rolex yacht master 42mm

Oyster Perpetual

Yacht-Master

Staying on course, mapping invisible routes.

For those at sea, staying on course is a constant challenge. When dealing with the elements, nothing is certain and constant reaction is required to stay in the right direction. Since its launch in 1992, the Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master has been equipped with a bidirectional rotatable bezel that facilitates the calculation and reading of navigational time. Elegantly combining functionality and nautical style, this watch has made its mark well beyond its professional realm.

A shared quest for precision

Knowing where you are in space and time, setting a course and sticking to it are vital in navigation. Given its function, the watch is an essential tool for sailors to assess their position. Regarded as the most precise horological instruments in the world, marine chronometers have been certified by astronomical observatories since the 18th century. At the time, the ultimate authority for measuring chronometric precision was the Kew Observatory in Great Britain.

In 1914, the founder of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf, had one of the brand’s watches tested by this very observatory, which certified it as a chronometer: a first in the watchmaking world for a wristwatch. Since then, renowned sailors, such as Sir Francis Chichester and Bernard Moitessier, have navigated the seas with Rolex wristwatches serving as onboard chronometers.

Matching the precision of marine chronometers was fundamental to Rolex’s watchmaking.

Designed for navigators

Sailing occupies a special place in the world of Rolex. In 1958, the brand partnered the New York Yacht Club, creator of the legendary America’s Cup. Rolex then formed partnerships with several prestigious yacht clubs around the world and became associated with major nautical events – offshore races and coastal regattas.

These strong ties culminated in 1992 with the launch of the Yacht-Master. Boasting the robustness and waterproofness of our Oyster case, this chronometer is fitted with a bidirectional bezel with raised 60-minute graduations to enable navigational time to be calculated and read.

.css-1afbye{font-family:var(--quote-font-family);font-style:var(--quote-font-style);font-weight:var(--quote-font-weight);font-size:clamp(1.5rem, 0.6875rem + 2.0313vw, 3.125rem);line-height:1.3;}figure:not(.removem1epbs8d) .css-1afbye::before,figure:not(.removem1epbs8d) .css-1afbye::after{display:inline;}figure:not(.removem1epbs8d) .css-1afbye::before{content:var(--quote-opening);}figure:not(.removem1epbs8d) .css-1afbye::after{content:var(--quote-closing);}@media (max-width: 30rem){.css-1afbye{line-height:1.4;}}.short-quote .css-1afbye{font-family:var(--quote-font-family);font-style:var(--quote-font-style);font-weight:var(--quote-font-weight);font-size:clamp(1.875rem, 0.6250rem + 3.1250vw, 4.375rem);line-height:1.3;}figure:not(.removem1epbs8d) .short-quote .css-1afbye::before,figure:not(.removem1epbs8d) .short-quote .css-1afbye::after{display:inline;}figure:not(.removem1epbs8d) .short-quote .css-1afbye::before{content:var(--quote-opening);}figure:not(.removem1epbs8d) .short-quote .css-1afbye::after{content:var(--quote-closing);}@media (max-width: 30rem){.short-quote .css-1afbye{line-height:1.4;}} This Yacht-Master 42, which is an outstanding nautical watch, is also proof of Rolex’s firm commitment to yachting.

Precious on land and at sea

Available in three diameters – 37, 40 and 42 mm – and in various precious versions – 18 ct yellow, white and Everose gold – as well as in Everose Rolesor and Rolesium versions, the Yacht-Master is unique in the world of Rolex professional watches. An elegant watch with a sporty character, it was the first to be paired with an Oysterflex bracelet in 2015.

In 2023, after testing under real-life conditions by acclaimed helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie, Rolex launched a new version of the Yacht-Master 42. It is made of RLX titanium, a high-performance material, at once light, robust and corrosion resistant.

A veritable ally at sea, the Yacht-Master also elegantly adorns the wrists of navigators once back on solid ground. With many different versions, it is a model that transcends its seafaring origins. It has become a watch for those who know how to change course without losing sight of the horizon, moving freely.

Yacht-Master 42

Oyster, 42 mm, yellow gold.

• Skip to content
• Skip to footer

• Français

Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master 42

Related content

Oyster Perpetual Air-King

Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II

Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 40

Oyster Perpetual Datejust 31

Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master 40

Ben Bridge Jeweler will ship merchandise to United States addresses, United States P.O. Box, US Embassy / Military APO or FPO addresses. We cannot ship international orders at this time.

Item Return Policy

Ben Bridge is committed to ensure our customers are happy with their purchase or gifts. If you have any questions or concerns about our refund policy, please contact your local Ben Bridge store or send us an e-mail.

• Create Account
• Check Order Status

Rolex Yacht-Master 42 Oyster, 42 mm, RLX titanium M226627-0001

All Rolex watches are assembled by hand with the utmost care to ensure exceptional quality. Such high standards naturally restrict Rolex production capacity and, at times, the demand for Rolex watches outpaces this capacity.

Therefore, the availability of certain models may be limited. New Rolex watches are exclusively sold by Official Rolex Jewelers, who receive regular deliveries and independently manage the allocation and sales of watches to customers.

Ben Bridge is proud to be part of the worldwide network of Official Rolex Jewelers and can provide information on the availability of Rolex watches.

Send a message

Please enter your message

Thank you for your interest in Rolex watches. Please enter your message below and we will be delighted to assist you.

Please enter your contact information

Discover Rolex

Rolex watches

New watches 2024

Watchmaking

World of Rolex

Your message has been sent. We will contact you shortly.

Added to Manage List

Removed from Undo

List Updated Manage List

The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches and jewelry you love.

We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and jewelry and focus on enjoying them.

In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.

Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches and jewelry are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.

If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.

Each of your watches and jewelry is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).

Popular Searches

HODINKEE Radio New Watches From Hamilton, Tudor, And More; Talking Tiffany & Co.'s Untapped Watchmaking Potential

Hands-On The Daniel Roth Tourbillon Rose Gold

Editors' Picks The Watches We'd Like To Inherit

Editors’ Picks

How To Wear It The Cartier Tank Cintrée

In-Depth Examining Value And Price Over Time With The ‘No Date’ Rolex Submariner

Watches In The Wild The Road Through America, Episode 1: A Model Of Mass Production

Introducing The Rolex Yacht-Master 42 In White Gold (Live Pics & Pricing)

Matte black bezel. need i say more.

From a distance, you'd be forgiven for not even realizing that this watch is a new introduction to Rolex's collection. I mean, it looks so much like something that could have been in the catalog for decades, but it's actually as fresh as it gets. This is the first 42mm time-and-date Yacht-Master, offering a larger option for those who still find 40mm too conservative, and it comes with a sleek combination of a black dial and an unbelievable bezel made of white gold with a matte black Cerachrom insert. The markings on that insert are raised and polished and the result is totally stunning. Inside is the caliber 3235, which is Rolex's most state-of-the-art, time-and-date movement. It uses the Chronergy high-efficiency escapement and is regulated to a crazy +2/-2 seconds per day. If you liked the Everose gold Yacht-Master introduced back in 2015 but wanted something bigger and sleeker (and somehow even more reliable), your prayers have been answered.

The Yacht-Master line can be a bit confusing, even for people who know their Rolex references backwards and forwards. First off, like with the Explorer, there's a standard Yacht-Master (which is what you're looking at here) and a Yacht-Master II (which is 44mm and has a regatta timer complication). As far as the simpler time-and-date models go, there are now three sizes: 37mm, 40mm, and 42mm. There are a mix of metal configurations, including steel and platinum, steel and Everose gold, all Everose gold, and now all white gold. And don't even get me started on the various incarnations of the Oyster bracelet and Oysterflex bracelet that you can choose from.

For me, the new Yacht-Master 42, despite adding a bunch of new options to the mix, is the purest expression of the model yet. The white gold case is luxe and hefty while still giving off the appearance of being a hearty tool watch, the matte black bezel is straight-up mean looking, and the Oysterflex bracelet is practical and casual. This is a watch for someone who wants to look low-key but likes things just so. And I can squarely get behind that.

Brand: Rolex Model: Yacht-Master 42 Reference Number: 226659

Diameter: 42mm Case Material: 18k white gold Dial Color: Black Indexes: Applied white gold and Chromalight Lume: Chromalight on hands and hour markers Water Resistance: 100 meters Strap/Bracelet: Oysterflex bracelet with white gold Oysterlock clasp

Caliber: 3235 Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date Diameter: 28.5mm Power Reserve: 70 hours Winding: Automatic Frequency: 4 Hz (28,800 vph) Jewels: 31 COSC Chronometer Certified Additional Details: Regulated to +2/-2 seconds per day, utilizes Chronergy escapement

Price: $27,800 Availability: Later this year

For more click here.

First Photos The Zenith El Primero A386 Revival In White, Rose, and Yellow Gold

By Cole pennington

Introducing The Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 5231J (Live Pics & Pricing)

By Cara barrett

Introducing The Breitling Navitimer Ref. 806 1959 Re-Edition

By Jon bues

First Photos The Patek Philippe 5172G Hand-Wound Chronograph

By James stacey

Top Discussions

Photo Report The Watches, Cars, And Old World Charm Of Goodwood Revival 2024

Hands-On The Hamilton Khaki 'Murph' 38mm Gets A White Dial

Hands-On The Berneron Mirage Realizes Its Creator's Uncompromising Vision

Last Week’s Top Stories

Introducing Rolex Announces The First Authorized History Of The Submariner

By Anthony traina

Recommended Reading Remembering 9/11 Through The Rolex That Is 'Frozen In Time'

Introducing Apple Announces The Apple Watch Series 10 – Thinner, Larger Screen, New Tech, And New Finishes (Live Pics)

By Tantan wang

Talking Watches With Greg Yuna, New York City Jeweler And Watch Collector

By Malaika crawford

Hands-On The Singer DiveTrack – The Wildest, Most Overbuilt Dive Watch You've Ever Seen

By Mark kauzlarich

The Rolex Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium, Very Rolex Yet Surprisingly Disturbing

It is undoubtedly a rolex from head to toe, yet it felt very surprising on the wrist....

Launched in 1992, the Rolex Yacht-Master has undoubtedly enjoyed a long shelf life but has never attained the same cult status as a Submariner. A watch inspired by the nautical world and meant to be used as a luxury yachting watch, its vocation and looks have always been slightly confusing. It looks somewhat like a Submariner but without the diving credentials. It has sporty specifications, yet it is truly luxurious and has often appeared in precious metals. Recent versions, with the enlarged 42mm diameter and the matte black bezel, changed this perception. But clearly, it’s the new Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium that signs the independence act of the collection. We’re taking a closer look at this watch that feels extremely familiar and, at the same time, left us with contradictory thoughts. Good or not, let’s check this out. 

Some context

The Yacht-Master collection was introduced at the 1992 edition of the Baselworld Fair. And believe me, this was quite an event. Rolex is known for its strategy of incremental updates and rarely presents new watches. In fact, when the YM was launched, it was one of the very few entirely new collections since the launch of the Daytona in 1963. However, despite the new name (well, not entirely, as it was first used in the late 1960s on a prototype watch based on a Daytona) and its unprecedented vocation within the Rolex portfolio, the watch felt familiar.

The modern-day version of the Yacht-Master made its first appearance with the reference 16628, an 18k yellow gold version with a white dial and black-filled hour markers. Looking at it, the resemblance with the Submariner and other aquatic models at Rolex is… obvious. Some say (nothing official here) that during the 1980s, the brand experimented with many different options to revamp its iconic Submariner. Several attempts later, something close to the Yacht-Master appeared; however, Rolex felt that redesigning the Sub was probably not the right move. Yet, the design caught people’s attention but had to be slightly updated so as not to cannibalise the all-important Submariner. The decision was made to position this design as a higher-end, luxurious nautical model.

The differences were straightforward: steel, 300m water-resistant case, black bezel, black dial and instrumental characteristics for the Submariner compared to the gold; 100m water-resistant case, bright dial, solid gold bezel, more rounded shapes and luxurious touches for the Yacht-Master. However, the visual resemblance persisted, which is probably why it took many years for the YM to become a model on its own. An important moment in the history of this watch is, to me, the introduction of the reference 116655 , an Everose model with a matte black dial, a matte ceramic bezel with raised numerals and the Oysterflex rubber bracelet. This is the moment when the YM became different… and much more attractive.

Since then, Rolex has gradually improved its nautical watch with the release of the Yacht-Master 42 – a new size, larger than a Submariner, to differentiate the collection. It would later be followed by a very appealing yellow gold edition .

The Prototype Yacht-Master 42 of Sir Ben Ainslie… In titanium

The current RLX Titanium edition of the Yacht-Master 42 doesn’t spring out of nowhere. It has existed for about three years already, but only as a prototype, on the wrist of legendary sailor Sir Ben Ainslie – winner of the 34th America’s Cup with Oracle Team USA in 2013, four-time Olympic champion, CEO and Skipper of INEOS Britannia and skipper of the Great Britain SailGP Team. This watch came to us as a surprise long after its creation in 2020. Despite appearing in the wild repeatedly, we only noticed its existence in late 2021, after it was mentioned in an interview on October 2020 in The Week . It was also mentioned in the official Rolex print magazine.

The watch in question, a prototype made exclusively for Ainslie for a very specific purpose and designed to be tested on the field, was made in RLX Titanium (back then an unprecedented material for Rolex, which would later be used on the Deepsea Challenge ) and looked like a deluxurised version of a well-known watch. Entirely matte, equipped with a black dial and black bezel and with a no-date display, it was worn on a technical NATO strap, which according to the brand, combines Cordura with high-performance elastomer and is closed by a Velcro for easy adjustments.

The existence of this watch immediately gave us some ideas, incorporated in our 2022 Rolex Predictions featuring a titanium Yacht-Master . And as we anticipated, it became a reality this year .

The Rolex Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium

This year, Rolex launched its commercial version of the Yacht-Master 42 Titanium, which resulted in a slightly different watch from what we’ve seen on the wrist of Ainslie. More in line with the current white gold and yellow gold YM42 , the watch has many distinctive features. It isn’t just a titanium attire; it is a standalone model with its specificities and unique features.

First of all, let’s talk titanium at Rolex. The brand, over the years, has been using an array of metals – steel, with its own Oystersteel alloy (904L), gold in all possible colours and even proprietary alloys and platinum. Ceramic has long been used too, but only for bezel inserts. Rolex has never used ceramic or any other high-tech material for its cases. Until the recently introduced Deepsea Challenge , titanium has remained a rarity, used for the caseback of the Sea-Dweller Deepsea and for the Pelagos , which isn’t a Rolex but a Tudor, so it doesn’t really count.

Now, in less than six months, Rolex has released two watches made entirely of titanium, with an alloy named RLX – which is grade 5 titanium. One is a beast, a gigantic timepiece made to explore the deepest point of the oceans – a watch, objectively speaking, that is hardly wearable. The other one, the Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium reference 226627, is certainly one of the most comfortable models in the brand’s collection.

As said, the YM42 Titanium is more than just a new material applied to an existing watch. Of course, it shares multiple elements with its gold siblings, but some details truly set it apart. The case measures 42mm in diameter with a fairly contained 11.60mm thickness. Measuring 50.3mm from lug-to-lug, it’s not the smallest watch in the brand’s portfolio and wears slightly larger than a classic Submariner (40.5mm x 12.5mm x 47.6mm). All parts of the habillage are made of titanium, from the monobloc middle case to the crown, the rotating bezel, the caseback and the bracelet. The specifications are classic Rolex Yacht-Master, with a Triplock crown with integral guards, a screwed back, a sapphire crystal with AR coating and a Cyclops lens over the date and 100m water-resistance.

Classic features of the YM have been retained, such as the bidirectional bezel with a 60-minute Cerachrom insert. The latter sticks to the classic look of the collection, with a matte base and raised, polished numerals and markers without a lumed index. What makes the Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium so special, then? Well, first of all, the case features one very appealing detail: bevelled lugs. A nod to the past, this feature is exclusive to this titanium version and brings more dynamism to the case, as well as providing a nice historical reference – something that Rolex fanboys will surely appreciate (I do…). The second specificity of this model is its matte look. But I’ll come back to that point later.

The dial of this titanium YM42 is, however, classic. It retains most of the attributes of the white gold reference 226659, with oversized applied markers and hands in polished white gold and all tracks and printings in white. There is not a single touch of colour on this dial, which comes in a new colour named intense black, with a fine satin finish. Matte, with a velvet-like texture, this dial isn’t pure black like most of the watches in the brand’s collection but feels more like a very dark anthracite. Combined with a flat sapphire crystal with AR coating, the result is an almost complete lack of reflections. And the overall legibility, thanks to large markers and great contrast, is superb.

Inside the case is a classic Rolex movement, the calibre 3235 – used in the Submariner Date , the Datejust 41 and 36 , the Sea-Dweller or the Deepsea . A Superlative Chronometer (meaning certified by COSC and then by Rolex once the movement is encased), this automatic movement comes with all the recent innovations of Rolex: a bidirectional rotor on ball bearings, a Chronergy escapement, a paramagnetic nickel-phosphorus pallet fork and escape wheel and a paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring. It beats at 4Hz, stores a comfortable 70h power reserve and features an instantaneous date and a stop-seconds mechanism. Simply one of the best time-and-date engines on the market.

The bracelet of this new Yacht-Master 42 is also made of RLX Titanium. A classic 3-link Oyster style, it is also entirely matte with a so-called technical satin finish . Contrary to most Oyster bracelets, the sides are also matte, and only the Coronet on the clasp is polished. As you would expect, it is on par with Rolex quality standards, with an Oysterlock folding safety clasp and the Easylink comfort extension link to adjust the bracelet length by approximately 5mm. Also, this bracelet includes patented ceramic inserts inside the links to enhance its longevity and flexibility on the wrist.

Some thoughts… It is a disturbing watch (but a good one)

When you’ve been into watches for some years, you develop some preconceived notions about Rolex timepieces and the way they look and feel on the wrist. There’s a certain heft, a presence on the wrist, consolidating the perception of quality and solidity. There’s also a sheen that is unique to Rolex, with glossy bezels and dials. Rolex watches are so emblematic that your brain is pre-formatted to a certain conception of what they should look and feel like on the wrist. The Rolex Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium changes everything and breaks the norm. And it left me with mixed feelings, but not necessarily in a bad way.

When you take a Submariner and strap it around your wrist, it feels like home… It’s reassuringly heavy yet comfortable. Even though weight might be a bit irrational, weight adds to the feeling of quality and weight robustness. Having worn Rolex sports watches on so many occasions in my personal and professional life, I expect a watch from the Crown to weigh about 150/160 grams on a bracelet. It is a construction that is so deeply embedded in my brain that the moment I strapped the YM42 Titanium, I was left with a very disturbing sensation.

Yes, the watch looks like a Rolex, but it doesn’t feel like one on the wrist. It’s about 35% lighter than steel (around 100 grams), and everything I associated with how a Rolex should feel on the wrist simply vanished. I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but believe me when I say that it was a rather special experience at first. But the beauty is that you soon forget about this first impression and enjoy a watch that is surprisingly light. Despite its size, it is extremely comfortable and balanced. A watch that you’ll forget in about 30 seconds after you strapped it on the wrist. The initial feeling of a lack of robustness is, of course, just a misinterpretation of a pre-formatted brain and has nothing to do with the actual heft of the watch.

The second surprise with this watch is how it plays with the light and its lack of reflections. As said, most sports Rolex have a certain sheen. Even a Submariner or a Deepea feature glossy, reflective parts, such as the bezel and the sides of the case and the bracelet. The Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium is the most matte watch in the brand’s collection, with only a few polished accents (numerals on the bezel, bezel rim, and crown guards). Even the bevel on the side of the lugs is satin finished. This lack of sheen is definitely something new to Rolex and, far from me to complain, makes this model one of the most discreet and instrumental in the collection. It’s monochromatic, light on the wrist, and despite a size that I would have loved to be a bit smaller, a real joy to wear. It’s not a poser’s watch. The Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium is a tribute to when Rolex watches were made for a job. Yes, I’m very positive about this new release.

Availability & Price

The Rolex Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium 226627 isn’t yet available at retailers but will be soon. At least, on paper, as it won’t be easily accessible, even by Rolex standards. The brand doesn’t communicate production numbers, but we’ve heard that this will remain, for now, a rather exclusive model. It is priced at EUR 13,900 ,  CHF 13,400 or  USD 14,050 . More details at rolex.com .

Technical specifications – Rolex Yacht-Master 42 RLX Titanium 226627

10 responses.

RLX, which is Grade 5 Titanium. 🙂 I laughed out loud, because it’s just so typical for the obfuscation the brand foists upon us via their marketing behemoth on an annual basis.

A “Piece Unique” is more common than this model ….

I have been looking forward to this for a while. But, I was hoping/expecting a more adjustable bracelet. If they can do it on the Pelagos at 1/3 the price, there’s no excuse they can’t do it for this

I only know that the so-called special steel Rolex uses on the bezel of their regular models was soft and easily scratched on the Rolex I owned. My humble Tissot which I wore every day for years, was much more scratch resistant. I wasn’t impressed with the materials Rolex uses. They make them look impressive in photos.I thought Rolex was the watch to have, until I got one.Sold and moved on.

IWC Mark XX vs new Ingenuier – the internet melts down at how expensive the watch is using the same movement.

DJ36 vs YM42 RLX- the internet would do anything (deranged Sxual favors included) to pay double for the YM even though they have the same movement.

Quite like the look of this one on its own, but on the wrist it looks genuinly gigantic..

Old dog doing new trick? It’s tough

Well, it really looks nice, and if it is that big and only weights 100 grams, that is really awesome!!!! I love Titanium watches more than any gold watch. But I am of the opinion that although Rolex is a brand producing excellent watches with a QC second to none, it is still too expensive for my taste. I own since 2017 as part of my watch collection, an Ocean 7 Diver chronometer with an ETA 2824-2, saphire crystal, ceramic bezel, 2000m WR with He Valve, and it had never failed me as my daily watch, and I only paid for it 365.00 USD including taxes new. I also have a 1971 Submariner, and I use both daily,one on each wrist, and I don’t see any difference on the accuracy/function. But I have to pay a fortune every time the Rolex is serviced, not with the Ocean 7 that I can service myself- I am a pretty good amateur watchmaker myself, is one of my hobbies. And when I am working at the Hospital near the MRI machines with that strong magnetic field, I then use my Speedmaster Master Chronometer with cal.3861, and it works flawlessly, and it is less expensive than this YM. I like expensive watches, but still look for the best bang of my buck. And I am an owner of a JLC Deep Sea 40mm, a Blancpain Fifty Fatoms, a Zodiac Super Sea Wolf, a Juvenia 200M Diver’s, and an Omega SMPO as part of my diver’s watch collection. But I like this Titanium YM a lot more than the Submariner or the Sea Dweller. That is what I can say.

best thing about this watch is it’s an alternative to the biG piLLowized case of the redesigned submariner a few years back. softer scratchable titanium and no bezel lume (guess people only yacht in the daytime) are reasons not to buy.

Really, why does one need a 42mm titanium Rolex watch when sailing his uber racing yacht!?! One need to keep your eyes on the gyro compass, or the magnetic compass including (always) the trim of the sails including the large readout on the on the E-chart display which includes instantly time, speed, direction and position. Last: Why does one need a watch when sailing in a corrosive salt sea and air environment? Answer: Beats me unless one wishes to show off his wealth at the yacht club dinner during post racing presentations where a 42mm titanium Rolex is a must.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Top stories.

Opinion The Rolex GMT-Master II Bruce Wayne isn’t Boring, It’s Actually a…

Hands-on The Citizen Promaster Sky Mechanical GMT – A Powerful, Accessible True…

First Look Three New High-End King Seiko Watches with Colourful Textured Dials

Subscribe to our newsletter, subscribe to our newsletter.

aBlogtoWatch Monthly Giveaway

Win: Bausele Royal Australian Air Force Centenary 2021

Hands-On: Rolex Yacht-Master 42 Watch Reference 226627 In RLX Titanium

The visceral experience of wearing the Yacht-Master 42 titanium is very odd for any long-time Rolex fan. Rolex more or less helped create the 20th-century notion that you can often measure the value of a watch by feeling how solid and weighty it is. Rolex watches have never been designed for lightness, so most of them are quite hefty, and beloved for that reason. It is common for someone to admire a precious metal Rolex simply by feeling its mass in the open palm of your hand.

The Rolex Yacht-Master 42 was introduced in 2019 with tones very similar to this titanium model, but rather in 18k white gold and on a black Rolex Oysterflex strap. A yellow gold version was eventually added, and it seemed as though Rolex’s largest Yacht-Master was destined to be a precious-metal-only product. The 2023 226627 Yacht-Master 42 changes that paradigm by adding in a full grade 5 titanium case and matching bracelet to the product family. This is what people should consider the first “wearable” Rolex watch produced from titanium.

Even though Rolex uses the same grade 5 titanium as other brands, it focuses a lot on surface finishing and polishing for this timepiece. Rolex uses a sort of deep-grain engraving, which is somewhat different from the same effect on steel. Titanium as a color is also a bit darker than the comparatively bright 904L steel that most other (non-precious metal) Rolex sport watches are made out of. Titanium does scratch, and I asked Rolex about the service plan for the Yacht-Master 42 in RLX titanium. To make a long story short, Rolex will offer the same “case refresh” service for its titanium watches as it does for its steel and gold watches, though in reality, Rolex will have to use some special processes to polish titanium so that it looks fresh and new again. “RLX titanium” is really just Rolex’s way of indicating that it polishes and finishes titanium metal differently from other brands (according to Rolex).

Other than being in titanium with the matching bracelet, there isn’t too much new here. The Yacht-Master 42 case is 42mm-wide and has similar proportions as other watches in the larger Oyster Perpetual watch. The case is water resistant to 100 meters, and around the dial is a uni-directional rotating bezel with a matte-black ceramic insert that matches the matte-dark-gray tone of the Yacht-Master 42 dial.

Inside the watch is the Rolex in-house-made caliber 3235 automatic movement that operates at 4Hz with about 70 hours of power reserve. The movement offers the time with date and on the sapphire crystal is a Rolex “cyclops” magnifier lens. Titanium is considered by many engineers to be the perfect material for wristwatch cases. While I don’t think it is possible to ever determine “bests” in regard to an emotional product, it is true that you can easily enjoy the Yacht-Master 42 in titanium from purely a tool watch perspective. The lighter weight and large size give this 42mm-wide Rolex an interesting and desirable personality. It also makes us wonder whether or not there will be more titanium Rolex watches in the future. Possibly some, but I don’t think that Rolex, primarily a maker of conspicuous jewelry-style watches, will heavily focus on a material that will not hold a high polish as nicely as steel, gold, or platinum watches.

For watch lovers and Rolex collectors, there really is a lot of novelty to wearing a Rolex watch in titanium simply because most people haven’t ever done so before. The sister brand Tudor has had the Pelagos, which, for a while, was really the more sober equivalent of this Rolex Yacht-Master 42 226627. It is also much less expensive, but it doesn’t have the iconic Oyster Perpetual case shape and the famous Submariner-style dial that this Yacht-Master does.

While the Yacht-Master 42 in RLX titanium raises a lot of interesting philosophical questions about what Rolex should and shouldn’t be doing, the product will be a commercial success given the current latent demand for high-end titanium sport watches and anything even remotely interesting from Rolex. Rolex has made it clear that production of the titanium Yacht-Master 42 is going to be limited in scope, in large part because there are so many pieces of titanium in the case, and especially the bracelet, that all need to bear precisely matching polishes and finishes. I don’t imagine that this watch is easy for Rolex to make, but we do know that Rolex could increase production of titanium watches if it ever wanted to. Price for the very interesting and comfortable reference 226627 Rolex Yacht-Master 42 in RLX titanium is $14,050 USD . Learn more at the Rolex watches website here .

Shop New Arrivals

Why the Rolex Yacht-Master 42 Is the Perfect Poster Boy for a New Age

The watch industry is always changing, always evolving, always reacting to the conditions of the world. But some things seem eternal. Through good times and bad, one brand has, since its foundation in 1905, seemed immune to weakness. A history of constant innovation and textbook PR has resulted in a Rolex watch becoming one of the most desirable products in the world, and the brand name that is easily one of the most recognizable.

To establish the kind of reputation Rolex has, you have to do things differently. You also have to be ahead of the curve. Rolex has done that with aplomb in the past, and by carefully controlling the supply of steel watches, while moving the brand forward in a slightly different direction through the release of some headline-grabbing pieces at this year’s Baselworld (including the new Rolex Yacht-Master 42), Rolex is continuing to map its own destiny.

It didn’t begin with the renaissance of Tudor, but that event in 2007 now looks in retrospect to be the beginning of a transformation that elevated Rolex from a brand to some kind of looming deity. Simply put, Tudor is the new Rolex, and Rolex is a new thing entirely. When I speak to brand managers the world over (many of whom are trembling and sleep-deprived as the struggle to conceive strategies to lever attention away from the Crown) they all say the same thing in one way or another.

Rolex is no longer a brand; Rolex is a phenomenon. Trying to go toe-to-toe with Rolex is like boxing with your reflection, or shooting at smoke. It’s a fight you can’t win. It isn’t about the fact your opponent is stronger than you, it’s about the fact that your opponent is fighting on a different plane of existence entirely.

For three years I managed the sales accounts of a well-known German brand across 17 countries. Despite the vastly differing cultures, tastes, and consumer motivations, the presence and adulation of Rolex were ever-present. The power of the Crown is never more felt than when trying to negotiate space in a retail environment for the product of another brand.

For example, I once asked a retailer if I could commandeer thirty centimeters of unused counter space in his store. His face screwed up instantly as if suddenly overtaken by a crippling bout of indigestion. “Well,” he said through gritted teeth, “I’ll have to check with Rolex.”

Duly, he made the call. The answer came back as predicted.

“No,” he said, unable to make eye-contact with me. “Rolex wants that space now.”

I had offered him a full collection of watches with an extended payment terms so he could get the models into his store and test the water before making a significant financial investment. In contrast, Rolex had offered him one GMT Master II “Batman” (on the professional bracelet, not the Jubilee). The choice, for him, was simple. The “Batman” was already sold. It was money in the bank. And his relationship with Rolex – the lifeblood of his livelihood – was intact.

Trying to build a brand next to Rolex is like growing a tree in the shadow of a mountain. It’s not impossible, but there isn’t much light left to go around.

That kind of power is hard to contend with. Rolex has cultivated it over generations. One way in which they’ve managed this is to have been a tireless inventor. The brand’s watches have always been innovative and eminently practical. With every stone turned over in search of incremental gains, Rolex even changed the type of steel it uses in the production of its watches because it could.

Rolex uses 904L, while most of the industry uses 316L stainless steel. Most notable is 904L’s higher molybdenum content, which reduces the chance that the steel will pit or corrode. Although this kind of benefit is the sort of thing you might imagine other brands trying to cash in on, it isn’t that simple. 904L stainless steel is notoriously difficult to work with. Not only do you need special tools to cut it, you also need to be patient as it has an annoying tendency to overheat while being machined. This means manufacturers using 904L must be patient to avoid it blowing up (almost literally) in their faces.

Despite its foibles, Rolex’s first use of 904L steel was in a 1988 Sea-Dweller, and its collection-wide adoption of it in 2003 has been one of the brand’s calling cards. It makes perfect sense for a rugged sports watch brand that is hell-bent on improving the performance of its products. But the thing is, Rolex is changing. Rolex, for all its insistence that it is still a brand built around endeavor and adventure, is transitioning into something else, and its special steel (Oystersteel as they’ve started calling it since 2018) is no longer as central to the brand’s image as it once was.

Around the time of the Tudor rebrand (2007), you could still buy a Rolex no-date Submariner for around four and a half grand. Today the price is double that. Even adjusting for inflation won’t make you feel much better about not loading up on Submariners when you had the chance to get them for a relative song.

But crazier than the current retail prices is the current availability. In 2007, you could walk into a store and buy a green dial, green bezel Rolex Submariner “Hulk” out of the cabinet. If you had the money, you could get the watch. Waiting lists, enforced scarcity, and secondary market prices double the ticket just didn’t exist like they do today. Now, finding a retailer that has a professional model in stock is harder than finding a hen with teeth.

Tudor, meanwhile, has remained very fairly priced. With all the benefits of Rolex’s know-how and freedom to reinvent the brand, Tudor has carved its own niche with its own audience. It is, almost without a doubt, the Rolex of its generation.

Its savvy marketing campaign, excellent build quality, and never-overstated connection to the industry’s Big Brother has made it a hit with the customers discovering the industry for the first time. The Pelagos and Black Bay watches of today will likely be future classics in the way the Submariners and the Datejusts of old are today.

But since Rolex became an industry super-power, removed from the regular concerns of watch companies, it needed a new champion, a poster boy for a new age, a darling that is at once everything Rolex was and everything it is going to be…

The Rolex Yacht-Master 42

The stage could not have been more perfectly set for the release of the Rolex Yacht-Master 42 ref. 226659 at this year’s Baselworld. With its white gold case, simple black dial, matte black Cerachrom bezel, and black Oysterflex rubber strap, it is the epitome of stealth luxury. It also happens to be just about the most hypnotic black/black diver on a rubber band that anyone could imagine.

Why is the Yacht-Master 42 so perfect for this new age? Well, its a barrel load of contradictions packed into a 42mm case. But those contradictions are what make Rolex the brand it is these days. They are what makes it so hard to copy what the brand does. Because, on paper, it just doesn’t add up.

For all intents and purposes, the Yacht-Master 42 is a sports watch. And yet it’s not. Not really – its white gold case puts paid to that idea before the conversation even begins. It is instead, perhaps the most luxurious, desirable, deliciously devil-may-care thing the brand has ever produced.

Within the 18k white gold case of the Yacht-Master 42 is the Rolex Caliber 3235. The recipient of 14 patents, it includes the new Chronergy escapement, which is highly efficient and dependable. It contains all the hallmarks of a Rolex Perpetual movement suited to an active lifestyle, such as the Blue Parachrom hairspring (highly resistant to magnetic fields and temperature interference) and the Paraflex shock absorption system.

When you think of crazily luxurious watches made by Rolex, you’d be forgiven for thinking of a diamond-encrusted case, or even a rainbow bezel. But this trumps them all. The Yacht-Master 42 is the kind of luxury that only people in the know understand. For your investment, you don’t get anything that will scream your wealth across a room. Instead, you get something that is deliberately pared back. Something that is designed to catch the corner of an onlooker’s eye, but not their full attention. The Yacht-Master 42 is a watch that demands awareness to be appreciated. This is something for the wearer themselves to enjoy. Something deeply personal. Something deeply Rolex.

There are many stories as to where the five-pronged logo of Rolex comes from, and even more about what it represents. But if we take it for what it simply appears to be, it could not be more fitting. This brand is king. It may not have the finest movement finishing, the most mind-boggling complications, or price tags on a level with mansions or private jets, but Rolex has a heritage, a character, and a reputation that cannot be usurped. With this new direction with the Yacht-Master 42 carving out an evermore inaccessible niche, the brand next to whom any other would be happy to sit continues to stride further and further away from the pack.

About Rob Nudds

Rob Nudds is a WOSTEP-trained watchmaker, who graduated from the British School of Watchmaking. After working at the bench with brands such as Omega, Longines, Blancpain, and Bremont, he began working for NOMOS Glashütte, managing a retail network covering 17 countries, most notably the UK and USA.

Bob's Watches Blog Updates

Sign up and be the first to read exclusive articles and the latest horological news.

Bob's Watches / Rolex Blog / Watch Review

Recommended Articles

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual 6298 With Explorer-Style Dial

Rolex Chromalight vs. Super-LuminNova Ultimate Guide

Vintage Watch Reviews Under $30k: The Rolex Explorer Reference 1016

You may also like.

Rolex Sky-Dweller

Rolex Sky-Dweller 326934

Patek Philippe Nautilus

Patek Philippe Nautilus Tiffany & Co. Dial

Speedmaster

Used Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional Chronograph 42MM

rolex yacht titanium

• You are on Realigro website
• Russian Federation
• Sverdlovsk Oblast
• EKATERINBURG
• List your properties
• Estate agents
• Private seller
• Property portals

Preferences

• Publish your free listing
• Rent-holidays

For sale 1 Bedroom, EKATERINBURG, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian Federation, Sherbaova 77

• Send to a friend
• Add to favourites
• Email alert
• Report an error

For sale - Cod. 29133

• Tipology: 1 Bedroom
• Area: 43 m²
• Rooms No.: 1
• Publication date announcement: 26/08/2016

Hello, we are the owners, Irina and Oleg. We sell a bright, comfortable and very beautiful flat, designed in a Scandinavian style. The flat created "for himself", but forced to sell due to moving to Moscow. ( We bought and renovated this flat for us but we have time sell it due to ...) The flat is located in a picturesque location near the Uktus mountains. The residential complex Stony Brook. In the flat: - All necessary equipment. (Dishwasher, washing machine, oven, refrigerator, range hood, stove, TV, microwave, coffee machine) - 2 wardrobes - Ennobled balcony where you can enjoy beautiful views of the forest and mountains, and dream about the most valuable. - Cable TV, wireless internet. - Increased size of window openings make the flat extremely bright. - All items and accessories are in the flat. In building: - High-speed elevator otis, which descends directly into the underground parking. - Concierge. - Courtyard complex located on the podium, which is located at 3 floors. House territory developed according to modern requirements - as a sport, and a playground with a safe finish. - On the first floor there is a trading gallery with a large grocery store, pharmacy, children's and sports goods, cafés and restaurants. The complex has a fitness club. Area: - In walking distance from the complex there is a shopping center "Globus" Waterpark "Limpopo", sports complex, "Planet IGRIK" (children's entertainment center), ICE (fitness center), the ski slopes and ski resorts, subway Botanica. - 8 km to the center. - 100 m bus stop

Page views divided according to country of origin

Change date interval 1 month 2 months 6 months

Price trend (USD/m²)

Inquiry for more info, highlight listings.

For a better use of Realigro website, set your preferences for language, currency, square meters or sq ft.

• Places - European, Western and Northern Russia

YEKATERINBURG: FACTORIES, URAL SIGHTS, YELTSIN AND THE WHERE NICHOLAS II WAS KILLED

Sverdlovsk oblast.

Sverdlovsk Oblast is the largest region in the Urals; it lies in the foothills of mountains and contains a monument indicating the border between Europe and Asia. The region covers 194,800 square kilometers (75,200 square miles), is home to about 4.3 million people and has a population density of 22 people per square kilometer. About 83 percent of the population live in urban areas. Yekaterinburg is the capital and largest city, with 1.5 million people. For Russians, the Ural Mountains are closely associated with Pavel Bazhov's tales and known for folk crafts such as Kasli iron sculpture, Tagil painting, and copper embossing. Yekaterinburg is the birthplace of Russia’s iron and steel industry, taking advantage of the large iron deposits in the Ural mountains. The popular Silver Ring of the Urals tourist route starts here.

In the summer you can follow in the tracks of Yermak, climb relatively low Ural mountain peaks and look for boulders seemingly with human faces on them. You can head to the Gemstone Belt of the Ural mountains, which used to house emerald, amethyst and topaz mines. In the winter you can go ice fishing, ski and cross-country ski.

Sverdlovsk Oblast and Yekaterinburg are located near the center of Russia, at the crossroads between Europe and Asia and also the southern and northern parts of Russia. Winters are longer and colder than in western section of European Russia. Snowfalls can be heavy. Winter temperatures occasionally drop as low as - 40 degrees C (-40 degrees F) and the first snow usually falls in October. A heavy winter coat, long underwear and good boots are essential. Snow and ice make the sidewalks very slippery, so footwear with a good grip is important. Since the climate is very dry during the winter months, skin moisturizer plus lip balm are recommended. Be alert for mud on street surfaces when snow cover is melting (April-May). Patches of mud create slippery road conditions.

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (kilometer 1818 on the Trans-Siberian Railway) is the fourth largest city in Russia, with of 1.5 million and growth rate of about 12 percent, high for Russia. Located in the southern Ural mountains, it was founded by Peter the Great and named after his wife Catherine, it was used by the tsars as a summer retreat and is where tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed and President Boris Yeltsin lived most of his life and began his political career. The city is near the border between Europe and Asia.

Yekaterinburg (also spelled Ekaterinburg) is located on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains in the headwaters of the Iset and Pyshma Rivers. The Iset runs through the city center. Three ponds — Verkh-Isetsky, Gorodskoy and Nizhne-Isetsky — were created on it. Yekaterinburg has traditionally been a city of mining and was once the center of the mining industry of the Urals and Siberia. Yekaterinburg remains a major center of the Russian armaments industry and is sometimes called the "Pittsburgh of Russia.". A few ornate, pastel mansions and wide boulevards are reminders of the tsarist era. The city is large enough that it has its own Metro system but is characterized mostly by blocky Soviet-era apartment buildings. The city has advanced under President Vladimir Putin and is now one of the fastest growing places in Russia, a country otherwise characterized by population declines

Yekaterinburg is technically an Asian city as it lies 32 kilometers east of the continental divide between Europe and Asia. The unofficial capital of the Urals, a key region in the Russian heartland, it is second only to Moscow in terms of industrial production and capital of Sverdlovsk oblast. Among the important industries are ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, machine building and metalworking, chemical and petrochemicals, construction materials and medical, light and food industries. On top of being home of numerous heavy industries and mining concerns, Yekaterinburg is also a major center for industrial research and development and power engineering as well as home to numerous institutes of higher education, technical training, and scientific research. In addition, Yekaterinburg is the largest railway junction in Russia: the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through it, the southern, northern, western and eastern routes merge in the city.

Accommodation: There are two good and affordable hotels — the 3-star Emerald and Parus hotels — located close to the city's most popular landmarks and main transport interchanges in the center of Yekaterinburg. Room prices start at RUB 1,800 per night.

History of Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg was founded in 1723 by Peter the Great and named after his wife Catherine I. It was used by the tsars as a summer retreat but was mainly developed as metalworking and manufacturing center to take advantage of the large deposits of iron and other minerals in the Ural mountains. It is best known to Americans as the place where the last Tsar and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and near where American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Gary Powers, was shot down in 1960.

Peter the Great recognized the importance of the iron and copper-rich Urals region for Imperial Russia's industrial and military development. In November 1723, he ordered the construction of a fortress factory and an ironworks in the Iset River Valley, which required a dam for its operation. In its early years Yekaterinburg grew rich from gold and other minerals and later coal. The Yekaterinburg gold rush of 1745 created such a huge amount of wealth that one rich baron of that time hosted a wedding party that lasted a year. By the mid-18th century, metallurgical plants had sprung up across the Urals to cast cannons, swords, guns and other weapons to arm Russia’s expansionist ambitions. The Yekaterinburg mint produced most of Russia's coins. Explorations of the Trans-Baikal and Altai regions began here in the 18th century.

Iron, cast iron and copper were the main products. Even though Iron from the region went into the Eiffel Tower, the main plant in Yekaterinburg itself was shut down in 1808. The city still kept going through a mountain factory control system of the Urals. The first railway in the Urals was built here: in 1878, the Yekaterinburg-Perm railway branch connected the province's capital with the factories of the Middle Urals.

In the Soviet era the city was called Sverdlovsk (named after Yakov Sverdlov, the man who organized Nicholas II's execution). During the first five-year plans the city became industrial — old plants were reconstructed, new ones were built. The center of Yekaterinburg was formed to conform to the historical general plan of 1829 but was the layout was adjusted around plants and factories. In the Stalin era the city was a major gulag transhipment center. In World War II, many defense-related industries were moved here. It and the surrounding area were a center of the Soviet Union's military industrial complex. Soviet tanks, missiles and aircraft engines were made in the Urals. During the Cold War era, Yekaterinburg was a center of weapons-grade uranium enrichment and processing, warhead assembly and dismantlement. In 1979, 64 people died when anthrax leaked from a biological weapons facility. Yekaterinburg was a “Closed City” for 40 years during the Cold Soviet era and was not open to foreigners until 1991

In the early post-Soviet era, much like Pittsburgh in the 1970s, Yekaterinburg had a hard struggle d to cope with dramatic economic changes that have made its heavy industries uncompetitive on the world market. Huge defense plants struggled to survive and the city was notorious as an organized crime center in the 1990s, when its hometown boy Boris Yeltsin was President of Russia. By the 2000s, Yekaterinburg’s retail and service was taking off, the defense industry was reviving and it was attracting tech industries and investments related to the Urals’ natural resources. By the 2010s it was vying to host a world exhibition in 2020 (it lost, Dubai won) and it had McDonald’s, Subway, sushi restaurants, and Gucci, Chanel and Armani. There were Bentley and Ferrari dealerships but they closed down

Transportation in Yekaterinburg

Getting There: By Plane: Yekaterinburg is a three-hour flight from Moscow with prices starting at RUB 8,000, or a 3-hour flight from Saint Petersburg starting from RUB 9,422 (direct round-trip flight tickets for one adult passenger). There are also flights from Frankfurt, Istanbul, China and major cities in the former Soviet Union.

By Train: Yekaterinburg is a major stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Daily train service is available to Moscow and many other Russian cities.Yekaterinburg is a 32-hour train ride from Moscow (tickets RUB 8,380 and above) or a 36-hour train ride from Saint Petersburg (RUB 10,300 and above). The ticket prices are round trip for a berth in a sleeper compartment for one adult passenger). By Car: a car trip from Moscow to Yekateringburg is 1,787 kilometers long and takes about 18 hours. The road from Saint Petersburg is 2,294 kilometers and takes about 28 hours.

Regional Transport: The region's public transport includes buses and suburban electric trains. Regional trains provide transport to larger cities in the Ural region. Buses depart from Yekaterinburg’s two bus stations: the Southern Bus Station and the Northern Bus Station.

Regional Transport: According the to Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT): “Public transportation is well developed. Overcrowding is common. Fares are low. Service is efficient. Buses are the main form of public transport. Tram network is extensive. Fares are reasonable; service is regular. Trams are heavily used by residents, overcrowding is common. Purchase ticket after boarding. Metro runs from city center to Uralmash, an industrial area south of the city. Metro ends near the main railway station. Fares are inexpensive.

“Traffic is congested in city center. Getting around by car can be difficult. Route taxis (minivans) provide the fastest transport. They generally run on specific routes, but do not have specific stops. Drivers stop where passengers request. Route taxis can be hailed. Travel by bus or trolleybuses may be slow in rush hour. Trams are less affected by traffic jams. Trolley buses (electric buses) cannot run when temperatures drop below freezing.”

Entertainment, Sports and Recreation in Yekaterinburg

The performing arts in Yekaterinburg are first rate. The city has an excellent symphony orchestra, opera and ballet theater, and many other performing arts venues. Tickets are inexpensive. The Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater is lavishly designed and richly decorated building in the city center of Yekaterinburg. The theater was established in 1912 and building was designed by architect Vladimir Semyonov and inspired by the Vienna Opera House and the Theater of Opera and Ballet in Odessa.

Vaynera Street is a pedestrian only shopping street in city center with restaurants, cafes and some bars. But otherwise Yekaterinburg's nightlife options are limited. There are a handful of expensive Western-style restaurants and bars, none of them that great. Nightclubs serve the city's nouveau riche clientele. Its casinos have closed down. Some of them had links with organized crime. New dance clubs have sprung up that are popular with Yekaterinburg's more affluent youth.

Yekaterinburg's most popular spectator sports are hockey, basketball, and soccer. There are stadiums and arenas that host all three that have fairly cheap tickets. There is an indoor water park and lots of parks and green spaces. The Urals have many lakes, forests and mountains are great for hiking, boating, berry and mushroom hunting, swimming and fishing. Winter sports include cross-country skiing and ice skating. Winter lasts about six months and there’s usually plenty of snow. The nearby Ural Mountains however are not very high and the downhill skiing opportunities are limited..

Sights in Yekaterinburg

Sights in Yekaterinburg include the Museum of City Architecture and Ural Industry, with an old water tower and mineral collection with emeralds. malachite, tourmaline, jasper and other precious stone; Geological Alley, a small park with labeled samples of minerals found in the Urals region; the Ural Geology Museum, which houses an extensive collection of stones, gold and gems from the Urals; a monument marking the border between Europe and Asia; a memorial for gulag victims; and a graveyard with outlandish memorials for slain mafia members.

The Military History Museum houses the remains of the U-2 spy plane shot down in 1960 and locally made tanks and rocket launchers. The fine arts museum contains paintings by some of Russia's 19th-century masters. Also worth a look are the History an Local Studies Museum; the Political History and Youth Museum; and the University and Arboretum. Old wooden houses can be seen around Zatoutstovsya ulitsa and ulitsa Belinskogo. Around the city are wooded parks, lakes and quarries used to harvest a variety of minerals. Weiner Street is the main street of Yekaterinburg. Along it are lovely sculptures and 19th century architecture. Take a walk around the unique Literary Quarter

Plotinka is a local meeting spot, where you will often find street musicians performing. Plotinka can be described as the center of the city's center. This is where Yekaterinburg holds its biggest events: festivals, seasonal fairs, regional holiday celebrations, carnivals and musical fountain shows. There are many museums and open-air exhibitions on Plotinka. Plotinka is named after an actual dam of the city pond located nearby (“plotinka” means “a small dam” in Russian).In November 1723, Peter the Great ordered the construction of an ironworks in the Iset River Valley, which required a dam for its operation. “Iset” can be translated from Finnish as “abundant with fish”. This name was given to the river by the Mansi — the Finno-Ugric people dwelling on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals.

Vysotsky and Iset are skyscrapers that are 188.3 meters and 209 meters high, respectively. Fifty-story-high Iset has been described by locals as the world’s northernmost skyscraper. Before the construction of Iset, Vysotsky was the tallest building of Yekaterinburg and Russia (excluding Moscow). A popular vote has decided to name the skyscraper after the famous Soviet songwriter, singer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky. and the building was opened on November 25, 2011. There is a lookout at the top of the building, and the Vysotsky museum on its second floor. The annual “Vysotsky climb” (1137 steps) is held there, with a prize of RUB 100,000. While Vysotsky serves as an office building, Iset, owned by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, houses 225 premium residential apartments ranging from 80 to 490 square meters in size.

Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center

The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center (in the city center: ul. Yeltsina, 3) is a non-governmental organization named after the first president of the Russian Federation. The Museum of the First President of Russia as well as his archives are located in the Center. There is also a library, educational and children's centers, and exposition halls. Yeltsin lived most of his life and began his political career in Yekaterinburg. He was born in Butka about 200 kilometers east of Yekaterinburg.

The core of the Center is the Museum. Modern multimedia technologies help animate the documents, photos from the archives, and artifacts. The Yeltsin Museum holds collections of: propaganda posters, leaflets, and photos of the first years of the Soviet regime; portraits and portrait sculptures of members of Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of various years; U.S.S.R. government bonds and other items of the Soviet era; a copy of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, published in the “Novy Mir” magazine (#11, 1962); perestroika-era editions of books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vasily Grossman, and other authors; theater, concert, and cinema posters, programs, and tickets — in short, all of the artifacts of the perestroika era.

The Yeltsin Center opened in 2012. Inside you will also find an art gallery, a bookstore, a gift shop, a food court, concert stages and a theater. There are regular screenings of unique films that you will not find anywhere else. Also operating inside the center, is a scientific exploritorium for children. The center was designed by Boris Bernaskoni. Almost from the its very opening, the Yeltsin Center has been accused by members of different political entities of various ideological crimes. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00am to 9:00pm.

Where Nicholas II was Executed

On July, 17, 1918, during this reign of terror of the Russian Civil War, former-tsar Nicholas II, his wife, five children (the 13-year-old Alexis, 22-year-old Olga, 19-year-old Maria and 17-year-old Anastasia)the family physician, the cook, maid, and valet were shot to death by a Red Army firing squad in the cellar of the house they were staying at in Yekaterinburg.

Ipatiev House (near Church on the Blood, Ulitsa Libknekhta) was a merchant's house where Nicholas II and his family were executed. The house was demolished in 1977, on the orders of an up and coming communist politician named Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin later said that the destruction of the house was an "act of barbarism" and he had no choice because he had been ordered to do it by the Politburo,

The site is marked with s cross with the photos of the family members and cross bearing their names. A small wooden church was built at the site. It contains paintings of the family. For a while there were seven traditional wooden churches. Mass is given ay noon everyday in an open-air museum. The Church on the Blood — constructed to honor Nicholas II and his family — was built on the part of the site in 1991 and is now a major place of pilgrimage.

Nicholas and his family where killed during the Russian civil war. It is thought the Bolsheviks figured that Nicholas and his family gave the Whites figureheads to rally around and they were better of dead. Even though the death orders were signed Yakov Sverdlov, the assassination was personally ordered by Lenin, who wanted to get them out of sight and out of mind. Trotsky suggested a trial. Lenin nixed the idea, deciding something had to be done about the Romanovs before White troops approached Yekaterinburg. Trotsky later wrote: "The decision was not only expedient but necessary. The severity of he punishment showed everyone that we would continue to fight on mercilessly, stopping at nothing."

Ian Frazier wrote in The New Yorker: “Having read a lot about the end of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and servants, I wanted to see the place in Yekaterinburg where that event occurred. The gloomy quality of this quest depressed Sergei’s spirits, but he drove all over Yekaterinburg searching for the site nonetheless. Whenever he stopped and asked a pedestrian how to get to the house where Nicholas II was murdered, the reaction was a wince. Several people simply walked away. But eventually, after a lot of asking, Sergei found the location. It was on a low ridge near the edge of town, above railroad tracks and the Iset River. The house, known as the Ipatiev House, was no longer standing, and the basement where the actual killings happened had been filled in. I found the blankness of the place sinister and dizzying. It reminded me of an erasure done so determinedly that it had worn a hole through the page. [Source: Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, August 3, 2009, Frazier is author of “Travels in Siberia” (2010)]

“The street next to the site is called Karl Liebknecht Street. A building near where the house used to be had a large green advertisement that said, in English, “LG—Digitally Yours.” On an adjoining lot, a small chapel kept the memory of the Tsar and his family; beneath a pedestal holding an Orthodox cross, peonies and pansies grew. The inscription on the pedestal read, “We go down on our knees, Russia, at the foot of the tsarist cross.”

Books: The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie (Random House, 1995); The Fall of the Romanovs by Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir Khrustalëv (Yale, 1995);

See Separate Article END OF NICHOLAS II factsanddetails.com

Execution of Nicholas II

According to Robert Massie K. Massie, author of Nicholas and Alexandra, Nicholas II and his family were awakened from their bedrooms around midnight and taken to the basement. They were told they were to going to take some photographs of them and were told to stand behind a row of chairs.

Suddenly, a group of 11 Russians and Latvians, each with a revolver, burst into the room with orders to kill a specific person. Yakob Yurovsky, a member of the Soviet executive committee, reportedly shouted "your relatives are continuing to attack the Soviet Union.” After firing, bullets bouncing off gemstones hidden in the corsets of Alexandra and her daughters ricocheted around the room like "a shower of hail," the soldiers said. Those that were still breathing were killed with point black shots to the head.

The three sisters and the maid survived the first round thanks to their gems. They were pressed up against a wall and killed with a second round of bullets. The maid was the only one that survived. She was pursued by the executioners who stabbed her more than 30 times with their bayonets. The still writhing body of Alexis was made still by a kick to the head and two bullets in the ear delivered by Yurovsky himself.

Yurovsky wrote: "When the party entered I told the Romanovs that in view of the fact their relatives continued their offensive against Soviet Russia, the Executive Committee of the Urals Soviet had decided to shoot them. Nicholas turned his back to the detachment and faced his family. Then, as if collecting himself, he turned around, asking, 'What? What?'"

"[I] ordered the detachment to prepare. Its members had been previously instructed whom to shoot and to am directly at the heart to avoid much blood and to end more quickly. Nicholas said no more. he turned again to his family. The others shouted some incoherent exclamations. All this lasted a few seconds. Then commenced the shooting, which went on for two or three minutes. [I] killed Nicholas on the spot."

Nicholas II’s Initial Burial Site in Yekaterinburg

Ganina Yama Monastery (near the village of Koptyaki, 15 kilometers northwest of Yekaterinburg) stands near the three-meter-deep pit where some the remains of Nicholas II and his family were initially buried. The second burial site — where most of the remains were — is in a field known as Porosyonkov (56.9113628°N 60.4954326°E), seven kilometers from Ganina Yama.

On visiting Ganina Yama Monastery, one person posted in Trip Advisor: “We visited this set of churches in a pretty park with Konstantin from Ekaterinburg Guide Centre. He really brought it to life with his extensive knowledge of the history of the events surrounding their terrible end. The story is so moving so unless you speak Russian, it is best to come here with a guide or else you will have no idea of what is what.”

In 1991, the acid-burned remains of Nicholas II and his family were exhumed from a shallow roadside mass grave in a swampy area 12 miles northwest of Yekaterinburg. The remains had been found in 1979 by geologist and amateur archeologist Alexander Avdonin, who kept the location secret out of fear that they would be destroyed by Soviet authorities. The location was disclosed to a magazine by one his fellow discovers.

The original plan was to throw the Romanovs down a mine shaft and disposes of their remains with acid. They were thrown in a mine with some grenades but the mine didn't collapse. They were then carried by horse cart. The vats of acid fell off and broke. When the carriage carrying the bodies broke down it was decided the bury the bodies then and there. The remaining acid was poured on the bones, but most of it was soaked up the ground and the bones largely survived.

After this their pulses were then checked, their faces were crushed to make them unrecognizable and the bodies were wrapped in bed sheets loaded onto a truck. The "whole procedure," Yurovsky said took 20 minutes. One soldiers later bragged than he could "die in peace because he had squeezed the Empress's -------."

The bodies were taken to a forest and stripped, burned with acid and gasoline, and thrown into abandoned mine shafts and buried under railroad ties near a country road near the village of Koptyaki. "The bodies were put in the hole," Yurovsky wrote, "and the faces and all the bodies, generally doused with sulfuric acid, both so they couldn't be recognized and prevent a stink from them rotting...We scattered it with branches and lime, put boards on top and drove over it several times—no traces of the hole remained.

Shortly afterwards, the government in Moscow announced that Nicholas II had been shot because of "a counterrevolutionary conspiracy." There was no immediate word on the other members of the family which gave rise to rumors that other members of the family had escaped. Yekaterinburg was renamed Sverdlov in honor of the man who signed the death orders.

For seven years the remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra, three of their daughters and four servants were stored in polyethylene bags on shelves in the old criminal morgue in Yekaterunburg. On July 17, 1998, Nicholas II and his family and servants who were murdered with him were buried Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg along with the other Romanov tsars, who have been buried there starting with Peter the Great. Nicholas II had a side chapel built for himself at the fortress in 1913 but was buried in a new crypt.

Near Yekaterinburg

Factory-Museum of Iron and Steel Metallurgy (in Niznhy Tagil 80 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg) a museum with old mining equipment made at the site of huge abandoned iron and steel factory. Officially known as the Factory-Museum of the History of the Development of Iron and Steel Metallurgy, it covers an area of 30 hectares and contains a factory founded by the Demidov family in 1725 that specialized mainly in the production of high-quality cast iron and steel. Later, the foundry was renamed after Valerian Kuybyshev, a prominent figure of the Communist Party.

The first Russian factory museum, the unusual museum demonstrates all stages of metallurgy and metal working. There is even a blast furnace and an open-hearth furnace. The display of factory equipment includes bridge crane from 1892) and rolling stock equipment from the 19th-20th centuries. In Niznhy Tagil contains some huge blocks of malachite and

Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha (180 kilometers east-northeast of Yekaterinburg) has an open air architecture museum with log buildings, a stone church and other pre-revolutionary architecture. The village is the creation of Ivan Samoilov, a local activist who loved his village so much he dedicated 40 years of his life to recreating it as the open-air museum of wooden architecture.

The stone Savior Church, a good example of Siberian baroque architecture. The interior and exterior of the church are exhibition spaces of design. The houses are very colorful. In tsarist times, rich villagers hired serfs to paint the walls of their wooden izbas (houses) bright colors. Old neglected buildings from the 17th to 19th centuries have been brought to Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha from all over the Urals. You will see the interior design of the houses and hear stories about traditions and customs of the Ural farmers.

Verkhoturye (330 kilometers road from Yekaterinburg) is the home a 400-year-old monastery that served as 16th century capital of the Urals. Verkhoturye is a small town on the Tura River knows as the Jerusalem of the Urals for its many holy places, churches and monasteries. The town's main landmark is its Kremlin — the smallest in Russia. Pilgrims visit the St. Nicholas Monastery to see the remains of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye, the patron saint of fishermen.

Ural Mountains

Ural Mountains are the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia and have been a crossroads of Russian history. Stretching from Kazakhstan to the fringes of the Arctic Kara Sea, the Urals lie almost exactly along the 60 degree meridian of longitude and extend for about 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles) from north to south and varies in width from about 50 kilometers (30 miles) in the north and 160 kilometers (100 miles) the south. At kilometers 1777 on the Trans-Siberian Railway there is white obelisk with "Europe" carved in Russian on one side and "Asia" carved on the other.

The eastern side of the Urals contains a lot of granite and igneous rock. The western side is primarily sandstone and limestones. A number of precious stones can be found in the southern part of the Urals, including emeralds. malachite, tourmaline, jasper and aquamarines. The highest peaks are in the north. Mount Narodnaya is the highest of all but is only 1884 meters (6,184 feet) high. The northern Urals are covered in thick forests and home to relatively few people.

Like the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, the Urals are very old mountains — with rocks and sediments that are hundreds of millions years old — that were one much taller than they are now and have been steadily eroded down over millions of years by weather and other natural processes to their current size. According to Encyclopedia Britannica: “The rock composition helps shape the topography: the high ranges and low, broad-topped ridges consist of quartzites, schists, and gabbro, all weather-resistant. Buttes are frequent, and there are north–south troughs of limestone, nearly all containing river valleys. Karst topography is highly developed on the western slopes of the Urals, with many caves, basins, and underground streams. The eastern slopes, on the other hand, have fewer karst formations; instead, rocky outliers rise above the flattened surfaces. Broad foothills, reduced to peneplain, adjoin the Central and Southern Urals on the east.

“The Urals date from the structural upheavals of the Hercynian orogeny (about 250 million years ago). About 280 million years ago there arose a high mountainous region, which was eroded to a peneplain. Alpine folding resulted in new mountains, the most marked upheaval being that of the Nether-Polar Urals...The western slope of the Urals is composed of middle Paleozoic sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones) that are about 350 million years old. In many places it descends in terraces to the Cis-Ural depression (west of the Urals), to which much of the eroded matter was carried during the late Paleozoic (about 300 million years ago). Found there are widespread karst (a starkly eroded limestone region) and gypsum, with large caverns and subterranean streams. On the eastern slope, volcanic layers alternate with sedimentary strata, all dating from middle Paleozoic times.”

Southern Urals

The southern Urals are characterized by grassy slopes and fertile valleys. The middle Urals are a rolling platform that barely rises above 300 meters (1,000 feet). This region is rich in minerals and has been heavily industrialized. This is where you can find Yekaterinburg (formally Sverdlovsk), the largest city in the Urals.

Most of the Southern Urals are is covered with forests, with 50 percent of that pine-woods, 44 percent birch woods, and the rest are deciduous aspen and alder forests. In the north, typical taiga forests are the norm. There are patches of herbal-poaceous steppes, northem sphagnous marshes and bushy steppes, light birch forests and shady riparian forests, tall-grass mountainous meadows, lowland ling marshes and stony placers with lichen stains. In some places there are no large areas of homogeneous forests, rather they are forests with numerous glades and meadows of different size.

In the Ilmensky Mountains Reserve in the Southern Urals, scientists counted 927 vascular plants (50 relicts, 23 endemic species), about 140 moss species, 483 algae species and 566 mushroom species. Among the species included into the Red Book of Russia are feather grass, downy-leaved feather grass, Zalessky feather grass, moccasin flower, ladies'-slipper, neottianthe cucullata, Baltic orchis, fen orchis, helmeted orchis, dark-winged orchis, Gelma sandwart, Krasheninnikov sandwart, Clare astragalus.

The fauna of the vertebrate animals in the Reserve includes 19 fish, 5 amphibian and 5 reptile. Among the 48 mammal species are elks, roe deer, boars, foxes, wolves, lynxes, badgers, common weasels, least weasels, forest ferrets, Siberian striped weasel, common marten, American mink. Squirrels, beavers, muskrats, hares, dibblers, moles, hedgehogs, voles are quite common, as well as chiropterans: pond bat, water bat, Brandt's bat, whiskered bat, northern bat, long-eared bat, parti-coloured bat, Nathusius' pipistrelle. The 174 bird bird species include white-tailed eagles, honey hawks, boreal owls, gnome owls, hawk owls, tawny owls, common scoters, cuckoos, wookcocks, common grouses, wood grouses, hazel grouses, common partridges, shrikes, goldenmountain thrushes, black- throated loons and others.

Activities and Places in the Ural Mountains

The Urals possess beautiful natural scenery that can be accessed from Yekaterinburg with a rent-a-car, hired taxi and tour. Travel agencies arrange rafting, kayaking and hiking trips. Hikes are available in the taiga forest and the Urals. Trips often include walks through the taiga to small lakes and hikes into the mountains and excursions to collect mushrooms and berries and climb in underground caves. Mellow rafting is offered in a relatively calm six kilometer section of the River Serga. In the winter visitor can enjoy cross-mountains skiing, downhill skiing, ice fishing, dog sledding, snow-shoeing and winter hiking through the forest to a cave covered with ice crystals.

Lake Shartash (10 kilometers from Yekaterinburg) is where the first Ural gold was found, setting in motion the Yekaterinburg gold rush of 1745, which created so much wealth one rich baron of that time hosted a wedding party that lasted a year. The area around Shartash Lake is a favorite picnic and barbecue spot of the locals. Getting There: by bus route No. 50, 054 or 54, with a transfer to suburban commuter bus route No. 112, 120 or 121 (the whole trip takes about an hour), or by car (10 kilometers drive from the city center, 40 minutes).

Revun Rapids (90 kilometers road from Yekaterinburg near Beklenishcheva village) is a popular white water rafting places On the nearby cliffs you can see the remains of a mysterious petroglyph from the Paleolithic period. Along the steep banks, you may notice the dark entrance of Smolinskaya Cave. There are legends of a sorceress who lived in there. The rocks at the riverside are suited for competitive rock climbers and beginners. Climbing hooks and rings are hammered into rocks. The most fun rafting is generally in May and June.

Olenii Ruchii National Park (100 kilometers west of Yekaterinburg) is the most popular nature park in Sverdlovsk Oblast and popular weekend getaway for Yekaterinburg residents. Visitors are attracted by the beautiful forests, the crystal clear Serga River and picturesque rocks caves. There are some easy hiking routes: the six-kilometer Lesser Ring and the 15-kilometer Greater Ring. Another route extends for 18 km and passes by the Mitkinsky Mine, which operated in the 18th-19th centuries. It's a kind of an open-air museum — you can still view mining an enrichment equipment here. There is also a genuine beaver dam nearby.

Among the other attractions at Olenii Ruchii are Druzhba (Friendship) Cave, with passages that extend for about 500 meters; Dyrovaty Kamen (Holed Stone), created over time by water of Serga River eroding rock; and Utoplennik (Drowned Man), where you can see “The Angel of Sole Hope”., created by the Swedish artist Lehna Edwall, who has placed seven angels figures in different parts of the world to “embrace the planet, protecting it from fear, despair, and disasters.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation (official Russia tourism website russiatourism.ru ), Russian government websites, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Yomiuri Shimbun and various books and other publications.

Updated in September 2020

•  Facebook
•  Twitter
•  Google+
•  e-mail

 Page Top

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of country or topic discussed in the article. This constitutes 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If you are the copyright owner and would like this content removed from factsanddetails.com, please contact me.

• Premier League , Round 26

Rubin Kazan vs Ural Yekaterinburg live score, H2H results, standings and prediction

Highest rated players, who will win.

• Find out who scored in a live match
• Get real-time information on which team is dominating the match using the Attack Momentum
• Follow detailed statistics such as ball possession, shots, corner kicks, big chances created, cards, key passes, duels and more
• Track all home and away games for each team in the Premier League
• Check out how Sofascore community votes on which team is more likely to win this match.