The Complete History Of Rolex Conquering Mount Everest [Part 8 of 8]

The Complete History

Rolex Conquers Mount Everest

[Part 8 0f 8]

Son's of Everest Return

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest, National Geographic filmed a documentary that featured Sir Edmund Hillary's son, Peter Hillary, and Tenzing Norgay's son, Jamling Norgay.

Jamling, Norgay is pictured above lighting incense as a tribute to his father Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on the 50th anniversary of their famous climb. Jamling is wearing a Rolex Pepsi GMT Master.

Jamling Norgay (pictured above) and Peter Hillary (pictured below) were interviewed on the Charlie Rose show about their return to Everest. Jamling and Peter had both already climbed to the summit of Mount Everest before the National Geographic special.

For the 50th Anniversary special, Peter Hillary climbed to the top of Everest for the second time in his life and using a satellite photo, called his father, Sir Edmund Hillary in New Zealand to tell him he had safely made it to the top.

Rolex was an official sponsor for the 50th anniversary climb and Peter Hillary can be seen in the photo above and below wearing his white dial Rolex Explorer II, which I am officially dubbing today as "The Peter Hillary Explorer."

The DVD from National Geographic

Legacy

Sir Edmund Hillary returned to Nepal, and he asked a Sherpa what he could do to help them. The Sherpa responded by saying, "Our children have eyes, but they cannot see."

From that point forward, Hillary dedicated his life to raising money to build schools and hospitals for the people of Nepal. He built a total of 20 schools and 4 hospitals. Hillary also got remarried years after his first wife died.

The photo below is of the Sir Edmund Hillary monument located at the base of one of his favorite peaks to climb named Aoraki / Mount Cook located in the South Island of New Zealand..

The image below is of the Tenzing Norgay monument, which is located at the base of Mount Everest.

Tenzing and Hillary remained lifelong friends. In Tenzing's later life he suffered from depression because he was extremely famous, but he had very little financial wealth. Tenzing passed away in 1986 at the age of 71.

Together, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay looked down upon the earth from a view nobody had ever seen before. Together they changed the world and will always be remembered as pioneering explorer's who conquered the unconquerable.

"Why make a fuss over something that's done anyway? I was never one to obsess about the past. To much to do in the future!" –Sir Edmund Hillary

Table Of Contents

• Chapter 1: It Was A Very Good Year

• Chapter 2: The Roof Of The World

• Chapter 3: Onward And Upward

• Chapter 4: Man Versus Mountain

• Chapter 5: Worldwide Celebration

• Chapter 6: The Rolex Explorer

• Chapter 7: The Rolex Watches

• Chapter 8: Return To Everest (You Are Here)

The Complete History Of Rolex Conquering Mount Everest [Part 7 of 8]

The Complete History

Rolex Conquers Mount Everest

[Part 7 0f 8]

Tenzing Norgay's Watches

This next photo is from Life magazine was taken during the descent from the top of Mount Everest in a low camp. Tenzing is wearing a watch he may have worn to the Summit of Everest. Tenzing Norgay received a Rolex as a gift from Swiss Expedition climber Raymond Lambert after he and Raymond Lambert almost reached the summit of Everest the year before in 1952 but I have not way of confirming the watch pictured below is the same watch.

I think I may have discovered the type of Rolex watch Tenzing was wearing in the photo above. It is called a Rolex Royalite and it is from the 1940s. I found the watch pictured below on www.Oysterwatch.com and they say it has an "Original bamboo style bonklip bracelet."

Just for the record, I am not saying I think Tenzing's model is a Rolex Royalite, per se, I think the watch could be some kind of Rolex Oyster from that era. If you study the vintage Rolex Oyster's from that era, you notice Rolex made a zillion different models with all kinds of interesting and disparate nomenclature.

The photo below of Tenzing was taken high on the mountain and I am relatively certain he is wearing the same watch as pictured above. I have also seen two other photos of him that are not in this article where he is wearing the same stainless steel watch with a stainless steel bracelet.

This next photo of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay was taken in a press conference in London, after they completed their successful climb.

Notice in the photo that Tenzing is wearing a different watch on a leather strap. According to James Dowling and Jeff Hess' book, The Best of Time, Rolex has, in its possession, Tenzing's Rolex that he wore up to the top of Everest.

In this next photo, taken on the same day as the photo above we see Tenzing wearing two different watches–one on each wrist. I don't know why he would be wearing two watches at the same time when he is not climbing? It could be that one watch was keeping local time in England and one was keeping time in Nepal?

In the photo below, again you see Tenzing holding up the Union Jack while Sir John Hunt looks on. This photo confirms Tenzing was wearing two watches.

Edmund Hillary's Watches

When I first wrote this story looking for evidence of Sir Edmund Hillary wearing a Rolex on Everest I watched the classic documentary that showed Hillary coming down the hill from the summit, then it cuts to the scene below. When I originally saw this I mistook the climber from the British Expedition on the right for Hillary, which was incorrect.

This next photo of Hillary (pictured on the left) shows him in the foothills with just one watch on a black leather strap.

Same with this next photo. One watch on his left wrist.

Watches Worn On Everest Conclusion

I must say I have really enjoyed researching and writing this amazing story, but I must also tell you that I am a bit frustrated. I shared my findings with you and I am not able to find anything conclusive that proves that Hillary, Tenzing or Hunt wore Rolex watches on the successful Mount Everest Expedition.

I wish I could show you a photo of Hillary, Tenzing or Hillary unequivocally wearing a Rolex but I can't find one. I don't pay much attention to the myths that have been handed down, because in my experience, most of them have proven to be just that—myths. As far as I am concerned, I don't believe until I can see with my own eyes.

I believe Rolex of Geneva would be in the best position to separate the fact from the fiction on this issue.

We clearly see Rolex was all over the Everest bandwagon long before Tenzing and Hillary conquered Everest. I say this because we see Rolex "Everest" Models going back to the 1930s and 1940s.

In the Rolex document from the Horological Journal dated September 1953 (pictured above in this watch section) Rolex enumerates the 15 historic Himalayan expeditions in which Rolex Oyster watches were worn.

In the Rolex brochure from 1966 (pictured above in this watch section) Rolex published direct quotes from Sir John Hunt, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay that suggest all three wore Rolex watches up to the top of Everest.

Once again, I wish I could offer you more concrete proof and hopefully in the future I will dig it up, or Rolex or somebody else will step forward with the few missing pieces of the Rolex Everest watch puzzle and solve the mystery once and for all. Until then it will remain a mystery.

In the recent photo of Sir Edmund Hillary before he passed away you can see he was wearing his two-tone Rolex Oyster Quartz...That means he wore Rolex for at least 55 Years.

Sir Edmund Hillary also served as a judge on Rolex' panel of judges for their Enterprise awards.

1957 Rolex Mount Everest Ad

Update: In November of 2009, I discovered this Rolex Ad from 1978 that further confirms that Sir Edmund Hillary indeed wore a white dial Rolex Oyster when he conquered Mount Everest.

It Was A Very Good Year

1953 was a good year for Rolex. In 1953 Jacques Piccard set a depth record when he took a Rolex Deep Sea Special down off the coast of Italy in the Bathyscaphe, Trieste. It is profound in my mind that in 1953 both Hillary and Piccard broke world records with Rolex and they both passed away in 2008.

Table Of Contents

• Chapter 1: It Was A Very Good Year

• Chapter 2: The Roof Of The World

• Chapter 3: Onward And Upward

• Chapter 4: Man Versus Mountain

• Chapter 5: Worldwide Celebration

• Chapter 6: The Rolex Explorer

• Chapter 7: The Rolex Watches

• NEXT>>> Chapter 8: Return To Everest

The Complete History Of Rolex Conquering Mount Everest [Part 6 of 8]

The Complete History

Rolex Conquers Mount Everest

[Part 6 0f 8]

The Rolex Explorer

It has always been a huge mystery as to when Rolex made the first Rolex Explorer. The common belief was that it was fist made in 1953, but Christie' auction house recently had an auction on November 17, 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland where they sold the Rolex Explorer (pictured below). According to Christie's, this white dial Rolex Explorer has a reference number of 6098, and was made in 1950. [Lot 344]

The photo above is unusual because Rolex did not make many Rolex Explorer models with the white dial. The black dial variants as seen below is by far and away the more popular version.

In the third edition of James Dowling and Jeff Hess' book, The Best of Time, on page 243 the photo of the watch below appears. The description reads:

"The earliest known Explorer, although, in fact, it does not have the word Explorer on the dial. This is one of the watches worn on the John Hunt Expedition which succeeded in conquering Everest at the end of May, 1953."

On page 241 of the same book it says:

"One of the watches worn on that expedition was auctioned by Sotheby's London on July 19, 1988 as lot 117 (see photograph on page 243). As you can see the watch was a classic early Explorer down to the Mercedes hands, except for the absence of the word Explorer on the dial. The shape of the watch (and the description by Sotheby's as a Bubble-Back Explorer) leads us to believe the watch is in fact a model 6350."

When most people think of a Rolex Explorer, they think of a watch that looks like the one below.

Photo Credit: Tom Vox

The next two images show a Rolex Explorer brochure from 1966 and include quotes from Sir John Hunt, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

Pictured below is a more recent Rolex Explorer Ad that features Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay near the summit of Mount Everest.

The Rolex Explorer II

The photo below is of a Rolex Explorer Mark II which added a 24 hour bezel and an orange hand for tracking 24 hour time.

Photo Credit: Eric Ku

The advertisement below is for the Rolex Explorer Mark II pictured above. The "Mark II" designation comes from the Rolex ad below. Notice at the bottom of the ad the text under the photo of the watch that reads "Pictured: the Rolex Explorer Mark II in stainless steel."

The Explorer II

Years later Rolex replaced the Rolex Explorer Mark II orange hand with an all new version with a red hand.

Photo Credit: Morten

The next photo shows the Rolex Explorer II with a white dial. The white dial variation is unique in the sense that its indices and hands are black. This is the same watch that is seen on Peter Hillary's wrist on top of Mount Everest on the 50th anniversary of the his father conquering Mount Everest.

The Everest Watches

There is a very interesting history behind the lagacy of Mount Everest and wrist watches. Rolex seemed to be historically pre-occupied with Everest because they made watch models that were named Everest. If I understand it correctly, they primarily made the Everest model watches for the Canadian market.

In order to understand where the Rolex Explorer watches came from let's take a look at the older Rolex Everest watches and Rolex Explorer watches. I believe these first Rolex Everest watches are from the 1930s and 1940s:

Above Photo Credit for Rolex Reference 6098: Meffi

This next Rolex is a Rolex Explorer Date:

Above Photo Credit for Rolex Reference 5505: Canadian Oyster Watcher

The Real Mount Everest Watch Mystery

There is a very strange mystery surrounding what watches were worn by whom on Everest. In 1953 there was a British watch company named Smiths Watches (Smiths watch pictured above) that went out of business many years ago, that ran the ad seen below. The strange thing is that it does not say Sir Edmund Hillary wore the watch up to the summit, but that he "carried" it to the summit. If he wore it, he would have said he wore it...I think!?

Update: CDA sent in the two following images that were taken at the Clockmaker's Museum in London. The first image shows Sir Edmund Hillary's Smiths watch that he donated to the Clockmakers's Museum and the second image is a close-up of the description. Thank you very much for sharing CDA!!!

Next we have the following Rolex ads that seem to suggest somebody from the Mount Everest expedition wore Rolex watches. It is difficult to separate the fact from the fiction, but I will give it my best shot. I have heard many rumors over the years. I heard that Hillary wore a Rolex. I heard that Tenzing wore a Rolex that Rolex has in their private collection.

This next Rolex Explorer magazine advertisement could have only run between late 1953 and late 1958. It is interesting to note in the ad there is no photo of a the Rolex Explorer watch that is being advertised, either by itself, or on the wrist of either Hillary, Hunt or Norgay:

This Next ad is from the Horological Journal from September of 1953 and sheds substantial light on Rolex Everest Expedition History.

This next Rolex Advertorial was published 3 days after Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Everest.

Table Of Contents

• Chapter 1: It Was A Very Good Year

• Chapter 2: The Roof Of The World

• Chapter 3: Onward And Upward

• Chapter 4: Man Versus Mountain

• Chapter 5: Worldwide Celebration

• Chapter 6: The Rolex Explorer

• Next>>> Chapter 7: The Rolex Watches

• Chapter 8: Return To Everest