Roberto is from Italy and he has an amazing collection of vintage Rolex watches. He took this stunning image of his pre-Daytona Rolex Chronograph. Notice is has a different scale running around the outside of the dial, along with the secondary scale on the bezel insert.
If we got in the Rolex Time Machine and went back to 1966-1968, and peeked in between some of the pages of Playboy magazine, like James Bond actor, George Lazenby is doing below in the movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, what would we find him staring at?
Well, he could definitely have been staring at this super cool Rolex 1966 magazine ad that appeared in Playboy back then. In case you were wondering the car on the right is 1966 Ford GT40 MKII. And notice it has an early Rolex Daytona in front of it.
Also notice the Submariner in the ad above and below have the rare 3, 6, 9 (Explorer) dial, as well as the slogan, "When a man has a world in his hands, you expect to find a Rolex on his wrist."
If you look closely at the image below, you will notice George Lazenby, in his role as James Bond, took off his Rolex Submariner and placed it on the table in front of him (as seen in bottom left-hand corner) of image below.
Keeping The Time Of His Life with a Rolex GMT Master
Who is the greatest Rock n' Roll band of all time? Led Zeppelin–of course!!! Or another way to put it, is that NOBODY ever rocked like Led Zeppelin, and I mean NOBODY!!! I would even go so far as to say that Led Zeppelin is in a class all by itself, just like Rolex is like no other watch. I am really excited to share this fascinating story with you, which has three amazing full-length Led Zeppelin concerts included at the end of the story.
John Paul Jones is a founding member of the Led Zeppelin and is considered to be one of the greatest and most innovative musicians alive today. John Paul Jones has always been really low-key, and kind of quiet, but a giant in the world of music.
John Paul plays many, many different instruments, and in Led Zeppelin he plays bass guitar and keyboards.
If we take a close look at John Paul Jones Two-Tone Rolex GMT Master, we can see it is definitely a vintage Rolex GMT with nipple indices, and a Jubilee bracelet. I saw a photo of him wearing it in 1977, and my best guess is that it was made in the early 1970s. He still wears it today, so we know he is in his fourth decade of wearing it–at least.
Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling, most innovative, successful rock bands is history. Not only is their music unlike anything else, it is otherworldly. All their songs are unusually long-form, and almost more like a hard Rock n' Roll symphony. It's also interesting to note, that despite being a British band, in many ways they seem a lot more American, which likely makes sense since they were so deeply influenced in their early day by American Rhythm and Blues.
John Paul Jones is pictured below sitting between fellow founding Led Zeppelin band members, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, in a photo taken in 1985 at the Live Aid concert, which represented the first time Led Zeppelin got back together for a reunion after they broke up in 1980, and you can see that John is wearing his two tone Rolex GMT-Master.
John Paul Jones is pictured below in in 1985 wearing his two-tone Rolex GMT-Master.
John Paul Jones is pictured below, chillin' backstage with Jimmy Page in 1977, and John Paul is wearing his Rolex GMT Master.
As I mentioned earlier, John Paul Jones was the quiet giant of Led Zeppelin, and that is easy to understand when he was on stage with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, who rocked like nobody else ever has, or likely ever will. Led Zeppelin was together going full-speed ahead from 1968, to 1980, when they disbanded after their drummer, John Bonham died.
Nobody Ever Rocked Like Led Zeppelin!!!
In many ways Led Zeppelin music definded a generation, and in the photo below we see Robert Plant and Jimmy Page rocking out on the Madison Square Garden stage in 1977.
Stairway To Heaven
Founding Led Zeppelin members, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are pictured below with U.S. President Obama, at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012, where they were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In the video below, we see President Obama celebrate Led Zeppelin at the White House.
You can and SHOULD watch Led Zeppelin at the Kennedy Center Honors in the video below which is superbly INSANE!!!!! Heart's rendition of Stairway to Heaven, featuring Ann and Nancy Wilson with John Hohman's son, Jason Bonham is absolutely mesmerizingly otherworldly and outrageous!!!!! I mean it's almost impossible to believe that anybody could ever top Led Zeppelin's own version of Stairway to Heaven, but this version certainly is a great candidate for doing so...It's so great, I could listen to it a million times!!!! Even, Rolex brand ambassador, Yo Yo Ma, is rocking out super hard to Stairway to Heaven...
Next we see a performance from their seminal Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunion in 1995, as they rock-out to Kashmir.
Wade from Chicago took this absolutely stunning/over-the-top/mystifying/crazy beautiful lume shot of his ceramic Supercase Rolex Submariner. This has got to one of the prettiest lume shots I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!
Reggie Jackson "Mr. October" Legendary Baseball Player
Legendary Professional baseball player and civil rights leader, Reggie Jackson has been rocking Rolex for at least 5 decades and in the image above taken back in the later 1980s we see him sporting his yellow gold Daytona (Reference 6263).
In the recent image we see below, Reggie is still rocking a Daytona. I would go so far as to argue Reggie Jackson is the living personification/manifestation of Rolex, in that he is bold, strong, successful, timeless and highly confident.
Paul Boutros from Phillip's Auction House was at the U.S. Open Golf Tournament back in June of 2019 and he snapped this super cool picture of baseball legend Reggie Jackson (Mr. October) rockin' his vintage Pepsi GMT-Master [Reference 1675].
Below we see Reggie Jackson in 1976 as he puts on his New York Yankees Ballcap when he joined the sports franchise, and notice he is rocking a Rolex Presidential bracelet.
Reggie Jackson is a member of the 50 Years wearing a Rolex Club and has worn Rolex for 5 decades.
As a child, Reggie Jackson was one of my heroes and great role models.
Reggie Jackson is a renowned car collector and obviously a big Rolex collector as we see him sporting many different Rolex watches spanning over 4 decades. In the photos below we see Reggie wearing a white gold Rolex Submariner with a blue dial and bezel.
In the two photos below we see Reggie rockin both a white and yellow gold Rolex Daytona.
There is a great Reggie documentary on Prime and you can see the trailer below
The photo below of the vintage Rolex GMT-Master appears courtesy of Christie's Auction house, and is a beauty indeed! This is a very early yellow gold GMT, as it has the sword hands, which lack the traditional Mercedes Marker on the hour hand, and it also has the tiny arrowhead on the 24-hour hand. The dial on this watch has nipple markers, and more importantly a very rare original brown bakelite bezel insert, with matching yellow gold 24-hour time numerals.
Phillip's Watches auctioned this magnificent rare yellow gold Paul Newman Daytona which is one of the most beautiful Rolex watches ever made. The design language of this watch is beyond timeless...
I was chatting with Nick Gould and he observed "King Harald has to be the oldest single owner of a GMT-Master!"
King Harald is pictured above and below with his wife, Queen Sonja, and in the photo below taken in 1968 he is rocking the exact same Pepsi GMT-Master pictured above on his wrist. Of course, the fundamental difference in appearance is back in 1968 his Pepsi Bezel was still bright blue and red, and today the patina is so faded, it looks like its silver, almost looking like he is wearing a stainless steel and platinum YACHT-MASTER!
In the 1970s and 1980s Rolex went crazy making all kinds of fascinatingly beautiful Rolex Day-Date and Datejust models with very colorful exotic dials, and the watch pictured below is no exception. The green Rolex dial is known as a Malachite dial, which is very cool looking.
"We must not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive at the place where we began, and recognize it for the first time."
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
YACHT-MASTER
The Complete History
Rolex very, very rarely introduces all-new models, as a matter of fact, the last Rolex model introduced before the Yacht-Master was the Rolex Daytona which was introduced in 1964. Of course, Rolex's latest new model was the, Land-Dweller released last year in 2025.
Rolex introduced the Yacht-Master in 1992, so it took them 28 years to come up with an all-new model! Just for frame of reference, it took Rolex another 20 years to come up with another all-new model, which was the Sky-Dweller, which they introduced in 2012.
In 2012, Rolex also introduced an all-new version of the stainless steel and platinum Yacht-Master, with a cobalt blue sunray dial and it was an instant classic!!!
An Ultra-Rare Rolex Prototype or a Fugazi?
The 1967-1969 Rolex YACHT-MASTER
The watch below is somewhat confusing and controversial as it’s apocryphal. Italian Rolex fanatic, John Goldberger sent in the photo below of this supposedly Ultra-Rare 39.5mm Rolex Yacht-Master Chronograph Prototype [Reference 6239/6242], the dial of which was allegedly made in 1967 and the watch in 1969. It is one of only two documented examples of said model. I recall Eric Clapton owned one of these as some point.
So what is the origin of this alleged Rolex Yacht-Master Chronograph prototype? Is it real, or is it a Fugazi?
The supposed Yacht-Master looks like early Rolex Daytona models, but the Daytona models at the time were 36mm, where this purported Yacht-Master model was 39.5mm.
Nobody knows if these "Yacht-Master" prototypes are authentic and Rolex has never officially commented on their authenticity which seems strange to me!?!! In other words, if they were real, I would assume Rolex would have acknowledged them by now. Jose from Perezcope.com, who I have a great deal of respect for as a horological forensics investigator did a deep dive and argued they are NOT authentic.
The Rebirth Of The Rolex Submariner Yacht-Master
In 1992 Rolex introduced an all-new Yacht-Master, but what was its REAL and TRUE design genesis?
In the late 1970s, Rolex wanted to significantly update and modernize its Rolex Submariner model. Rolex created while gold Submariner variants that were essentially a "Super-Submariner". These highly exotic Submariner prototype models were upgraded to include a matching white gold Rolex President bracelet coupled with an etched white gold bezel insert, along with an unusually notched bezel as seen below in this 2026 Auction photo that appears courtesy of Christie's auction house:
The white gold version of the Submariner never made it into production, but the Rolex design team experimented like crazy and came up with what today is the modern Yacht-Master. The challenge was that Rolex loved the new design, but was scared to death to radically transform the Submariner. The Rolex Submariner was at the time and remains to this day, the most iconic watch in the world.
One could argue that for the last half-century, the Submariner has been Rolex's bread & butter.
Rolex loved the design of the new Submariner prototype; where the original had hard right angles, the new one had smoothly radiused edges. The new version had an etched bezel insert that was permanently soldered to the bezel. The new watch had fat hands and maxi markers and was a magnificent work of streamlined art. The challenge was that it looked nothing like the original.
Jocke, the famous Rolex photographer took the side by side photo above of the Rolex LV Submariner with Black Bezel Insert next to his Stainless and Platinum Yacht-Master. If you look at the two watches side by side, you really see how similar they are so much so, one could argue they are the exact same watch.
Rolex Design Language Evolutionary Steps
Design Note: Rolex design language has always been about evolving and then checking back-in with the past. This design methodology typically results in a timeless product that has strong ties to its past. If you examine the all-new Rolex Submariner Rolex Introduced in 2011, you see how it leap-frogged right over the Yacht-Master, while building on the Yacht-Master design language.
In other words, the new Supercase Submariner (2011 Model) has a ceramic bezel insert with lowered white gold markers, which give it a more sculptured/etched look like the Yacht-Master bezel in reverse. Just in the same way the crown guards grew fatter on the Yacht-Master than on the older Submariner, the new Ceramic Submariner has even fatter, crown guards.
Same thing with the new Ceramic Submariner getting fattened up lugs that give it a SuperCase. Also, add the fat hands, and Maxi-Markers, and the Ceramic Submariner leap-frogs the Yacht-Master by adding the super-innovative glide-lock clasp.
I realize I got a little sidetracked with the Submariner/Yacht-Master discussion, so now let's go back to the Yacht-Master. Rolex ultimately decided to revive their old trademark of Yacht-Master, and the rest, as they say, is history. If you carefully examine the modern Yacht-Master you will find it is almost identical in every way to a Submariner!!! The stainless steel and platinum Yacht-Master below almost looks like an albino version of the Submariner.
Rolex originally introduced the 40mm Yacht-Master in 1992 it was a Reference 16628 in 18kt gold, with a white dial and 3135 movement, which was the same movement used in the Rolex Submariner. The Yacht-Master had a triple-lock crown, and it was water resistant to 100 meters (10 bars) which is 320 Feet. Essentially, the first Yacht-Master was positioned as a Luxury version of the Submariner. The Submariner was for use underwater, and the Yacht-Master was for use topside. If the Submariner was for The Captain/The Skipper, the Yacht-Master was for Thurston Howell III (The Millionaire). Just for frame of reference, I am sharing these image of Emeril Lagasse and Brad Pitt sporting full-size 40MM Men's Rolex Yacht-Master models. In 1994, Rolex introduced a 35MM "Mid-size edition" named the Reference 69628 which was geared toward the Asian market, or for men with smaller wrist sizes. In the photos below we see Charlie Sheet rockin' a three-quarter size Rolex Yacht-Master.
That same year Rolex introduced the women's 29MM version of the Yacht-Master named the Reference 69628.
In the same year, Rolex also introduced a 18KT gold 40mm men's version with a blue sunray dial, which I happened to purchase. I took the wrist-shot photo below of my yellow gold Yacht-Master in 2002. I don't own this beauty anymore, but I really enjoyed wearing this striking work of art.
In 1999, at Basel Fair, Rolex introduced the 40 MM stainless steel and platinum version of the Yacht-Master known as the Reference 16622. Rolex referred to this stainless steel and platinum combo as Rolesium. This watch is unique in the sense it has a platinum machined bezel with beautifully raised markers, as well as a dial made out of platinum. I have often criticized this model for lacking contrast and being too monochromatic, or albino, but in certain lighting, conditions the dial really comes to life as you can see in this photo taken by Vu.
In 2005 Rolex introduced a 40MM Rolesor stainless steel and gold two-tone version of the Yacht-Master known as Reference 16623. Rolex refers to two-tone stainless steel versions of their watches as Rolesor. Rolex also started making Yacht-Master watches with a special mother of pearl dial, as seen below.
...Rolex Instantly Re-invents A Classic...
Stainless Steel & Platinum Yacht-Master
Cobalt Blue Sunray Dial
[40mm: Reference 116622]
Rolex very, very rarely introduces all-new models, but when they originally introduced the Yacht-Master in 1992 it was a Reference 16628 in 18kt gold, with a white dial and 3135 movement, which was the same movement used in the Rolex Submariner.
All New Blue Dial Yacht-Master Photo By Jurgen
At BaselWorld in 1999 Rolex surprised everyone when the introduced the stainless steel and platinum version. Rolex refers to the combination of Stainless Steel and Platinum as Rolesium. This all-new model was the first to bring back the timeless Maxi Markers and fat hands. Since then Rolex has slowly returned all sports models to incorporate Maxi Markers and fat hands-Thank God!!!
The stainless and platinum Yacht-Master dial and bezel were made out of platinum but, the challenge was that the watch had no contrast. It was beautiful but it looked albino and had no pop. That all changed this year at BaselWorld when Rolex introduced the new 40mm Reference 116622 with a Cobalt Blue Sunray dial, which is just stunning. With this new version, Rolex also updated the case design, by giving the Yacht-Master a Supercase, which means, they made the lugs much thicker.
YACHT-MASTER 42MM WHITE GOLD
Last year Rolex introduced the all-new white gold Rolex YACHT-MASTER in 42MM, which is stunningly magnificent!!! I LOVE the 42MM sizing, and noticed the Fat Hands and Jumbo Markers, which look amazing!!! Essentially, the Rolex Yacht-Master—just like the SEA-DWELLER—has always been a Rolex Submariner variant. So basically, we are are seeing what a 42MM or 43MM Submariner would look like, and it's BRILLIANT!!!!!
Also notice that Rolex seriously narrowed the lug width on this puppy, as the design language is going retro, back to the old-school lugs.
Below you can find my previously published story from 2014 that will walk you through the history of the Rolex Yacht-Master so you will get a much better understanding of the evolution of the model and understand how we got to this point:
Historically Rolex has always been extremely secretive and discreet, and no journalists in the past have ever been invited "INSIDE ROLEX" to explore and report on all four Rolex Manufacturing faclities in Switzerland.
In November 2013, this changed when Rolex invited Jake to take an unprecdented journey into the heart of Rolex to learn and report on everything he witnessed and learned.
This Super-Detailed 3 Part Story is a "MUST READ" story for anybody who wants to understand what really makes Rolex tick.
Rolex originally introduced the 40mm Yacht-Master in 1992 it was a Reference 16628 in 18kt gold, with a white dial and 3135 movement, which was the same movement used in the Rolex Submariner. The Yacht-Master had a triple-lock crown, and it was water resistant to 100 meters (10 bars) which is 320 Feet.
Rolex also started making Yacht-Master watches with a special mother of pearl dial, as seen below.
