At BaselWorld 2011, Rolex unveiled 3 major updates to its men's line, the biggest announcement came with the newly updated Explorer II.
The new watch is larger in size than its predecessor and to all other incarnations of the Explorer II and is being released to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the original Explorer II from 1971. Some of the features of the watch are a 42mm case, 3187 calibre along with Paraflex shock absorbers and Parachrom hairspring.
Although Rolex is renowned for not changing the styling of their sports models very often, this has become less so the case over the past few years, with new models of several classic collections being released, such as the Sea Dweller and the Submariner.
With 2011 being the 40th anniversary of the original Rolex Explorer II, it had widely been speculated that a new model would be released this year. Rolex proved the speculations correct with the groundbreaking new model. The new features on the Explorer II are multiple; it is the first Rolex watch to have an anti-reflective coating on the sapphire crystal of the watch. The Parachrom hairspring and Paraflex anti-shock are both new features within the mechanism. The 42mm case also makes this the second biggest watch in the Rolex Sport line, with only the DeepSea being larger.
The Rolex Explorer II is set to be released to the public sometime in the autumn however there has been no absolute confirmation from Rolex.