Rolex Lume Shot of the Day: Explorer II Mark II Dial Lume...

...Rolex Lume Shot Of The Day...

Jocke's Rolex Orange Hand Explorer II

[Reference 1655]

Richard Gere Two-tone Datejust...

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Richard Gere

A Brilliant Career

With a Stainless Steel & Gold Rolex

Datejust on His Wrist

Richard Gere is 76 years young today. What do Rolex and Richard Gere have in common? They are both timeless, charismatic, good-looking and super iconic, so should come as no surprise that Richard Gere has worn the same two-tone Rolex Datejust for many decades. In the recent photo below, we see Richard still rocking his Rolex Datejust.

Richard Gere has had an amazing acting career that has spanned several decades and included movies like American Gigolo (1980), An Officer and Gentleman (1982), Breathless (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), Pretty Woman (1990), Primal Fear (1996), Runaway Bride (1999), Chicago (2002), Arbitrage (2012), The Dinner (2017), and the mini-series MotherFatherSon (2019). Richard Gere is pictured above and below sporting his two-tone Rolex Datejust.

Of course, Richard Gere is known for his rugged good looks and he was voted The Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine in 1999.

American Gigolo
1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SL
It could be argued that Richard Gere's Magnum Opus movie was American Gigolo. The famous opening screen can be seen below in the video, where he is driving his 450SL Mercedes-Benz down the Pacific Coast Highway, while Blondie's mega-hit song "Call Me" plays in the background.

An Officer And A Gentleman

In 1982 Richard Gere starred in another mega hit named An Officer And A Gentleman.

Pretty Woman

Richard Gere also starred in the 1990 mega-hit Pretty Woman which costarred Julia Roberts. This was not only the ultimate chick-flick, but dudes loved it as well.

Richard Gere wore his two-tone Rolex Datejust in the movie Pretty Woman, as you can see in the screen grabs and press photos seen below.

In the two photos below, we see Richard Gere sporting his two-tone Rolex Datejust which he wore in the blockbuster movie Pretty Woman.

The Movie Star and the Model

Richard Gere was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995.

In the photo below we see Cindy Crawford with Richard Gere dressing like twins. And if you look closely they are both wearing two-tone Rolex Datejust models.

Dalai Lama & Richard Gere

2 Two-Tone Rolex Datejust Models?

Richard Gere has been a supporter of His Holiness, The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, for many years. The first photo taken in 1994 shows Richard Gere wearing his two-tone Rolex Datejust and in the second photo we see the Dalai Lama wearing his two-tone Rolex Datejust. Perhaps Richard Gere gave the Dalai Lama his Rolex?

Paul Newman Daytona Taken Apart

Paul Newman Daytona

The Sum Of Its Parts

Peter Roberts is a watchmaker in the U.K. and he sent in this image of a stainless steel Rolex Daytona he was recently working on overhauling and decided to send it in to share with you. Of you were ever wondering what a Paul Newman Daytona looks like when it is taken apart, here it is...

Sir Jony Ive Rocking a Rolex Daytona

...Rolex Coolness...

Sir Jony Ive

Rocking a Rolex Daytona

There are certain people you would love to see rocking a Rolex, but you think that it's just not possible. One such example is legendary former Apple Chief Designer, Jony Ive. Why do I say I never expected to ever see Sir Jony rocking a Rolex? Two reasons:

1. I never saw him wear a Rolex in the past, and assumed that if he "got" Rolex he would have owned one a long time ago. 

2. Since he designed the Apple Watch, I assumed he was too cool to go back to wearing a mechanical watch, but man was I wrong...

It’s quite unusual to see the former lead Apple design director wearing a Rolex.  Imagine the reverse: the former CEO of Rolex sporting an Apple Watch—it would be almost sacrilegious. Perhaps a better analogy would be if Apple started making analog watches that looked like Rolex, or if Rolex started making smart watches that looked like Apple Watches. You get the idea...Speaking of sacrosanct, some hardcore Ferrari enthusiasts would say that saying "Electric Ferrari" is like saying "Digital Rolex", and that's one of the things that make this story so interesting...

For the record, I once met Jony Ive, years ago when he and Steve Jobs, who I also knew, were opening the first Apple store in San Francisco, California. Ive was the most humble, sweet, shy, unassuming man I think I have ever met, and Jobs was the literal antithesis, which may explain why they got along so marvelously.

Jony Ive is arguably the most famous industrial designer today, as he was the lead Apple designer for decades. He left Apple years ago and started his own San Francisco based design firm named, Love From. Ive was recently interviewed, after having designed the highly polarizing new Ferrari Luce, and as a fellow designer, and design fanatic of the highest order, I was watching this fascinating video interview, which I share later in this story.

In the photo above we see Sir Jony Ive in the Ferrari archives with Piero Ferarri, who is the son of Ferrari founder, Enzo Ferrari, and we see Jony rocking a platinum Rolex Daytona. Piero Ferrari serves as the Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Ferrari today, and he has long worn Rolex watches as well. Mark Newsom, who is Jony Ive's design partner is pictured above on the left, and my understanding is he also played a role in the design of the interior of the new Ferrari.

The model of Rolex I believe Jony Ive is rocking is a 40MM Platinum model with the Ice Blue dial, which carries the Reference of 116506, which is pictured below:

Speaking of Piero Ferrari and Rolex Daytona, we see him below rocking a special 100th Anniversary of Le Man edition Daytona.

In this next image, taken in 1987, we see a much younger Piero Ferrari with his father, Enzo Ferrari, who was the founder of the Ferrari brand, and he also wore a much earlier Rolex Chronograph model.

In this subsequent set of images, we observe Sir Jony Ive driving his platinum Daytona. The unmistakable sky blue dial, with its contrasting subdials and dark bezel, stands out prominently.

FERRARI LUCE

The First All-Electric Ferrari 

Sir Jony Ive, the renowned designer, crafted the interior of the all-new, all-electric Ferrari LUCE. However, it’s somewhat perplexing to determine if he and Mark Newsom were involved in the design of the exterior, which has been met with significant controversy. The LUCE (which means 'light" in Italian) stands as a groundbreaking vehicle, marking Ferrari’s inaugural foray into the realm of electric vehicles. Despite its impressive features, it comes with a hefty price starting around $640,000. Notably, it is slower than the Tesla Plaid Model S. Additionally, the LUCE holds the distinction of being the first five-seater vehicle ever produced by Ferrari.

As a hardcore Tesla Fanatic, and Publisher of TeslaMagazine.org, I would argue the Ferrari LUCE is a non-starter as it lacks any Full Self Driving technology, which would allow the vehicle to drive itself. Even the most basic, and least expensive Tesla that is around $40K, features FSD, which is a revolutionary game-changing technology. If you are not familiar with FSD, it's Tesla software, built into every recent model made in the past 5 years, that allows the car to drive just about anywhere on earth by itself.

Despite the fact the Ferrari LUCE has no appeal to me, I must give credit where it's due, but at the same time, my greatest constructive criticism is that Ferrari and Ive seemed to ignore the most important variable in Ferrari's recipe for success, which is to make cars that look bold, masculine and sporty. 

The Ferrari LUCE strange design language reminds me of the famous Buckminster Fuller anecdote where a reporter once asked him if he always set out to design beautiful objects, to which he retorted, "When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty...but when I've finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it's wrong."

One of the Supreme ironies is that under the skin, the Ferrari LUCE has a great silhouette shape as seen above and below. My understanding is that Jony Ive only designed the interior, after Ferrari completed the exterior design, but I have also heard that he and Newson worked on the exterior, so I just don't know. If you are interested in learning way more about the Ferrari LUCE, they have a great website dedicated to all the details.

Essentially the Ferrari LUCE features shell (pictured below) that covers the exoskeleton, which radically changes the lines. I think if they had removed this goofy looking shell, they might have created a really cool looking Ferrari.

 

I haven't seen a Ferrari LUCE in person, nor have I driven one, so I will reserve any final thoughts, but my initial observation is that it's not technologically innovative as it offers no new and meaningful features, while being ridiculously expensive

Below is the excellent video interview of Jony Ive where I noticed him Rocking his Platinum Rolex Daytona. Despite the fact I am not a big fan of the way the Ferrari LUCE looks, I remain a huge fan of Sir Jony Ive, and have always had a great deal of respect for his design insight, principles and opinions. I also love listening to him speak, including his pronunciation of the word Aluminum as Alu-Minium ;-)

Ferrari's New Coke Moment

So what is the overall consensus on the new Ferrari LUCE? It seems like everybody on the web is talking about the new Ferrari, and most people seem to be very confused by the LUCE.

Speaking of Dudes rocking Rolex talking about the new Ferrari LUCE, Patrick Bet-David and Tom Ellsworth rip apart the new Ferrari, while both rocking some serious Rolex watches on their wrists.

In the video above, former Ferrari Chairman, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo is interviewed where he offers his opinion on the new LUCE and says:

"If I were to say what I really think, it would be unpleasant, so I prefer not to comment. We risk destroying a legend, and I'm truly sorry about that. I hope they at least remove the Prancing Horse from that car. It is certainly a car that at least the Chinese won’t copy." 

—Luca Cordero di Montezemolo

(former Chairman of Ferrari)

Ferrari LUCE

The Tesla Model S Apple Car? 

Let's examine the supremely ironic relationship between Tesla and Ferrari. 

Ironically, Tesla recently discontinued their Tesla Model S (pictured above), and a week or so later, Ferrari introduced the Ferrari LUCE (pictured below), which—for all intents and purposes—is their version of the TeslaModel S, and ironically it's slower doing 0-60, than the recently discontinued Tesla Model S Plaid. 

The incoming Ferrari LUCE is almost identical to the outgoing Tesla Model S in length, width and wheelbase, with the exception being the LUCE is 4.5 inches taller. This was very smart as the Tesla Model S was always way too low of a sedan, as it was low like a Ferrari sports car, which made getting in and out a pain.

Comparing the LUCE to the Model S, made me wonder what it might look like without that bizarro front (pictured in blue above) air intake shell, especially after carefully studying the silhouette of the Ferrari LUCE underbody which is pictured below. I will point out I could not help but notice the LUCE lacks a front trunk "Frunk", which the Tesla Model S has famously always featured.

I ended up creating the rendering below, which removes all the goofy blue cover, exposing the underbody while using its lines. Doing so makes it much more masculine. In my opinion, we end up with a Tesla Model S looking Ferrari LUCE. In other words, it appears to my way of thinking as as designer that Ferrari made their own version of a Model S sedan, but styled it way differently to make it NOT look like a Tesla Model S. In my opinion, if Ferrari had simply made it look like this, it would have been a HUGE HIT!!!!!

Ferrari's Perfect Solution

It turns out I am not the only person to consider this, as we see in the renders in the video below, that shows much, much, much better lines on the Ferrari LUCE. I think this dudes renders look way better than mine, and a ZILLION times better than the actual Ferrari LUCE. I would go so far as to say the LUCE represents Ferrari's NEW COKE moment. If I were Ferrari, my top priority would be to redesign and retool to update the LUCE to look like this beauty!!!!!!!!:

It's also worth pointing out the Ferrari LUCE has its two windshield wipers fixed in the upright position on each side of the windshield, kind of like a CyberTruck blade as pictured below.

Since we are on the subject of trying to determine what the genesis of the Ferrari LUCE came from, it's worth pointing out that we may very well be looking at the actual Apple Electric Car come to life as a Ferrari!?!! Apple's long rumored Electric Apple car was officially axed by Tim Cook in 2024, or was it just sold to Ferrari? 

Apple's senior vice president of Services, Eddy cue has served as a non-executive director on the board of directors of Ferrari for the past 14 years. If you examine the lines on the original Apple prototype render pictured below, that matchup pretty well with the LUCE. Thus, my best guess is Apple originally tried to created a vehicle that would surpass the Tesla Model S, and it ended up as the Ferrari LUCE. 

Tesla ROADSTER

ONE MORE THANG 

Upcoming 2026 Tesla Roadster

Here is where it gets even more interesting, Tesla is just preparing to showcase and launch their all-new 2026 Tesla Roadster, which is so state-of-the-art, it features cold thruster rockets on all four sides of the vehicle, that among other things can accelerate it from 0-60MPH in under a second, not to mention do the exact opposite to slow it down in a fraction of the time that standard brakes would take. 

That's right. It has cold-fusion rocket thrusters—designed by Elon Musk's Space X rocket engineers—all around the vehicle that can fire on demand in a controlled manner to speed-up, slow-down, or control lean in hard cornering. 

As an example, let's say you were driving in wintertime down the Waldo Grade on U.S. Highway 101, and after you drive through the rainbow tunnel, on the downhill road heading over the Golden Gate Bridge, on your way to San Francisco, you hit invisible black ice, which would render your car brakes useless, the car would sense this condition and apply its rear and side facing thrusters to basically fly/hover the car so it could stay perfectly in its lane, as if there was no black ice on the road. 

In other words, under such adverse conditions any "normal" car could loose control and slide all over the place, but the Tesla could basically counteract the ice by hovering the car in place.

Also, the Tesla Roadster will be able to drive you anywhere in world, door-to-door, safely, using FSD, but no Ferrari can do such a thing, not to mention that Ferrari doesn't have it's own supercharging network. That's OK, though, as you would still be able to charge your $600K Ferrari LUCE at EV GO, or Electrify American chargers, if and when you can find one that is not out of order, and if it is working will charge you way more than Tesla to recharge. 

On TeslaMagazine.org, as well as here on RolexMagazine.com, I have long argued that Tesla has had the entire automotive industry in Checkmate, and we are seeing this reality slowly becoming more and more obvious as time goes by.

In the meantime, I would argue the Ferrari Luce is just about as close as we will get to seeing what Apple's Electric car would have looked like had Tim Cook not cancelled its program. When I look at the Ferrari LUCE, it looks uninspiring to me. It looks like a neutered A-Sexual Ferrari, or a 1980s Chevy Impala wearing a Covid mask...or like somebody driving around by themselves in a car today, wearing a Covid mask...

In other words, I am NOT impressed, but deeply disappointed with Ferrari...I believe if you removed all the Ferrari logos and branding from the Ferrari LUCE, and drove it down the road, nobody would ever think it was, or associate it with the Ferrari brand. 

Ferarri cars have always looked like verbs. Kind of like a NIKE Swoosh logo, that looks like it's in motion, even when it's standing still. Same with historical Ferrari design language. But the LUCE looks like a noun, or like a bizarre two-tone plastic soap dish. On a positive note, MHBHD, in the video below presents a superb walk around tour of the Ferrari LUCE, and points out a bunch of fascinating details:

Who know!?!! Maybe I am wrong with my initial impressions, and the Ferrari LUCE might grow on me. I have often said that I have to hate somebody or something before I can love it or them. Either way, congratulations to Ferrari as they have every dude on earth talking about their all-new, all-electric Ferrari, and as they say, "In the world of public relations, there is not such thing as bad news. Just great exposure." Also, if we look at the glass as being half full, I imagine Ferrari is excited to finally have a family car that can comfortably fit 4-5 adults, not to mention, I think its the first Ferrari where a wealthy person can be chauffeured in the back seat.

On a side note, in case you end up reading this article Jony, your platinum Daytona looks like a million bucks on your wrist, and welcome to the pantheon of Rolex Super Coolness...Wear it well!!!!

You can find out much more about the Ferrari LUCE on their dedicated microsite. 

Rolex Daytona

Abound in the C Suite at Ferrari

There is an excellent video I shared below from Ferrari and I could not help but notice that many of the top Ferrari executives wear Rolex Daytona watches. The first one I notice is on the wrist of Emanuele Cardono, who is the head of product marketing for Ferrari.

Next we see Enrico Galliera, who is the Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer for Ferrari.

Next we see Piero Ferrari, who is the son of Ferrari founder, and a long time Rolex wearer. I have seen Piero rocking many, many different Rolex models over the years.

Next we see Falvio Manzoni, who is the Chief Design Officer at Ferrari, and he's one cool Italian dude. In this photo we see him wrapping out with Mark Newsom in a Ferrari LUCE. I highly recommend checking out the video below from Ferrari on the LUCE.

Next up we see Gianmaria Fulgenzi, who is the Chief of Product Development Officer at Ferrari, and he is also rocking a Rolex Daytona.

Further Reading: I am not only a highly experienced designer with 5 decades of experience designing everything you could imagine, but I am also really into timeless Rolex design, Tesla EV design, and great tech tool design.

After I completed this article I published an article on TeslaMagazine.org about why the Ferrari LUCE does not appeal to me personally.

Rolex Macro Shot Of The Day Rolex GMT Master: Reference 16710

...Rolex Macro Shot Of The Day...

Rolex GMT Master 
Reference 16710