rolex yacht master mens watch 16622

WATCH REVIEW Rolex Yacht-Master 40 mm 16622

Rolex yacht-master 40 mm 16622.

• an untypical Rolex!
• a fluid, delicate and light line around the wrist
• a multitasking use
• a less good readability than on the sports models
• the absence of anti-reflection coating on the sapphire glass
• a more confidential model, which reselling might be less easier than another Rolex.

Technical specifications

Editor's opinion 72/100

A sporty Rolex watch

Once around the wrist, this watch intrigues. Rolex has used us to specific categories, which design has become a reference. Yet, in this case, “the tester at your service”, although familiar with the Rolex, looses its marks. The play is blurred.

Are we in front of a sporty Rolex watch?

Numerous clues indicate so:

• a 40 mm diameter, an usual size for Rolex, which is nearly rare nowadays, and suits well my 17,5 cm wrist – Yes
• a triplock screwed crown protected by the caseband – Yes
• the 3135 caliber, well-known for its legendary robustness – Yes
• the sapphire glass, with no anti-reflection coating, with its cyclops, magnifying glass that does not get the approval of everyone, but is dreadfully efficient – Yes
• the revolving bezel (bidirectional) – Yes
• the Mercedes hands and the circled markers for a good readability – Yes
• the comfortable Oysterlock strap (reference 78360), fulfilled links with polished/brushed alternation, a lighter buckle but nevertheless solid – Yes
• the back totally free of any kinds of writings – Yes
• Certified Chronometer – Yes

Though, there is something more….

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Hence, what is the profile of the case? Something from the Datejust maybe…

A delicate line, with more marked curves and lugs slightly plunging and above all, integrally polished: the famous “Rolex brushed” of the upper part of the lugs is now replaced with a mirror polished.

That’s it: this Yacht-Master benefits a neo-vintage line, rich of unsuspected charms, which subtly makes the difference with the other models of the sports range (and in particular the Submariner).

“Unsual” colors for Rolex watches

Another new element: its light grey dial, enlivened by the red seconds’ hand and the Yacht-Master inscription, also in red (My God! A “Red” could exclaimed a non-used amateur of the brand!), that seems finely glittered and catches the light.

At last, another differencing element: the bezel made of platinum… Nevertheless, it takes up the traditional subdivisions of the Submariner with raised markers and numbers – which exposes it to the scratches of everyday life.

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What risks have I taken to put this Rolex around my wrist for you, The Watch Observer’s reader?

It is not a dressy Rolex !

We know the delicate and small diameter Datejust, or in the sports range, some models with noble metals such as gold or gold/steel combined.

No, here, we deal with an untypical model.

Its detractors can devoice:

• this light grey dial makes the readability less intuitive than with a black dial!
• or: the bezel with its raised numbers engraved within the mass is little readable
• or even: there is a “Canada Dry effect” = it looks like a Rolex withouth looking like the model people have in mind…

And they will be right. Let them go back to their first loves : The Yacht-Master is not the Rolex made for them.

What to remember

Finally – and here I stake my all – this Yacht-Master is dedicated to a particular amateur of Rolex: the one that will not be afraid to assume what will be perceived by some purists of the brand as an heresy, but that merely corresponds to another type of Rolex, just a little more confidential… Let’s be a good gambler and recognizes it.

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Review: Rolex Yacht-Master 16622

Once upon a time before the world went crazy, a Rolex was just another product you could go to the store and buy. You could walk in, say, “One Rolex please,” hand over your dimes and walk out with said Rolex. That, like many other things, is different now. A Rolex shop doesn’t so much sell Rolexes anymore as it does man the phone to let the patient queue on the waiting list know their day has come. But what if I told you there was a forgotten steel sports Rolex that you can buy for less than the RRP? I can understand that you’d treat this statement with the same suspicion as a stranger’s cough, so let me explain.

Before our story even begins, it’s important to establish exactly why the Rolex sports watch has come to earn such an overwhelming reputation. Its looks, its specification, its history is nothing more or less remarkable than any of its competitors, often flagging behind in each category, yet somehow its status can’t be that many floors below the big man upstairs himself.

It’s one of the biggest names in luxury, commanding queues longer than those at Disneyworld on a hot summer’s day—and yet all that prestige and fanaticism comes from a far humbler place entirely. Despite the myth that the name Rolex is an amalgamation of the words “horological” and “luxury”, the brand’s rise to fame was anything but.

Founder Hans Wilsdorf—a name that is burnt into the minds of anyone who’s even remotely interested in watches—had no grand plans for a luxury watch empire, or anything of the sort. All he wanted was to make watches worn by professionals. And I don’t mean that in way that celebrity “professionals” are encouraged to wear a watch by way of a brown paper bag full of lettuce, but in an actual, legitimate, proper use in the workplace kind of way.

It was the only way Wilsdorf had a hope of making a mark. He was buying movements from one place and putting them in cases from another, so he was never going to win any awards for watchmaking excellence. Instead, he focussed his attention on how he could make a product that could survive the rigours of real life.

Rolex was originally founded in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis

For divers, he developed water-resistance, for pilots he developed a twin time-zone display, for scientists, anti-magnetic capabilities. The watches themselves, they were crude, simplistic, the solutions basic and their operation unremarkable—but they worked. They did the job, and they did it well. Wilsdorf undercut everyone else with his basic instruments and that was that.

But that wasn’t that, because long after Wilsdorf had passed, so too did the industry he had worked so hard to be heard in. As Swiss watch companies, once strong and mighty, crumbled to the ground, Rolex experienced something different: a resurgence. This was a brand that had never tried to be anything more than a tool for a job, no flash or fancy about it—and there was appeal in that. It was cool, it was casual, the furthest thing from try-hard imaginable, and people went crazy for it.

Here’s where things start to get a bit weird. Through the eighties, the popularity of Rolex began to evolve into something different, something new: it became a status symbol, a badge of cool, and that turned everything about the brand on its head. People wanted these basic tool watches in gold, with diamonds, hanging loosely from their wrists as they motored along in their Sunseekers.

What was Rolex to do? If people wanted Rolex but in luxury form, it could risk losing everything by staying as it was—but then it could do just the same by pursuing that goal as well. It was a stalemate, and eventually the pressure became too much. Rolex cracked, and what emerged was this: the Yacht-Master.

While originally founded in London, Rolex watches are now made in Geneva, Switzerland

Rolex is often criticised for being very slow with its developmental process, and perhaps the Yacht-Master will help you understand why this approach is necessary. The Yacht-Master, announced in 1992 in gold, naturally, bombed, and bombed hard. Silly Rolex! People liked the rugged versatility of a Rolex, but in gold with diamonds, not some shiny, over-polished rehash of the Submariner! Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

There were many avenues explored to address this monstrous mis-decision, changing colours, materials, and even complications to try and find a home for the sore thumb that was the Yacht-Master. But, alongside the Submariner, Explorer, GMT-Master, it just looked, well, a bit silly. Take this 16622, first seen in 1997. A platinum bezel combined with a platinum dial makes for a very impractical piece of equipment, difficult to read, dazzling in the sun and expensive to dent. Straight to the “no” pile, thank you very much.

But the tables turned again in 2015 when Rolex doubled down on its twenty-three-year-old bet and brought the Yacht-Master back with a bang. In rose gold and with a new hat, I mean, rubber strap, it finally came of age. The audience was just right, the time was just right, and all of a sudden you couldn’t find a rose gold Yacht-Master for love nor money. Mainly money.

What that’s done is relegated the early 16622 watch into a little corner of the Rolex world very few people think to look. It’s the reject bin, where the offcuts and misshapen goods rot in peace. It’s stuck between worlds, neither one thing nor the other, the middle child that didn’t either end up on drugs or go to Harvard. It’s doing ok, quiet and forgotten. Here’s where we find our bargain.

A Rolex Yacht-Master can cost anywhere between five and thirty thousand pounds. The price is dependent on the generation, condition, availability and material used to make the watch

You look at any other steel sports Rolex and you’ll find the same thing: you can’t get one new, and supply and demand have forced the secondary market into appreciation. Submariner, GMT-Master, Explorer all want RRP or more. But not the Yacht-Master 16622. A new steel and platinum Yacht-Master is getting on for £10,000 new, with the updated blue and rhodium dials, but not the old faithful 16622. That you can have for closer to £7,000, less if you look hard.

And post 2015, you know what? The 16622 is actually a very handsome watch. The sparkling platinum dial, designed to mirror the sun catching on the waves of the ocean, is a level of detail never previously seen before in a Rolex watch. The polished edges, curved and soft, are more luxurious. The red seconds hand is the Maraschino cherry in a cool Casino. It just needed a quarter-century to be appreciated.

It may not be the latest and greatest, but the appeal of Rolex never should have been that in the first place. It’s about honouring passion, celebrating ingenuity and all in a cool, effortless way. The Yacht-Master was no less an industrial revolution than any other Rolex sports watch before it—only this time the industry was luxury.

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.css-1c7en8u{font-size:clamp(1.375rem, 1.25rem + 0.3125vw, 3.125rem);line-height:1.1;margin-bottom:1rem;} Yacht-Master 40 .css-1g7r01k{font-weight:300;font-size:clamp(0.875rem, 0.9375rem + 0.1563vw, 1.25rem);line-height:1.2;text-wrap:balance;}.css-1g7r01k span{display:block;} Oyster, 40 mm, Oystersteel and Everose gold Reference 126621

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Staying on course

The Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master 40 in Oystersteel and Everose gold with an Oyster bracelet.

Bidirectional rotatable bezel, timing the distance.

The Yacht-Master’s bidirectional rotatable 60-minute graduated bezel is made entirely from precious metals or fitted with a Cerachrom insert in high-tech ceramic. The raised polished numerals and graduations stand out clearly against a matt, sand-blasted background.

This functional bezel – which allows the wearer to calculate, for example, the sailing time between two buoys – is also a key component in the model’s distinctive visual identity.

Intense black dial

Exceptional legibility.

Like all Rolex Professional watches, the Yacht-Master 40 offers exceptional legibility in all circumstances, and especially in the dark, thanks to its Chromalight display.

The broad hands and hour markers in simple shapes – triangles, circles, rectangles – are filled with a luminescent material emitting a long-lasting glow.

Everose Rolesor

A meeting of two metals.

Gold is coveted for its lustre and nobility. Steel reinforces strength and reliability. Together, they harmoniously combine the best of their properties.

A true Rolex signature, Rolesor has featured on Rolex models since the early 1930s, and was trademarked as a name in 1933. It is one of the prominent pillars of the Oyster collection.

The Oyster bracelet

Alchemy of form and function.

The Oyster bracelet is a perfect alchemy of form and function, aesthetics and technology, designed to be both robust and comfortable. It is equipped with an Oysterlock folding clasp, which prevents accidental opening and the Easylink comfort extension link, also exclusive to Rolex.

This ingenious system allows the wearer to increase the bracelet length by approximately 5 mm, providing additional comfort in any circumstance.

More Yacht-Master technical details

Reference   126621

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Oyster, 40 mm, Oystersteel and Everose gold

Oyster architecture

Monobloc middle case, screw-down case back and winding crown

Everose Rolesor - combination of Oystersteel and Everose gold

Everose gold bidirectional rotatable 60-minute graduated with raised numerals

Winding crown

Screw-down, Triplock triple waterproofness system

Scratch-resistant sapphire, Cyclops lens over the date

Water resistance

Waterproof to 100 metres / 330 feet

Perpetual, mechanical, self-winding

3235, Manufacture Rolex

-2/+2 sec/day, after casing

Centre hour, minute and seconds hands. Instantaneous date with rapid setting. Stop-seconds for precise time setting

Paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring. High-performance Paraflex shock absorbers

Bidirectional self-winding via Perpetual rotor

Power reserve

Approximately 70 hours

Oyster, three-piece solid links

Folding Oysterlock safety clasp with Easylink 5 mm comfort extension link

Intense black

Highly legible Chromalight display with long-lasting blue luminescence

Certification

Superlative Chronometer (COSC + Rolex certification after casing)

Learn how to set the time and other functions of your Rolex watch by consulting our user guides.

Yacht-Master 40

Contact an Official Rolex Retailer

Only official Rolex retailers are allowed to sell and maintain a Rolex watch. With the necessary skills, technical know-how and special equipment, they guarantee the authenticity of each and every part of your Rolex and help you make the choice that will last a lifetime.

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FIFTH WRIST

Owner review: rolex yacht master 16622.

The 1980s was a time of innovation at Rolex, with a refresh of everything in the Rolex catalog and putting a more modern and premium look to the entire line up. Gone are the days of Matte Painted dials, and hand-wound movements of the Daytona but in with the new Glossy dials, White Gold Indices and Sapphire Crystals, similar to the Rolex Line-Up you see today. The 1980s brought change aesthetically and internally to the entire catalog, but while Rolex was in development of the then new Submariner 16610, the iconic design you know today was a redesign of the original?

In the 1980s, Rolex wanted to significantly update and modernize the Rolex Submariner and give a more modern take of the outgoing Submariner 16800 of the late 70s-mid 80s. Rolex experimented with several designs, trying to give a more modern look while keeping the essence and design aspects of a submariner. They were adamant about keeping the submariner DNA for the new redesign and were scared that when unveiled, the design may not appeal to the fans of the brand and the submariner. We are of course talking about one of the most iconic and recognisable watches of all time. The thing was, they really liked the new design, since its more sleek and modern than the outgoing 16800. At the end of the day the Submariner 16610 you know and love came out and was an instant hit and the rest was history. But what happened to the prototype design? The Rolex Yacht Master 16622 was born.

In 1997, we saw the introduction of the Stainless steel Rolex Yacht Master 16622. The 16622 series came in two dial variations Blue and wait for it…..Platinum. You Read it right, they used a solid platinum dial and a platinum rotating bezel, unique only to the Yachtmaster Line. This was the first time Rolex has experimented with the mix of elements being steel and Platinum in a sports watch .

The Rolex Yacht Master 16622 was also the first new release to use super luminova instead of tritium. The Rolesium Yacht Master was seen as a very unique watch that was somewhat oddball in the world of watches because of its combination of materials and its flashy looks featuring the polished centre link bracelet.

If you wanted a more elegant sports watch that looks good on formal occasions and also in the sports club, then the yacht master is the watch for you. The platinum dial glistens under the light and looks simply stunning together with the red contrast “Yacht Master” text and red seconds hand.

The Ladies 29mm and MidSize 35mm versions were also available and in my opinion, would be a stunning watch to pair with your significant other. One of the biggest drawbacks was the price, it was one of, if not the most expensive steel Rolex in the retail catalogue.

The Rolex Yacht Master 16622 was updated in 2013 with the 116622. It included updates such as the more modern Rolex easy link clasp, an updated dial with thinner fonts and a smoother glossy look as opposed to the more metallic look of the old dial. The addition of super luminova instead of the old luminova also make the dial look different. Changes were also made to the bracelet with the end-links fitting much more nicely into the lugs.

Recently we have seen many things happen in the watch market . Rolex Sports Models have had a meteoric rise in value, the hype around every sports model in the Rolex range and truly there insane prices for some pieces in the Submariner ,GMT, Explorer and especially Daytona lines.

In my opinion the Rolex Yacht Master 16622 is a lot of watch for the money. You get precious metals, flashy looks, stunning dial, reliable movement, beautiful finishing and modern looks for around 8,000 USD or 400k pesos. All less than a new submariner !

thedudeschronos

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Rolex 16622 Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master Steel with Platinum Mens Watch Silver Dial Oyster Perpetual Calendar Sapphire Crystal Serial Number Certified

About this item.

• 100% Authentic Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date Yacht-Master ; Reference# 116622-0001
• Case diameter: 40mm; Case material: Stainless Steel; Dial color: Blue;
• Bracelet type: Oyster; Bracelet material: Stainless Steel; Buckle type: Fold-over;;
• Automatic movement, Self-winding, Swiss made;
• Package Includes: the unworn Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date Yacht-Master watch, Rolex booklets, hang-tags (if were supplied by AD), Rolex warranty, COSC Certificate/Seal, Appraisal for insurance purposes, 2-year warranty from Diamond Source NYC (additional to manufacturer’s), Rolex Watch-box.

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Product Description

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date Yacht-Master 40mm watch. The bezel is Platinum bidirectional rotating. The dial is Blue with lumiscent hour markers and date window at three o'clock. The crystal is scratch-resistant sapphire with magnifier called Cyclops lens located right above date indicator. The winding crown has three positions and is located on the right side of the watch case, guarded by two crown guard protuberances. The back is solid with brushed surface. The Oyster bracelet is made of Rolesium Steel and has 11 links along with the Folding Oysterlock with safety clasp and Easylink 5mm comfort extension link.

Product specifications

Watch information.

Looking for specific info?

Product details.

• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Yes
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5 Pounds
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ 116622-0001
• Department ‏ : ‎ mens
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ March 18, 2010
• Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Rolex
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000KL5D24

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Rolex Yacht-Master 40 Silver Dial Chronometer Men's Watch 16622

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Review: Rolex Yacht-Master 16622

Once upon a time before the world went crazy, a Rolex was just another product you could go to the store and buy. You could walk in, say, “One Rolex please,” hand over your dimes and walk out with said Rolex. That, like many other things, is different now. A Rolex shop doesn’t so much sell Rolexes anymore as it does man the phone to let the patient queue on the waiting list know their day has come. But what if I told you there was a forgotten steel sports Rolex that you can buy for less than the RRP? I can understand that you’d treat this statement with the same suspicion as a stranger’s cough, so let me explain.

Before our story even begins, it’s important to establish exactly why the Rolex sports watch has come to earn such an overwhelming reputation. Its looks, its specification, its history is nothing more or less remarkable than any of its competitors, often flagging behind in each category, yet somehow its status can’t be that many floors below the big man upstairs himself.

It’s one of the biggest names in luxury, commanding queues longer than those at Disneyworld on a hot summer’s day—and yet all that prestige and fanaticism comes from a far humbler place entirely. Despite the myth that the name Rolex is an amalgamation of the words “horological” and “luxury”, the brand’s rise to fame was anything but.

Founder Hans Wilsdorf—a name that is burnt into the minds of anyone who’s even remotely interested in watches—had no grand plans for a luxury watch empire, or anything of the sort. All he wanted was to make watches worn by professionals. And I don’t mean that in way that celebrity “professionals” are encouraged to wear a watch by way of a brown paper bag full of lettuce, but in an actual, legitimate, proper use in the workplace kind of way.

It was the only way Wilsdorf had a hope of making a mark. He was buying movements from one place and putting them in cases from another, so he was never going to win any awards for watchmaking excellence. Instead, he focussed his attention on how he could make a product that could survive the rigours of real life.

Rolex was originally founded in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis

For divers, he developed water-resistance, for pilots he developed a twin time-zone display, for scientists, anti-magnetic capabilities. The watches themselves, they were crude, simplistic, the solutions basic and their operation unremarkable—but they worked. They did the job, and they did it well. Wilsdorf undercut everyone else with his basic instruments and that was that.

But that wasn’t that, because long after Wilsdorf had passed, so too did the industry he had worked so hard to be heard in. As Swiss watch companies, once strong and mighty, crumbled to the ground, Rolex experienced something different: a resurgence. This was a brand that had never tried to be anything more than a tool for a job, no flash or fancy about it—and there was appeal in that. It was cool, it was casual, the furthest thing from try-hard imaginable, and people went crazy for it.

Here’s where things start to get a bit weird. Through the eighties, the popularity of Rolex began to evolve into something different, something new: it became a status symbol, a badge of cool, and that turned everything about the brand on its head. People wanted these basic tool watches in gold, with diamonds, hanging loosely from their wrists as they motored along in their Sunseekers.

What was Rolex to do? If people wanted Rolex but in luxury form, it could risk losing everything by staying as it was—but then it could do just the same by pursuing that goal as well. It was a stalemate, and eventually the pressure became too much. Rolex cracked, and what emerged was this: the Yacht-Master.

While originally founded in London, Rolex watches are now made in Geneva, Switzerland

Rolex is often criticised for being very slow with its developmental process, and perhaps the Yacht-Master will help you understand why this approach is necessary. The Yacht-Master, announced in 1992 in gold, naturally, bombed, and bombed hard. Silly Rolex! People liked the rugged versatility of a Rolex, but in gold with diamonds, not some shiny, over-polished rehash of the Submariner! Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

There were many avenues explored to address this monstrous mis-decision, changing colours, materials, and even complications to try and find a home for the sore thumb that was the Yacht-Master. But, alongside the Submariner, Explorer, GMT-Master, it just looked, well, a bit silly. Take this 16622, first seen in 1997. A platinum bezel combined with a platinum dial makes for a very impractical piece of equipment, difficult to read, dazzling in the sun and expensive to dent. Straight to the “no” pile, thank you very much.

But the tables turned again in 2015 when Rolex doubled down on its twenty-three-year-old bet and brought the Yacht-Master back with a bang. In rose gold and with a new hat, I mean, rubber strap, it finally came of age. The audience was just right, the time was just right, and all of a sudden you couldn’t find a rose gold Yacht-Master for love nor money. Mainly money.

What that’s done is relegated the early 16622 watch into a little corner of the Rolex world very few people think to look. It’s the reject bin, where the offcuts and misshapen goods rot in peace. It’s stuck between worlds, neither one thing nor the other, the middle child that didn’t either end up on drugs or go to Harvard. It’s doing ok, quiet and forgotten. Here’s where we find our bargain.

A Rolex Yacht-Master can cost anywhere between five and thirty thousand pounds. The price is dependent on the generation, condition, availability and material used to make the watch

You look at any other steel sports Rolex and you’ll find the same thing: you can’t get one new, and supply and demand have forced the secondary market into appreciation. Submariner, GMT-Master, Explorer all want RRP or more. But not the Yacht-Master 16622. A new steel and platinum Yacht-Master is getting on for £10,000 new, with the updated blue and rhodium dials, but not the old faithful 16622. That you can have for closer to £7,000, less if you look hard.

And post 2015, you know what? The 16622 is actually a very handsome watch. The sparkling platinum dial, designed to mirror the sun catching on the waves of the ocean, is a level of detail never previously seen before in a Rolex watch. The polished edges, curved and soft, are more luxurious. The red seconds hand is the Maraschino cherry in a cool Casino. It just needed a quarter-century to be appreciated.

It may not be the latest and greatest, but the appeal of Rolex never should have been that in the first place. It’s about honouring passion, celebrating ingenuity and all in a cool, effortless way. The Yacht-Master was no less an industrial revolution than any other Rolex sports watch before it—only this time the industry was luxury.

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