A Brief History of the Rolex Explorer II: How the Adventurer’s Watch Has Evolved

Originally made for spelunking, the Rolex Explorer II has grown into a unique sport watch icon.

Rolex’s dedicated adventure watch, the Explorer, traces its origins back to mountain climbing in 1953. In 1971, however, another watch joined the collection with the name Explorer II and a quite different set of features, looks, size and purpose. Rather than for scaling peaks, the original Explorer II was intended for plumbing the depths of caves.

Read more