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.