Hands-On Review: 40mm Rose Gold Rolex Land-Dweller

Introduced last year, 13 years after the Sky-Dweller, the Rolex Land-Dweller evoked strong feelings (of all kinds) from the watch world. Rolex accomplished a lot in those 13 years, including filing 18 patents related to the Land-Dweller, 16 of which were for the movement alone. Today we’re looking at the 40mm Land-Dweller in rose gold, ref. 127335.

Watch the video version of this review on YouTube

The Rolex Land-Dweller comes in two sizes: 36mm or 40mm. You can also choose from three metals: platinum, steel (with a white gold bezel) or rose gold. For the precious metal versions you can also opt for a diamond-set bezel. This example has the standard fluted bezel, which will surely be the more popular choice.

Wearability

One of the first things you notice about this watch is the slim case height: only about 10mm thick. As far as durability is concerned, I mean, this is rose gold. It’s going to get scratched, perhaps even from just setting it down on a table, but what do you expect from a gold watch? If that bothers you, a gold Rolex–of any kind–is probably not for you.

Combine the slim profile with the angular case and integrated bracelet, and this watch feels perfectly sized at 40mm. The Everose gold Land-Dweller is very well balanced; it’s not too heavy but it’s not too light for a gold watch. And its new flat-link Jubilee bracelet–beveled edges and all–is just as comfortable as a regular Jubilee bracelet.

Rolex has successfully managed to segment their lineup as “dressy” or “sporty” based on the metal. You could wear the rose gold Land-Dweller with a tuxedo, while the steel one is something you could wear with jeans.

Dial

The Everose gold Land-Dweller features a laser-etched dial with a white honeycomb pattern and applied Chromalight hour markers designed to show as much lume as possible.

See how the markers are borderless at the ends? One of those patents is about that.

From a distance, it basically looks like a creamy white dial; the honeycomb pattern is not overwhelming in real life. It works well, and in fact I wish they would offer more exotic/special Rolex dials in large sizes. If you look at the Datejust and Day-Date lineups, many of the more unique dials are only offered in 36mm.

Movement

Obviously I have to talk about the new caliber 7135. This is Rolex’s first use of a 5 Hz movement. The new Dynapulse escapement is not only an innovative dual-indirect-impulse escapement, but it’s highly resistant to magnetism and more efficient than previous calibers. Thus, despite ticking ten times per second instead of eight, it maintains a respectable 66-hour power reserve.

When we think of innovation in the watch world we tend to think of high horology, and often niche independent brands–not Rolex. But caliber 7135 shows me that Rolex has realized that they’re entering an arena where they need to step up their game, and this is a big step forwards for them.

The fact that they gave us a fundamentally more efficient movement tells me that they’ll probably use this architecture moving forward. I have to say that I enjoy manually winding watches, and this thing winds extremely, extremely smoothly.

The Rose Gold Land-Dweller’s Competition

Would I take an equivalent Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in rose gold (ref. 15510OR) over this Land-Dweller? Yes, every single time.

But keep in mind the AP’s list price is $78,600, and it actually sells for $105,000 secondhand.

40mm Rose Gold Rolex Land-Dweller Price

Meanwhile the rose gold 40mm Land-Dweller lists for $51,500 and trades around $68,000 as of 2026.

Hyped models tend to debut at high market prices that stabilize over time as supply increases. So far that has been the case for the Land-Dweller as well, although nowadays international supply is less readily diverted to the American grey market because of tariffs. Trump’s 39% Swiss tariff saga is over, but the current 15% tariff rate on Swiss goods entering the US still has a significant impact on the market. And if Land-Dweller prices are still too high for you, there’s nothing wrong with considering the watch it always gets compared to: a classic Oysterquartz.