For more than 70 years, Rolex and the National Geographic Society have shared an interest in what lies beyond the familiar. Now, that longstanding relationship enters a new chapter with the opening of a reimagined National Geographic Base Camp in Washington, D.C., with Rolex serving as a Founding Donor and Grand Opening Partner of the new Museum of Exploration.
The relationship between the two organisations dates to the golden age of exploration. In 1953, Rolex equipped the expedition during which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The following year, National Geographic documented the historic achievement in its magazine, establishing a connection that would continue across generations of explorers.
“National Geographic and Rolex have been partners for more than 70 years now. We share an underlying drive to explore and innovate,” says Ian Miller, Chief Science and Innovation Officer of the National Geographic Society.
That shared purpose has since evolved beyond the pursuit of geographical firsts. In 2019, the partnership became a central pillar of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, bringing exploration, scientific research and environmental conservation increasingly into focus.
A New Home for Exploration
The reimagined Base Camp has been designed as both a working home for National Geographic Explorers and a destination for the public. It gives returning Explorers a place to share discoveries, exchange knowledge and connect with the wider community, while opening the organisation’s work to a new generation of visitors.
At the heart of the transformation is the National Geographic Museum of Exploration, the Society’s most significant expansion to date. Through immersive exhibitions, interactive technology and storytelling, the museum brings expeditions from around the world into a more accessible setting.
Rolex’s contribution extends into the Rolex Explorers Landing, an area dedicated to the people behind some of National Geographic’s most significant expeditions.
The space is organised around four stages — Spark, Trek, Purpose and Impact — tracing an expedition from its initial idea through to its wider significance. Visitors can encounter artefacts from landmark explorations, including the pressurised diving suit worn by Rolex Testimonee Sylvia Earle during her record-setting untethered sea walk in 1979.
“We are grateful to the National Geographic Society for its partnership and shared dedication to advancing exploration,” says Arnaud Boetsch, Director Communication and Image, Rolex SA. “There is something very powerful about creating a space where exploration becomes real for people.”
Exploration with a Purpose
The new Base Camp also reflects how the definition of exploration has changed. Today, understanding the planet is inseparable from protecting it.
Through the Perpetual Planet Expeditions, Rolex and National Geographic support long-term scientific research into some of the world’s most vulnerable environments, from high-altitude mountain systems and the Amazon River Basin to the depths of the oceans.
The expeditions document the effects of climate change while working with local communities to identify practical ways of protecting critical ecosystems. A dedicated reader rail within the Rolex Explorers Landing will provide updates from these expeditions, bringing discoveries from the field closer to visitors.
That emphasis on sustained discovery also underpins the annual Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year, established in 2011 to recognise individuals whose exploration and storytelling illuminate important challenges facing the planet.
This year’s recipient, Krithi K. Karanth, has spent her career addressing human-wildlife conflict in India and developing conservation education programmes that have reached more than 50,000 children.
From Everest to the Amazon and the ocean floor, the partnership between Rolex and National Geographic has evolved alongside the meaning of exploration itself. The new Base Camp offers a physical expression of that legacy — while giving the next generation a place to begin imagining where curiosity might lead them.
