It’s the watch world’s biggest day of the year: the start of Watches and Wonders. By far the industry’s biggest trade show, nearly every major watchmaker convenes in Geneva to unveil their slate of releases for the year. And, of course, no brand’s new pieces are more hotly anticipated by collectors than Rolex’s.

The Crown was long considered one of the most conservative brands on the market, but it’s largely shed that reputation in recent years thanks to a handful of surprising timepieces. The slate of releases for 2026 shows off new techniques, a playful approach to gold, and some very daring design choices (see the new “Jubilee” dial below).

Here, based on nothing but our first looks and immediate reactions, my British GQ colleague Mike Christensen and I have cooked up a power ranking of all seven of Rolex’s latest offerings. —Cam Wolf

1. Rolex Cosmograph Daytona with an enamel dial

Wow. Rolex just took its most beloved and successful modern watch and slapped the grand dame of all dials on it, signifying the Crown’s continued interest in swimming upmarket with the Daytona.

The watch features one of the sexiest dials I’ve ever seen on a modern Daytona, thanks to some high-watchmaking techniques. Enamel dials are typically reserved for the most premium of watches—masterpieces from the likes of Patek Philippe, A. Lange & Sohne, or Rexhep Rexhepi. This dial is Grand Feu (“high fire”) enamel, which requires layers of enamel to be painstakingly painted on the dial before it’s tossed into a 800ºC/1,472ºF oven. Of course, it takes an artisan just to get the enamel onto the dial correctly, but because of the extremely high temps, these dials are known to be fussy and easily breakable during the heating process. Rolex rarely uses regular enamel dials, let alone the Grand Feu variation—the last example is the Jigsaw “Emoji” Day-Date from 2023—so it’s a very big deal for the brand to break out this technique on what is ostensibly a sport watch.

I’d say all the effort put into the dial was well worth it. The result is really beautiful to look at. Even in the pictures, you can see how glossy the new Daytona’s dial is. I even really like the white-on-white look, while the muted gray dial plays into the overall cool tone of the Daytona. There are luxury versions of the Daytona, like the special edition “Le Mans” and the gem-set “Rainbow” pieces, both of which shout their fanciness at varying volumes. This watch, however, clocking in at $57,800 and composed mostly of steel, really hits the stealth-wealth sweet spot. —CW