OK, so of course it’s not really Rolex. It’s still damned funny though.
Rolex Superlative Sand. Officially Certified. The inscription reads "Sable du Temps" which translates to "Sand of Time."
The arrangement of bags of sand is meant to quantify a lifetime's worth of sand in an hourglass.
71 years' worth of Rolex Superlative Hourglass Fuel.
It’s actually a conceptual art installation by Viennese artist Michael Marcovici. His description of the display is very brief, and not being well versed in things arty I might be off the mark, but I’ll hazard a few guesses toward its meaning. Perhaps the use of the iconic “Rolex” imagery is meant to help quantify the the sum of time across a lifetime, to give it more direct relevance when it’s something often easily overlooked otherwise and remind us not to squander it.
Or perhaps it’s a spoof of the entire notion of using an expensive watch to quantify the passing of ones life, a parody made by highlighting an even more obsolete technology than mechanical watches.
Or maybe it’s even a stab at modern luxury consumerism when much less costly means can be used to track time, especially when the grander scale of a lifetime puts their resolution into perspective: what’s +6/-4 seconds a day over the entire course of a life? Does it really matter even slightly?
In any case, I thought it was a good bit of fun. And thankfully for the artist at least, art and parody are usually seen as protected speech in most jurisdictions, so hopefully he needn’t fear getting a nastygram letter from Rolex’s famously and prolifically litigious attorneys.
Actually, Ryan, in much the same way that Rolex has the real moon watch, it seems you’ve stumbled onto another fact from the Rolex shadow-world. Rolex sand really does measure your lifetime. This is not symbolic. I’d stock up if I were you.
I would, but I can’t seem to find it on eBay. Do I have to go to a Rolex Authorized Dealer? Can I expect any discounting?
Not surprising. But of course. You are free to expect, just as they are free to disembowel you for asking :)
It’s only fair I suppose. What are we to expect? After all, it takes a whole year to make a bag of that sand even though other suppliers just find it on the ground. And it is really superlative – that’s not just any sand, that’s 904L sand!
I was wondering how long it took to gather that sand……………
Maybe a year?
jim