Vintage Poster Archives
Rolex Leupin 1959 | Swiss Watch Advertising Poster
Rolex Leupin 1959 | Swiss Watch Advertising Poster
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A pink, loosely painted hand rises from a voluminous red robe with ermine-spotted white trim, index finger pointing toward the Rolex crown above. At the wrist, a gold-yellow Rolex watch sits at the centre of the frame. The composition is built on one idea: if the crown in Rolex's logotype implies royalty, a king should wear the watch. Leupin sets it out in three gestures, the pointing finger, the crown, the brand name in green capitals, and the case is complete.
Designed by Herbert Leupin (1916–1999) for Rolex in 1959 and printed by Art Institut Orell Füssli A.G. in Zürich, this poster is from Leupin's most productive decade. The Basel-trained designer had studied in Paris under Paul Colin and, through the 1940s and 1950s, built a body of commercial poster work that placed him among the leading Swiss graphic artists of the post-war era. His campaigns for Rolex, Coca-Cola, and Reemtsma were noted for their economy of means: a single visual conceit, resolved without excess.
The Rolex crown poster is among his most cited works in the brand's advertising history, noted by Sotheby's as an example from a campaign that made a direct equation between the brand's five-point coronet trademark and the concept of monarchy. The flat black background, the high-key palette, and the loose expressive brushstroke render the composition instantly legible at distance, the hallmark of Leupin's billboard-scale thinking.
Reproduced from an archival source as an archival print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, using pigment-based inks for long-term colour stability.
