Rolex’s emblematic campaign video for the 96th Academy Awards season has been unveiled. For this year’s edition, the montage of clips that the Swiss Manufacture has selected has been broadened from films made traditionally for the big screen, with new additions from TV and web series produced directly for streaming apps.
Star appearances include Ben Affleck in Argo (2012), Jon Hamm in Million Dollar Arm (2014), Naomi Watts in While We're Young (2014), James McAvoy in It Chapter 2 (2019), Helen Mirren in Solos (2021) to Adrien Brody in Poker Face (2023).
Vignettes drawn from this expanded universe of filmmaking feature characters with a Rolex on the wrist, in plot-defining moments, with the choice of wristwatch adding subtle yet integral texture.
The narration for the video builds with questions for the viewer, which could very well be directed at the characters in the movies as they face challenges in the arc of the storyline.
"Have you ever felt this… this shiver? This call, this drive."
"And though it came with risk, did you follow that light anyway?"
"And walk its path, boldly."
"On your way, did you stumble? Did you face more than you could take? Did you contemplate turning back? But instead, couldn’t stop and kept going."
Did you find strengths you didn't know you had and make a new world for yourself. And after all was said and done. Did you ever look back? Only to feel this is exactly where you were meant to be?”