Jean-Michel (from France) and his diving pal, Olivier are both wearing Rolex Sea-Dweller models in the two photos below. Who says Rolex watches are not still used as tool watches!?!
Jean-Michel is an geophysics engineer and he began his diving career when he was only 8 years old. Jean-Michel started collecting watches when he was 20 years old (He is 43 today) and he is extremely passionate about not only watches, but the history behind them.
Jean-Michel has an AMAZING diving website he maintains that has incredible diving photography as well as diving history and photos and information on his huge diving watch collection. Jean-Michel's site is in French, but if you don't speak French, I highly recommend just clicking around. You can see his site by clicking here.
Jean-Michel also maintains his own French diving forum that you can see by clicking here, as well as the Superb Omega-Speedmaster Mission website which you visit by clicking here, and the excellent Breitling Navitimer site which you can visit by clicking here.
Don Johnson wore many different Rolex watches on the 1980s hit show, Miami Vice and Marrk pointed out that some of the first episodes of Miami Vice are pretty good, so yesterday, I figured I would start Miami Vice Monday, since Monday alliterates with Miami.
It is hard to fathom Miami Vice debuted 25 Years ago!!! It is also interesting to note Miami Vice and Flipper were both filmed in Florida and if you think about it, Miami Vice is kinda like I Spy meets Flipper–you have a black and a white undercover cop who wear shoulder harness holsters under their jackets, running around Florida wearing Rolex watches. On Flipper they have a pet dolphin named Flipper and on Miami Vice Crockett has a pet alligator name Elvis.
Rolex "Presidential"
When I know characters in a TV series wore Rolex, I am always curious to see if they wore Rolex in the first episode from the first season–known as the pilot. In the pilot of Miami Vice, I was shocked to see how many characters wear yellow gold Rolex Day-Date models, also referred to as a "Presidential" or "Rolex President." As a matter of fact, in this episode, one of the characters refers to his Rolex Day-Date as "Presidential."
The star of the show is Don Johnson's character named Crockett and throughout the first episode, he wears a Rolex Day-Date as pictured below. At the time, in 1984, when Miami Vice deputed, Don Johnson was a very handsome actor and considered to be a major fashion plate with his dressy casual look.
Prior to this era in fashion, men never wore sports coats with T-shirts, but Don Johnson made that a very popular look along with his light colored pastel and white color palette.
In the photo above and below we see Don Johnson sporting his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date and in the photo above we also see Don with his casual look with the sunglasses hanging on his T-shirt when he is not wearing them.
In the photo below we see more of the T-shirt with the light colored pastel sport coat look. At the time, Don Johnson was considered to be the most G.Q. dude in the world.
In the photo below, we see Don Johnson in a restaurant with his partner Tubbs.
This next photo below of Don Johnson's wrist shows a close-up shot of his Rolex Day-Date.
In the next photo (below) another one of the characters is wearing a yellow gold Rolex Day-Date.
Ironically, on Miami Vice, both the good guys and the bad guys wear Rolex Day-Date models. The guy pictured below is the main kingpin that Crockett and Tubbs are after and as you can see, he is also wearing a yellow gold Rolex Day-Date.
The shot below is a close-up wrist shot of the kingpin pictured above.
Fashion Impact of Miami Vice
The photo below of Don Johnson is from a later season of Miami Vice and Don Johnson's character has changed from wearing Elvis style aviator sunglasses to Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses and he is also wearing a two-tone Rolex Datejust.
Ironically, Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses have become very popular again today. I know in a later season of Miami Vice, Don Johnson's character switches sunglass brands to Persol, which are probably the best made sunglasses in the world. Persol sunglasses are made in Italy and Persol makes their lenses from hardened crystal instead of glass, because crystal has better optical characteristics.
Amazing Soundtrack
Anther one of the amazing elements of the pilot was the soundtrack which features the Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, and Jan Hammer. When was the last time you saw a TV episode playing Rolling Stones music? Actually it was on the last season of the Sopranos.
Miami Vice Monday
Here is the full-length trailer for Miami Vice. I will post a new episode every Monday with screenshots if the show remains good. Back in the 80s I only saw a few episodes so it might be fun to watch and check out the Rolex watches. I must say that I thought this first episode was surprisingly good:
Speaking of Wayfarers, JFK is pictured below sporting his Ray Ban Wayfarers. Now that I think about it, Ray Ban Wayfarers are classic like a Rolex Submariner.
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.
