Saturday, October 25, 2008

NASA Apollo Astronaut Gene Cernan wearing a Rolex GMT...

I must thank John Towns for sending in this image of Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan wearing a Rolex GMT on the outside of his space suit. Spending time in the NASA archives is very time consuming and difficult for doing research. I refer to my pal John Towns as "Eagle Eyes" because he is so good at finding astronauts wearing Rolex watches. In the future we will be seeing more photos of NASA astronauts wearing Rolex that John found.

I must add that John Town's research prowess is a great source of inspiration for me. I don't know of any other NASA Rolex researchers who are so thorough and dedicated–except for myself :-)

More Rolex on NASA Apollo Astronauts

Click image for detail

This photo of Gene Cernan wearing a Rolex GMT Master on the outside of his suit is particularly fascinating. Why? Because we have seen many NASA Apollo astronauts wearing Rolex GMTs on their wrist but never have we seen a NASA astronaut wearing a Rolex on the outside of their spacesuit on a velcro strap.

If Omega was the official watch of NASA then I would argue that Rolex was the official watch of the NASA astronauts because we have seen so many photos of them wearing Rolex watches on Jake's Rolex Watch Blog.

I have much more fascinating Rolex on NASA Astronaut stories, photos and podcasts coming up!!!

Wrist Shot of the day: Pepsi GMT on a Jubilee...


Magnificent Moonlight Miles...


Miles Magnificent Moonphase

Miles from the Westmidlands in the UK sent in these beautiful images of his magnificent and very rare Rolex Moonphase Reference 6062 with the Rolex Super Oyster case.

Miles bought this beauty from the original owner and it came with all the original papers including the timing certification. The original owner was presented the watch for outstanding work by his company in 1952.

After purchasing this 6062 with the "Egyptian" dial he had it serviced to make is look as great as possible.

I asked Miles if he wears this beauty and he said that he wears it often.

You have to click on these images to check out the detail.


The reason this extremely rare dial is named The Egyptian Dial is because the indices are all pyramid shaped in one way or another and the hands are "dauphin" which is a sword shaped hand that was very popular in the 1950s. This style of design which is Art-Deco in the 1950s is commonly referred to as Populux.

The Rolex Super Oyster Case


Rolex referred to the special case on the 6062 triple-date Moonphase as the Super Oyster Case and if you click on the image above you can see the special engraving on the winding crown. This magnificent watch also came with a domed crystal.

Original Documentation

The original documentation and COSC certification is pictured below. Original documentation accompanying a Rolex that was made in 1951 is extremely rare. Since the watch was sold in 1951 if you look closely you see that on the COSC certification on the left at the bottom it has cities of the world where Rolex had headquarters and among the cities is Havana, Cuba. Talk about a 1950s watch!!!


If any Rolex designers or marketing personnel are reading this, please bring back this magnificent watch. In my opinion it is one of the most beautiful, elegant and timeless watches ever made.

NASA Astronaut Wally Schirra Wearing His Rolex GMT...


More Right Stuff and Rolex


Wally Schirra was one of the greatest NASA Astronauts in history. He began his NASA career as one of the Original 7 of the Mercury program where he flew his Sigma 7 on a six orbit mission. Then he flew on Gemini 6A with Tom Stafford, and next on Apollo 7.