examples of the new generation don't appear of the same quality level (already pretty low but well made enough considering the volume produced) as the old ones, something not less important given the price they already reached.

The matter, at this point, is "how much"; how much time will Rolex use to shift all the models to the new generation of movements?

I guess decades

Regards

Thanks for this very interesting feedback, Ciaca.

By: amanico : March 23rd, 2015-05:00

I agree with you. This new movement is the most important thing / novelty this year, for Rolex, with the new Tudor movement, as well...

For the rest, m y wallet is far away from temptations, which is excellent news.

Same question in my mind: How long will we have to wait before seeing it housed in other Rolex Watches?

Best,

Nicolas.

as i wrote...

By: ciaca : March 23rd, 2015-06:03

in the last period of previous post, I guess decades ;-)
I doubt this new movement will appear soon on the best seller like gmt and submariner.
They will shift slowly starting from the less selled models waiting to empty the warehouses fulfilled by tons of movements and parts of the old generation.
At Last this new family will reach the best sellers too some time before the new models will debut as they did with 3186 inside 16710 just before shifting to 116710.

Regards

True that the last batch of 16710 housed the 3186 with the Parachrom hairspring.

By: amanico : March 23rd, 2015-07:19