Book Review:
100 YEARS OF ROLEX
By: John B. Holbrook, II
December 3rd, 2008

100 YEARS OF ROLEX, by Franca and Guido Mondani, was written to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of Rolex.  Admittedly, when I first saw the book my first thought was that it was simply an attempt to cash in on the 100 year anniversary of Rolex - a notion that was completely dispelled when I received the book.   

Anyone familiar with previous works from Guido Mondani know that his books have extremely high production quality with excellent photography, all of which are present in 100 YEARS OF ROLEX.  The basic premise of the book is taking a trip through time and examining the development of Rolex and their watches over the past 100 years.  Like many of the Italian Rolex books, it has two text entries for each topic - an Italian and an English translation.  The book begins by examining the men who created and lead Rolex throughout the company's history :

Mondani then jumps right into looking at the watches, starting with the earliest known models of pocket watches and clocks, and following the significant model developments which make up Rolex history :

Again, the information is purely from a historic perspective - you won't find the in-depth technical information in this volume which is present in many other books of its type.  So if your a person who doesn't like a lot of dry, technical details which some Rolex books get bogged down with, you may well be attracted to this book.  Certainly the book is quite detailed from a historical perspective, and of course has fantastic photography throughout: 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book does provide a refreshing amount of detail to what I consider to be the "contemporary period" of Rolex, from 1988 to present.  I love vintage Rolex, but the period beginning from about 1988 forward is what I consider to be "my" Rolex - it's the period which has the most meaning for me personally due to my age (I graduated from high school in 1988).  The vast majority of books written about Rolex provide little to no information about the contemporary period of Rolex, but 100 YEARS OF ROLEX quite comprehensively covers this period:

The book even covers all the latest models from Rolex, right through the 2008 Baselworld launch models. The only shortcoming with the coverage from about 2000 forward is the shift in photography of actual watches to almost exclusive reliance on Rolex stock photography for the models shown.  I for one however am glad that the author still provided coverage and information on the latest models, even if they didn't have actual examples to photograph and had to rely on Rolex stock photographs :

 Anyone who is even remotely a fan of Rolex and their watches owes it to themselves to pick up a copy of 100 YEARS OF ROLEX.  It's a fascinating trip down memory lane, seeing how Rolex watches have evolved over the years to the present day.  Mondani's passion and enthusiasm make this a really fun book to read as well, with plenty "tips of the hat" to the true Rolex fans and enthusiasts including a section in the back of the book documenting some of the more famous appearances of Rolex watches in movies and television.  100 YEARS OF ROLEX can be ordered from the COLLECTING WATCHES web site for € 320,00 plus shipping by clicking HERE.  At today's exchange rate, 320 Euro translates to about $470.00 US.  Kudos to the Mondani team on another impressive work on the topic of Rolex!