Saturday, December 17, 2022

The World of Rolex

 

The WORLD of ROLEX

     

 "History may not repeat itself, 

but it sure does rhyme."

I was recently having a conversation with a friend of mine who asked me about how and why I started Jake's Rolex World @RolexMagazine.com? 

Earlier JAKE'S ROLEX WORLD @RolexMagazine.com Header pictured above

I will share the story with you: 15 years ago, when I started blogging about Rolex I needed a name, so I came up with "JAKE'S ROLEX WORLD" as I had so many fascinating anecdotes I wanted to share about my experiences with the Rolex brand. It's funny, because I almost didn't start my Rolex blog, as I thought to myself: "I LOVE Rolex, but I'm worried I might quickly run out of content as Rolex really only makes 5-6 trademark models!?!!" Thankfully I threw caution to the wind and started blogging like a mad man.

I created the slogan of "Exploring the Wonderful World of Rolex", and in retrospect I think it kind of reminded me of "The Wonderful World of Disney", which I remember from my childhood. Today my slogan reads: "Exploring The Perpetual World Behind The Crown", which to my way of thinking is a bit more Rolexy...


Speaking of funny, I am 56 years old today, and I mentioned to my friend that if somehow we were able to go back in time 20 years ago, when I was 36 years old, and bring me to today and show me, 'here you are in 2022 going on 2023, and you started a website named Jake's Rolex World @ RolexMagazine.com', I probably would have responded and said something like: "Are you Sure????!!!!! I think you must have the wrong Jake..." 

In my craziest dreams I don't think I ever would have thought I would go on to become the world's leading Rolex historian, but that is the way it's worked out, and the truth is that I am still madly in love with capturing and sharing my insight on Rolex with my readers...And I can assure you that the BEST IS YET TO COME...


Reality is Stranger Than Fiction

Another supreme Irony is Rolex used to publish a precursor to The Rolex Magazine named "The World of Rolex", and we see the title cover of the front page pictured above from an issue published in 1995. For the record—to the best of my recollection—I never knew this publication existed, and only discovered it several years ago, and I was like 'Wow!!! What an amazing coincidence!?!!' It turns out it is a small world after all...

One of my favorite quotes sums it up perfectly:

        “The vision recurs; the eastern sun has a second rise; history repeats her tale unconsciously, and goes off into a mystic rhyme; ages are prototypes of other ages, and the winding course of time brings us round to the same spot again.”  

—Mystic Rhyme 1845



One More ROLEX WORLD

The precursor to the publication mentioned above was another Rolex Magazine named ROLEX WORLD, and we see the cover of the April 1975, which was No 4.




Paper v. Digital

When I look at the pages from the Rolex World Magazine from 1975, I can't help but think about how back then it was a paper only world, and despite this fact Rolex still prints a biannual The Rolex Magazine which is paper, I publish Jake's Rolex World online only 365 days a year, only digitally on the web...






When a man has a WORLD in his hands,

you expect to see a Rolex on his wrist...

From 1966 to 1968 Rolex featured an ad campaign that had a slogan that read "When a man has a world in his hands, you expect to see a Rolex on his wrist", and if you look at the Rolex Magazine ad below you see that slogan at the bottom.