15th Anniversary
Announcement
Hi Everybody!
It's hard to believe I've entered my 15th straight year of publishing Jake's Rolex World @ RolexMagazine.com, and to celebrate this momentous occasion, I have some superb news to share with you!
I am finally coming out with a series of Books on Rolex History!!! As we see in the graphic above there will be 5 different books and there is a description at the bottom of this story on each book.
I was originally planning to write just one book, but once I hit the 1000 page threshold I realized I would need to break up my book into multiple volumes. The book artwork above and below are the original book artwork that show the front, rear and spine of the book.
Essentially, the original book idea was about the Founding Fathers of Rolex and how they built one of the most timeless, successful and prestigious brands in history.
As mentioned, I was originally going to write just one book, but once I began putting the book together I soon realized one book could not hold all the information, so after a great deal of analysis and contemplation I decided to break it up into 5 separate volumes that cover the entire Rolex History Arc from the beginning of timekeeping up to today.
I have probably read every book ever written on Rolex, and I can promise you this 5 volume series will radically surpass them!!!
To date, nobody has come even close to capturing Rolex's true history, which is my solemn commitment with this series...
The Mysterious
Switzerland has long been know for its mysterious neutrality, discretion and secrecy. This would include the Gnomes of Switzerland, which include Swiss bankers. But what about Rolex?
Imagine I told you there was a highly enigmatic, mysterious Swiss Marketing Wizard, responsible for the majority of Rolex’s success, including the development of the Rolex Submariner, SEA-DWELLER, Turn-O-Graph, Daytona, GMT-Master, Day-Date, Datejust, King Midas, & Tudor Monte Carlo, but nobody knows he ever existed—not even the people who run Rolex today even know much about him or would recognize a photo of him (like the one below)?
That's right!?!! I believe out of all the people who view the photo below of the very cool mystery man, and unsung Rolex hero and marketing pioneer, with the cool aviator sunglasses nobody will recognize him!?!! If you recognize him, please prove me wrong, but I would be willing to bet not a single person who initially reads this story will recognize the man pictured below.
Mysterious Pioneering Rolex Marketing Director
What if I told you this Rolex marketing connoisseur (pictured above) was so discreet he evaded history, yet left an indelible imprint on Rolex's ethos & DNA, including the fact he was responsible for developing and bringing the following ultra-iconic Rolex watch models to market?:
- 1945: Rolex Datejust
- 1954: Rolex Explorer
- 1954: Rolex Turn-O-Graph
- 1954: Rolex Submariner
- 1954: Rolex Millgauss
- 1956: Rolex Day-Date
- 1956: Rolex GMT-Master
- 1957: Rolex President Bracelet
- 1962: Rolex King Midas
- 1963: Rolex Daytona
- 1967: Rolex SEA-DWELLER
- 1970: Tudor Monte Carlo
- 1971: Rolex Explorer II
Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? It turns out reality IS stranger than fiction, as such a man existed, and his historical significance represents the holy grail missing Rolex nexus puzzle piece, which for the first time will be revealed and documented in great detail in this set of 5 Rolex History books...
Rolex Revelation
I must begin by thanking Dominique Jeanneret (pictured below) for sharing all of her kind assistance, gracious insight, photos and most importantly, making an indispensable contribution to this exceedingly timely and momentous Book. Dominique Jeanneret is the daughter of our previously mentioned mystery man, former Rolex Director and maverick marketing MAD MAN (literally), René-Paul Jeanneret, and she is also the goddaughter of Rolex Founder, Hans Wilsdorf.
René-Paul Jeanneret's daughter, Dominique Jeanneret
(Rolex Founder, Hans Wilsdorf's goddaughter) pictured above
Dominique Jeanneret's first person accounting as a primary source with her highly insightful recollections and anecdotes regarding her father, René-Paul Jeanneret are invaluable as she witnessed many significant Rolex history events first-hand, which vividly come to life in this spectacular story...Dominique worked for Rolex U.S.A., back in the 1960s which I also cover...
Why I wrote this series of 5 books?
Around the time I was born, Rolex had a slogan that said “When a man has a world in his hands you expect to find a Rolex on his wrist.”
For the first time in history, this book puts the entire history of Rolex in your hands. Every seminal moment; every key character; every epic and essential historic moment. This is Rolex history as it’s never been seen before.
This book series will be the ultimate Rolex companion. It's hyper-engaging and will keep you enthralled for countless hours on end! If you think you’ve see it all in the world of Rolex history you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this book!!!
This is Rolex’s story about what make them tick as well as my own Rolex journey that made me not only the metaphorical Rolex President of their fan club, but also my story of how I unearthed and shared their forgotten history in many ways...
Just to be clear, these books go far beyond everything I have published to date, and offer a much wider scope and breadth.
Print Book Size: 11 x 14 (will initially be exclusively available for purchase on RolexMagazine.com).
Apple Digital Book Size: 11 x 14 (will be available exclusively on the Apple Books Store, which will be viewable on any Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
The Apple Book books version look amazing and is optimized for viewing on an iPhone, so if you ever get stuck in line somewhere, time will fly by as you learn a great deal about Rolex's amazing history...
Book Style: Coffee Table Book with easy to read larger text and a zillion high quality photos.
Chapters: 50+
Page Number: So far I am up beyond 1400 pages, and expect there to be at least 1500 pages when complete. This will break down to around 300 pages per volume.
Pricing: Yet to be determined.
Publication Date Roadmap: I plan to publish both a printed paper version of my books as well as a digital version on the Apple Books platform. I think it is likely I will first publish a digital version. I also think with the digital version I will roll it out one volume per month until they are all available.
Current development status: The books are primarily complete. I am now working on fine-tuning all the amazing details.
As soon as I get closer to a first publication date, I will update this article and bring it back up to the top of RolexMagazine.com. If all goes as planned we could see the first volume made available digitally on Apple Books in the July 2022 timeframe.
