Rolex Cellini Prince Watches 5440, 5442 & 5443 Review | SwissWatchExpo

Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today 
to get through this thing we call life and  
what better to make it through life than 
with a dress watch from the most famous  
watchmaker in all the world? That’s right today, 
we’re talking about the Prince. Let’s go crazy.
This is probably the least-heralded Rolex model 
in all of history. Its relatively small production  
run, I think, is a testament to that. The Cellini 
Prince is probably one of the most unique,  
if not the most unique dress line Rolex has 
ever come out with mainly because it’s a square  
case and that’s not something Rolex is known 
for. That’s not something you would identify  
as a Rolex when you saw it. Rolex probably 
realized that, which is why they made it for  
such a relatively small period of time, but it 
is such a fascinating watch. And if you love  
really traditional square cases and dress pieces, 
well, this is the watch for you just because it’s  
not Rolex’s bread and butter doesn’t mean they 
didn’t do a hell of a job on this watch. That’s  
basically the three things that all three 
of these have in common. At SwissWatchExpo,
we are blessed enough that our new arrival 
selection actually has one in both

yellow,  
white, and rose gold. And that’s not the only 
thing that’s different between these watches,  
as you can see, they have 
different dials. In fact,  
even their case shapes are a little bit 
different rather than just being rectangular.  
So let’s just go ahead and dive in and see. 
The ones that I’m most familiar with. I think,  
and probably the one that was produced the widest 
was gonna be the rose gold model. This is one that  
you might be the most familiar with. I say 
might because I still talk to people who are  
not familiar with this model whatsoever. And a lot 
of people are very pleasantly surprised when they  
see that Rolex makes such a unique square case. A 
couple of things that make this watch fantastic:
It’s not just that it’s rectangular, lots of other 
watchmakers have made rectangular dress watches.  
The shape of this and all three 
of these, in particular, are  
absolutely fascinating. One thing that I’ll 
notice here while the dial is beautiful,  
this shape is so incredibly elegant. This is not 
a flat crystal. This whole thing actually curves  
along with sort of the shape of the side of this 
case and the crystal does so as well, which makes  
it so incredibly elegant and well-made. So this 
is definitely a piece with just a fantastic  
dress piece. But at 28 millimeters across 47 
millimeters tall, this is still a fairly prominent  
dress piece. This is not gonna be super dainty. 
I don’t even consider this to be a unisex watch  
either because of one how high it is. And 
two just how thick this case is as well.
This is definitely a case that is sort of showing 
off its design and one that you know, definitely  
has a lot of prominence on the wrist there. The 
dial itself is something you’re going to find  
in all Cellini Princes is that you’re gonna have 
more than one dial. The seconds hand, if it comes  
with one at all, which in this case, I think they 
all three do. It is going to be offset here at 6  
o’clock with a smaller dial showing the hours and 
minutes above here at 12. This is something that I  
think is a bit iconic of the Prince. The original 
Prince actually predates the Cellini altogether,  
going way, way back to the foundation of the 
Rolex brand in the first place. Back when square  
watches were a lot more in vogue, I think, 
than they are now. So of course Rolex felt  
like they really need to get into that sort of 
market, which is where the Prince was born from.
Once they started transitioning to more tool-based 
watches more sport-based watches the Cellini  
fell by the wayside and didn’t come or sorry, the 
Cellini Prince fell by the wayside and did not get  
reintroduced until 2005. So there was a long time 
when Rolex was just out of the square watch game  
altogether. And for reasons, I’m not a hundred 
percent sure I could even, I could even surmise.  
They decided to bring it back and it was not a big 
hit, but you know what, at SwissWatchExpo, we’ve  
got a ton of love for some watches that maybe were 
not appreciated in their heyday. And this Cellini  
Prince, all three of these are definitely one of 
them. My favorite dial amongst all three though  
has to be this white gold one though. This one is 
fierce, with a lot of color going on here too, not  
just the silver sort of sunburst guilloche type 
pattern that you have here, but a lot more color.  
You get a black border and the actual like hash 
marks here, or a combination of white and red.
So there’s a lot going on here. This is 
definitely the loudest dial out of all three.  
The least dressy, still definitely a dressy-shaped 
case, but this dial is very fierce compared to the  
other two. And you do get the oversized 
Arabic numerals here at 3, 6, and 9,  
which is something else that makes it, I think, 
a bit more contemporary than these other two.  
Another thing that makes this one or 
each of these sort of unique in their own  
is if you compare it to the shape of this. The 
thing that I loved about the rose gold one was  
sort of the curvature of the case and the way that 
this crystal sort of matches it perfectly. Now,  
that’s not taking place here with this one. 
You’ll see here, one, we have sort of a stepped  
sort of pattern here where the bezel edge 
actually gives way to a slightly wider case  
which is something that I didn’t really realize 
until I started studying this watch up close.
And this actually has a much flatter if not a 
perfectly flat crystal over the top. So while  
this is not only a Cellini Prince but a Cellini 
prince from the same generation as the one that I  
just showed you in rose gold, they actually made 
a lot of changes to the case between the white,  
the yellow and the rose gold, which I think 
is so incredibly unique. And also not really  
in keeping with the DNA of the Rolex brand, the 
lack of consistency, I think, is something that  
really does make each piece unique, but also 
might have something to do with why each piece  
didn’t exactly have the longest production run of 
some of the more top-selling Rolex sport models.  
This does come with a beautiful lizard skin strap. 
Beautiful butterfly deployant, which I didn’t even  
show you on the other one, but this is something 
that all three of these watches have in common.
So it does open from the center again, similar 
to the way that like a Cartier Tank would one  
that came on a bracelet. And one thing that all 
three of these are gonna have is an exhibition  
caseback with a manual winding movement. So this 
is something that is going to be sort of a Cellini  
in spirit, at least from this generation. No 
automatic versions of the Prince. So this is  
one that you would need to wind every day, but 
as a dress piece usually this is not gonna be  
anyone’s daily wear. This is gonna be one when 
they have a really formal outfit that they want  
to add a little extra spark, a little extra flair, 
too. This is definitely one that would get the job  
done. And perhaps my favorite all-around one 
is the metal that I see as the least common.
It’s also my favorite metal of all. It’s gonna be 
yellow, and gold, as you can see. This one here  
is the most traditional out of all three, and 
it’s not just because it’s in yellow gold. This  
dial here is a lot more traditional. The Roman 
numerals, not Arabic numerals, also the font of  
the numerals themselves a little bit smaller. This 
is also going to have the smallest of all of these  
offset secondhand at 6 o’clock. This is gonna be 
the dial layout that is gonna be most similar to  
the original Princes that came out way, way, way 
back at like practically the turn of the century.  
So this is gonna be the most classic dial. One 
of the things that I think is most interesting  
about the shape is that this is sort of 
a blend between the white and the rose.
This does have more of a curved case. However, 
they did keep the crystal a bit more flat than  
they did on the rose gold model. And they also 
have this sunburst sort of pattern that was on the  
white dial one. This has been sort of translated 
to the side of the case. I’ve not seen Rolex do a  
case design like this. I’ve not seen them engrave 
anything on the side of their cases before.  
So if this is something that maybe you’ve always 
wanted in a Rolex watch but Rolex is as a brand  
just wasn’t courteous enough to do that for 
you. Well, guess what? This Cellini Prince  
is all factory original and it does in fact 
have an engraved case side. And that’s, again,  
something really unique to Rolex that 
I’ve never seen done before. A high  
polished finish on the front and actually all 
around this watch is completely high polished.
So this is another thing that makes it a really, 
really classic dress piece. And one thing I love  
that is just such old-school cool with the yellow 
gold is gonna be a burgundy colored reptile strap,  
something about that color combination, just 
screens mid-century modern and it is absolutely  
gorgeous, but still super unique because again, 
there’s a lot of square case dress watches out  
here. There are not many that are gonna have the 
thickness of this. Not many that are gonna have  
this shape here. And not many that are gonna 
be made from Rolex, because that’s something  
that’s gonna make it very unique. Something you 
might even have to explain to some of your Rolex  
aficionado friends, because I cannot tell you 
how many bonafide collectors are not familiar  
with the Prince line at all. And that is, that is 
just a shame because they absolutely should be.
These are all beautiful watches and these are all 
hard to find. I would be willing to bet that we’re  
the only online dealer that’s got three different 
prints and three different metals that are ready  
for you to have on your wrist in as little as a 
day. And of course, if dress watches, aren’t your  
thing, or you only want Rolex watches that you 
are familiar with and you have heard of before,  
please do not hesitate to give us a call because 
we’ve got more than I could even begin to describe  
on this video. Like and subscribe to this 
channel if you haven’t yet. Please shoot  
us an email and give us a call because we’ve 
got the watch for you at SwissWatchExpo.com.

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