Friday, July 11, 2008

The History of The Rolex President [Part 10]


Everybody Wants To Rule The World

LBJ's Rolex President



In the last chapter on JFK we explore the issue of JFKs assassination and as a student of U.S. history I perhaps have some unexpected insight to share with you. As an American I do not believe the Warren Commissions findings.

I strongly believe JFKs assassination was actually an invisible coup d’état executed and planned by former Vice President Richard Nixon, FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover and Vice President, Lyndon Johnson.

For the record, I am not a conspiracy theorist, I am a historian and a seeker of truth. I believe American's deserve to know the truth and ALL men should be held accountable for their actions.

So let's get started, with the why and how? JFK and Nixon were both accepted to Harvard and JFK being from a wealthy family attended. Nixon did not attend because even though he received a full financial scholarship to Harvard, he did not have the money for the bus ride from California to Boston, so he attended Whittier College in California instead.

Nixon and Kennedy both served as officers in World War II and both men were elected and served as freshman Congressmen as seen in the photo below. Both men also were later elected as Senators from their home states of Massachusetts and California.



In 1960 Kennedy ran against Nixon for the Presidency of the United States. The Kennedy's cheated Nixon out of the Presidency and Nixon was livid. He vowed to get back at Kennedy and he did. On November 22, 1963 Nixon was admittedly in Dallas, Texas when Kennedy was killed.







J. Edgar Hoover

FBI Director

J. Edgar Hoover was the director of the FBI for 48 years and hated the Kennedy's profusely. He, like Nixon and Johnson thought the Kennedy's were spoiled rich kids. When JFK appointed his brother Attorney General of the United States, Bobby Kennedy went after people his father promised not to pursue.

These people were close to J. Edgar Hoover and RFK's persistence seriously threatened Hoover's iron reign. J. Edgar Hoover was in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, and the next day he was at the Santa Anita race track in Southern California. Do you think that if Hoover did not know who killed Kennedy that the next day the Director of the FBI would be at the race track watching the horses run?


The real scoundrel was Vice President Johnson. He despised Kennedy and hated all the Kennedy's. He would refer to them as the Irish Mob. Most people forget history, but LBJ ran against JFK for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1960 and they were fierce rivals. Even though Kennedy won, J. Edgar Hoover forced Kennedy to accept Johnson as his Vice Presidential running mate as you will learn in the next two videos:





Kennedy refused to accept Johnson as his running mate but J. Edgar Hoover forced Kennedy by threatening to publish photos of Kennedy cheating on his wife–Kennedy reluctantly accepted, but did not realize Johnson would stop at NOTHING to fulfill his dream of becoming the President of the USA.


Johnson also though Kennedy was a spoiled rich kid and the one thing all the men had in common that eliminated Kennedy was they were all self-made men who resented Kennedy's father literally buying him the Presidency.


Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson were both extremely ambitious and both wanted to see Johnson become the President of the Untied States. The young couple is pictured above posing in front of the U.S. Capital in Washington D.C. in 1935, which was two years before he was elected to the U.S. Congress.

Johnson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937 and in 1949 became a Senator from Texas.


Lady Bird and Vice President Johnson are pictured above during the breakfast speech that JFK gave on the day he was killed in Dallas, Texas. If you examine most of the photos of Lady Bird and Lyndon when they are around the Kennedy's, they look like they are bored out of their minds, but not on the morning of Kennedy's assassination. Lady Bird looks very nervous, like she is going to throw-up and Johnson looks like the cat that swallowed the canary, or a man who has been biding his time and is about to become the President of the United States.

The photo below was taken at a speech given by Kennedy just after the breakfast photo taken above in Forth Worth Texas on November 22, 1963. Lyndon Johnson is pictured on the far right and has that exact same look on his face, like a prince preparing to ascend the throne to become King.

Former Secretary of the Navy and current Governor (at the time) John Connally of Texas is pictured below, next to Johnson and it is crystal clear from his facial expression he is not only aware of what is about to happen in a few short hours, but he is super freaked out and very contemplative and worried looking. JFK, clearly is oblivious. People lie, photos don't.


In the photo below, you see seated from left to right, Texas Governor John Connally, His wife Nellie Connally, President Kennedy, and Jackie Kennedy. Jackie, JFK and Connally's wife are all smiling from ear to ear and Governor Connally should be smiling as well, but he knows what is about to happen!!!


I want to point something out. I think Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover all thought they were brave patriots in killing Kennedy. They thought Kennedy was soft on communism, and because he had everything handed to him, was not interested in pursuing war in Vietnam.

They thought Kennedy was a womanizer and that his philandering was a huge risk to the U.S. They also thought Kennedy was out of his mind for inviting African American Civil Rights Leaders like Martin Luther King to the White House for a reception after the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Kennedy was dead less than 3 months later.


The Johnson's got their wish to become the President and the first Lady of the United States. Lyndon Johnson achieved many great things during his presidency, but he and his pals also profited terribly on sending American boys to their death in Vietnam.

One of the reasons Johnson wanted to get Kennedy out of the way as soon as possible was because Johnson knew he did not have long to live. Johnson not only suffered 3 heart attacks while in the White House, but Johnson's father and grandfather both suffered from the same heart disease and both died when they were 64. Of course Lyndon Johnson died when he was 64 as well.

In my personal opinion, Johnson was a despicable human being, as was Richard Nixon, and J. Edgar Hoover. I think they all died in disgrace and as an American it is not easy for me to express my sentiments, but I am being 100% candid and forthright.


As I mentioned in the last chapter, politics can be a dirty, dirty game. In personally judging the three men, I realize I could be wrong about their character, but as a student of history, I seriously doubt it.

Johnson did some great work and my favorite thing about him is that he was the first President of the United States to wear a Rolex Day-Date, also know in many circles as the Rolex President.

Many people confusingly attributed the term 'Rolex President' to U.S. President Eisenhower wearing his Rolex, but I believe I have proven this to be untrue. Lydon Johnson was the first President to wear a Rolex Day-Date with a Rolex "President" bracelet.

President Johnson is pictured above in the Oval Office with the Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt discussing the War in Vietnam.

One of the questions I am researched is: How did Rolex came up with the name for the "President" bracelet and when? Rolex introduced the Day-Date with the "President" band in 1956, but I don't think they called the bracelet the "President" bracelet in 1956 because they promised Dwight Eisenhower they would not commercialize the fact that he wore a Rolex, so my best guess to date is that Rolex saw President Johnson wearing a Day-Date with a Day-Date band and decided to rename the bracelet to the "President" bracelet.


I say this because I have seen a Rolex brochure from 1967 (During the Johnson Presidency) that specifically refers to the bracelet as the "President Bracelet." 

President Johnson is pictured above with Supreme Court Judge Thurgood Marshall who was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of The Untied States, and was appointed by President Johnson. The Rolex Magazine ad below is from 1967. It is interesting to note that when they Rolex said "many heads of state" I believe they were specifically referring to Lyndon Johnson who was the President Of The United States when this ad was published. Notice in 1967 the Rolex Day-Date in yellow gold was only $1000.







President Johnson is pictured above with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for a three-day-summit which was the first time a Soviet Premier met with a U.S. President in the United States since Nikita Khrushchev met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959.


As I previously mentioned, my favorite thing about President Johnson, is how proudly he wore his Rolex President. All These photos of him wearing his Rolex came from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and I would like to thank them very much for sharing their archives with me.

Of course, I had to go through the archives and find all the great photos of him wearing his Rolex and to the best of my knowledge, the vast majority of these images have never been seen before in public. The earliest photo I was able to find of President Johnson wearing his Rolex Day-Date with the President bracelet was from July 1965 and I never saw a photo of him wearing any other watch through the remainder of his presidency up through 1968.


Lyndon Johnson is pictured above in the Oval Office with Senator Bobby Kennedy. I believe Johnson, Hoover and Nixon were also behind RFK's assassination as well as his brother JFK's assassination.


Lyndon Johnson is picture above with the Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley who was responsible for getting Johnson and JFK elected by cheating on vote counts in Cook County, Illinois.


Johnson was a President of the Untied States from Texas who thought he was a cowboy.



This is my favorite part of this chapter on the History of The Rolex President, because I like the shots of Johnson wearing his President, but we also get to see Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wearing his beloved Yellow Gold Rolex Datejust in the White House. Click on the photo above to see King's Rolex Datejust.


President Johnson is seen below with Martin Luther King on July 2, 1964 after signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed most forms of racial segregation. I hate to say this but I think Johnson, Nixon and Hoover were also behind Martin Luther King's assassination.

I believe they killed him because in their minds he became way too powerful. He brought American to its knees by using Ghandi's economic boycott tactics. You see, at the time approximately 12.5% of the U.S. population was African American and if Martin Luther King told African Americans to boycott white business, the white businesses would lose their entire profit margin for the year.

I believe they killed Martin Luther King which is the single dumbest thing they could have done. When King was assassinated, African American's lost their minds and started rioting and rebelling against the white establishment. African American's started growing big afros and doing many other counter-culture things because they lost their leader and they simply gave-up on trying to play the white man's game.



U.S. General Maxwell Taylor (pictured below) was a highly decorated World War II soldier who German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring surrendered to on behalf of the Nazi regime on May 13, 1945 in Berchtesgarden, Germany.



He was involved in the Korean War as Eisenhower's Chief of Staff from 1955-1959. In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered General Taylor to deploy 1,000 troops from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce Federal Court orders to desegregate Central High School during the Little Rock Crisis.

After the April 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco, President Kennedy felt the Joint Chiefs of Staff failed to provide him with sound military advice, and appointed General Maxwell Taylor to head a task force to investigate the failure of the invasion. Kennedy was so impressed with Taylor he appointed him as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which he served as until 1964.

He is pictured above on January 30, 1968 in the Cabinet Room during a meeting with President Johnson in the White House. I though I would share this photo because I think General Maxwell Taylor's Rolex President is a great wrist shot.


Lyndon Johnson was a tough negotiator, but his avarice seemed to get the best of him.


Lyndon Johnson and his General's made a huge mess in Vietnam and sent many, many, many American boys to their death, but a tremendous amount of money went into the pockets of the American Military Industrial Complex.

As a matter of fact, more munitions were spent in Vietnam by the Americans, than by all the Allies and Axis powers during all of World War II. In other words, a small group of people made a tremendous amount of money–just like what latter occurred in Iraq.



I think in many ways Eisenhower's warning to the American people in his farewell speech regarding the American Military Industrial Complex came true in Vietnam and Iraq.

In the photo above, Johnson is consulting with retired President Eisenhower. Johnson is wearing his trademark yellow Rolex Day-Date.


Lyndon Johnson was the second U.S. President to wear a modern Rolex, and the first to wear a Day-Date, with a Rolex "President" bracelet.


The photo below of then U.S. President Lyndon Johnson was taken in December of 1966 as he is leaving a church service. Lyndon Johnson was the first American President to wear a Rolex Day-Date with the Rolex President Bracelet, which later became know as "A Rolex President" or "Rolex Presidential" or, as they say, in some circles, "The El Presidente."



Here is a photo of President Lydon Johnson wearing his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date with his Vice President, Hubert Humphrey sitting with him in the Oval Office in the White House.



The photo below shows then President Johnson attending a baseball game with female Senator, Margret Chase Smith, who was the very first female to be elected to the U.S. Senate.




In the photo below we see John steinbeck who is considered to one of the greatest authors of the 20th century with his son John Steinbeck IV, meeting in the White House Oval Office with President Lyndon Johnson on May 16, 1966. Notice President Johnson is wearing his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date in the photo.




John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1940, as well as the  the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. His catalog of amazing books included "Of Mice and Men" [1937]; "The Grapes Of Wrath" [1939]; and "East Of Eden" [1952].


"The Free exploring mind of the individual is the most valuable thing in the world." –John Steinbeck




Onward, but not Upward

After serving his first full term, on March 31, 1968 President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced he would not be running for a second term. Four days later, on April 6, 1968 Martin Luther King was assassinated. Two short months latter just after winning the Democratic California Primary in his run for the Presidency, JFK's younger brother, Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968.


Lyndon Johnson passed the torch to President Nixon as seen together planning out the future in July 1968 in the photo below. One question that comes to mind is, what is a Democrat President doing in the White House with the Republican Candidate in a one-on-one meeting? Think about it?



The next photo below shows Lyndon Johnson with President-Elect, Richard Nixon having another conversation in the White House just before Nixon's inauguration which took place on January 20, 1969.





Richard Nixon is the only President in American history to resign and disgrace the office of the Presidency. President Nixon's first Vice President, Spiro Agnew resigned a year earlier in 1973 because of a scandal in which the U.S. Attorney's office charged him with extortion, tax fraud, bribery, money laundering and conspiracy. JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther King, RFK, LBJ, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew all played with fire and got burned.

I realize this series chapter is somewhat somber, but as a historian and scientist, I seek only to reveal the truth by separating the fact from the fiction.

I realize some may attempt to discredit my findings on the JFK assassination, but I am certain in time the American people and people of the World will come to learn the sad and pathetic truth about the American Presidency through the sixties and seventies.

If there is any question in your mind as to the veracity of my facts you have two options. You can take the blue pill, and bury your head in the sand. Or, you can take the red pill, open your mind and watch this Interview with LBJ's mistress that will blow your mind!!!!!!


I strongly believe my forefathers fought for the United States so one day their sons—like me—would have the freedom to express their honest opinions  as I have done here today. In my mind, the freedom of speech we enjoy in the U.S. is one of our greatest liberties.

Overall, I am very happy with my contribution to sharing superb Rolex history with my readers. Many serious Rolex collectors and enthusiasts have already suggested this series will be heralded as an invaluable contribution to the Rolex collecting community and I sincerely thank them very much for their kind and gracious compliments.

In this next photo we see former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson wearing his trademark yellow gold "Rolex President" Day-Date as he watches Apollo 11 take-off for the Moon from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on July 16, 1969 at 9:32am EDT. Former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew is pictured on Johnson's right and Lady Bird is on his left.

Despite the fact President Kennedy set the goal of putting a man safely on the moon and returning him to earth, it was the Johnson administration that really made it happen, so this moment must have been a crowning achievement in President Johnson's career.




One More Thing

The article above was originally published on July 11, 2008. On January 20, 2017 I published this next section which I ended up adding to this chapter since it is so on-point:









The Rolex President

New Rolex President History Discovered


I am writing this story just after President Trump was officially sworn in as the Next President Of The United States. The Inauguration parade is just about to begin, so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to share a new piece of the Rolex President history that was previously unknown.  President Eisenhower was the first known U.S. President to wear a Rolex. Specifically, he wore a yellow gold Rolex Datejust that was given to him as a gift from Rolex in 1948, when he was the Supreme Commander of NATO in Europe. Eisenhower's Rolex was no ordinary Rolex—it was the 150,000 Officially Certified Swiss Chronometer made by Rolex.



In the photo below we see the inauguration of U.S. President,  John F. Kennedy which took place on January 20, 1961. In the photo we see outgoing President, Dwight Eisenhower sitting next to Kennedy, and we see incoming Vice President, Lyndon Johnson, sitting next to future president Richard Nixon. 



U.S. President Johnson was the first known U.S. President to wear a Rolex Day-Date, which became known as the Rolex President.



There is a mystery as to when President Johnson first began wearing his Rolex Day-Date, and where it came from? Today I intend to solve that mystery. The photos above and below were taken on December 18, 1964. The photos were taken of President Johnson just after he was sworn-in as the President of the United States, and they were taken during the Presidential Inauguration Parade, which typically takes place after the swearing-in ceremony. To my knowledge these are the very first photos of President Johnson wearing his Rolex Day-Date.



In this next photo of the Presidential Parade Box, we see Texas Governor, John Connally, who by the way, was seated in JFK's limo, when he was assassinated in Dallas Texas, a year before this photo was taken. What a coincidence!?!! We also see Vice President, Hubert Humphrey pictured on the far right.



The photos below, of President Lyndon B. Johnson were taken in the White House Yellow Room, in Washington D.C. after the Inauguration Parade on December 18, 1964. This first image below is the first official Presidential Portrait of Lyndon Johnson.




Obviously we see Lyndon Johnson wearing his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date in these Presidential Portraits taken the day he took oath as The President. One question that comes to mind, is, where did he get the Rolex Day-Date, and why was he wearing it? In 2008, I interviewed Rolex Executive T. Walker Lloyd, who told me Rolex Director Rene-Paul Jeanneret was friends with Lyndon Johnson and spent time on President Johnson's ranch in Texas. 






As a matter of fact, T. Walker Lloyd told me Rene-Paul Jeanneret  told him a funny story about how he was seated in the back of a convertible Lincoln Continental on Johnson's Texas ranch. President Johnson was driving the Lincoln at 90 miles an hour down an unpaved dirt road. That is a pretty funny image if you think about it. Imagine President Johnson driving his convertible down a dirt road at 90 miles an hour with the head of Rolex Geneva in the back seat!!!



I don't know this to be a fact, but I believe it is likely the Rolex Day-Date was a gift from Rolex to President Johnson. Today a Rolex Day-Date retails for tens of thousands of dollars. Back in 1964, the same watch sold for around $1000. The Rolex magazine ad below was originally published in 1964:




1964 Magazine Ad

Men who guide the destines

of the world wear Rolex watches



This 1964 Rolex ad from the "Men Who Guide The Destinies Of The World Wear Rolex Watches" campaign really demonstrates that Rolex was really excited and proud to share with the world that many of the top leaders wore Rolex. The most interesting detail is that U.S. President Lyndon Johnson had recently begun wearing what became his trademark yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date in 1964, and it appears Rolex could not wait to indirectly let everybody know.

I believe the hats on the table are symbolic of the actual men who wore them, so the obvious question, is who wore those hats? My best guess for who the hats belong to or symbolize would be U.S. General Eisenhower, French General de Gaulle, Swiss General Henri Guisan, U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Lord Mountbatten of the U.K. and U.S. President, Lyndon Johnson. I believe the foremost hat, which is a Russian Cossack lambswool hat was representative of Either Nikita Khrushchev or Leonid Brezhnev

The Rolex ad seen below was published in 1966, and is clearly based upon the fact that the American President Johnson wore a Rolex.





The photo below shows President Johnson and his wife Lady-Bird Johnson entertaining then California Governor, Ronald Reagan with his wife Nancy Reagan. Both men wore Rolex watches.





In the photo below we see President Johnson conferring with former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower of course, was the first known U.S. President to wear a Rolex watch while in office.





It Doesn't Just Tell Time. It Tells History.


"Why this watch? This watch is witness. To words that moved nations. It's dared men faster. further. Worn by luminaries. Visionaries. Champions. It doesn't Just tell time. It tells History.


A recent Rolex ad campaign slogan says, "It doesn't just tell time. It tells history." I can think of no other Rolex where this statement would be more true with, than with President Eisenhower's Rolex Datejust.

In the photo below taken on January 20, 1953 we see outgoing U.S. President, Harry Truman in the back of the Presidential Limousine with President Elect, Dwight Eisenhower as they leave for Eisenhower's inauguration. In this photo we get a clear shot of President Eisenhower's Rolex Datejust jubilee bracelet.




In the photo below taken under the White House portico, we see, then Senator Hubert Humphrey in the presidential limousine turned around looking at outgoing U.S. President Truman.





A Crowning Achievement for Rolex

On July 21, 1952, Dwight Eisenhower appeared on the cover of LIFE Magazine, wearing his yellow gold Rolex Datejust, which must have blown the mind of all Rolex executives, including Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf. Rolex had officially arrived as the world-wide horological leader...



Rolex promised never to commercialize the fact President Eisenhower wore a Rolex, which is a promise they kept. However, this did not keep them from being extremely proud of this achievement, which resulted in the following ad campaign that began in 1956 titled, "Men who guide the destinies of the world wear Rolex watches."



1956 Rolex President's Watch Ad

Men Who Guide The Destinies Of The World Wear Rolex Watches







1957 Rolex President's Watch Ad

Men Who Guide The Destinies Of The World Wear Rolex Watches













President Trump Inauguration Speech

The video below features President Trumps Inauguration speech he gave today at noon EST.


President Donald Trump is pictured below with his daughter Ivanka, and notice he is wearing his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date, also known as The Rolex President.







THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ROLEX PRESIDENT

Table Of Contents






Part 16: President Trump - The Newest Rolex President



Part 18: The Rolex Precedent by Jake Ehrlich