Wednesday, May 31, 2023
40MM Rolex Day-Date Yellow Gold with Raised Roman Numerals
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
...The King Of Cool... Steve McQueen
I realize I may have gotten a little carried away with all my coverage of RFK Jr. but there are many reasons for this, the least of which is I want what is best for all of humanity and our planet, and it is crystal-clear to me that we need a health change. Nick Gould discovered and recently share this image with me of Steve McQueen at Le Mans, rocking his Submariner Reference 5512, along with his trademark Persol Sunglasses and Nikon F SLR.
The photo below we see Steve McQueen leaning against a Ferrari 512S, while taking photos with his Nikon F SLR camera with a big lens, and of course, he is wearing his Rolex Submariner.
Monday, May 29, 2023
The Real Anthony Fauci RFK Jr. Documentary
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Why I'll Only Wear Gold Rolex From Now On..
Monday, May 22, 2023
Brooks Koepka wins his 5th Major title at the 2023 PGA Championship
Sunday, May 21, 2023
Why New Rolex Watches Can Cost Thousands Less Than Used Ones The Economics Of | WSJ
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Arnold Schwarzenegger Yellow Gold Rolex GMT-Master
NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY
Yellow Gold Rootbeer GMT-Master
It doesn't just tell time


Monday, May 15, 2023
The Rolex China Sea Race: The Jewel of Blue Water Racing in Asia
Saturday, May 13, 2023
...An Open Letter to Sotheby's Auction House..
...An Open Letter to Sotheby's Auction House..
FAKE NEWS
Sotheby's Keeps Falsely Associating
Steve McQueen with Rolex Explorer II
Are auction houses trustworthy if they knowingly falsely associate a Rolex watch model with a celebrity who never wore such a model? As a leading Rolex historian and scholar it frustrates me to no end that auction houses worldwide keep falsely associating Rolex models with people who NEVER wore them!?!! In this case, Sotheby's AGAIN appears to be falsely associating the Rolex Explorer II with Steve McQueen in their upcoming Important Watches Part II Auction in Lot 214 on May 15, 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland.
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This is an open letter to Sotheby's Auction House:
Dear Sotheby's,
I am again formally bringing this false association to your attention and asking you to kindly fix this false association error. I acknowledge that perhaps you might have information that contradicts my premise of your false association, and if that is the case I invite you to contact me with such information that I will add to this story to refute my observation, and thus set the record straight.
If you are not able to produce evidence that associated Steve McQueen with the Rolex Explorer II, I request that you PLEASE REMOVE THE FALSE ASSOCIATION FROM YOUR UPCOMING AUCTION LOT, as doing so not only undermines your reputation as being an expert in the horological field, but also falsely perpetuates this FAKE NEWS myth.
I look forward to your response.
Jake Ehrlich
The Screenshot above from Sotheby's Auction House features a description
that states "Rolex. Explorer II 'Steve McQueen' Reference 1655."
Sotheby's Auction House is not alone in perpetuating this false Steve McQueen association as Antiquorum Auction House and Phillips Auction House, as well as others have done the same thing in the past. In all fairness, after I reached out to Phillips Auction House in the past and brought this false Steve McQueen association to their attention with an action lot they initially argued with me about, they reluctantly fixed it by removing the historically incorrect false association.
Just to be crystal-clear, it is a fact Steve McQueen wore multiple Rolex Submariner models during his lifetime, as evidenced in the photo below, but NEVER wore a Rolex Explorer.
Steve McQueen wearing his trademark Rolex Submariner Reference 5512
In the past I published a super detailed story named: "The Complete History Of Rolex Mythbusting: Separating Rolex Fact from Fiction", which specifically discusses the falsely perpetuated myth of the Steve McQueen Explorer.
Update 1: I reached out to Sotheby's and brought this open letter to their attention. It will be interesting to see if they respond?
Update 2: On our Instagram account, @WhiskeyRolex asked:
"What's the history to the nickname? Been Referred to that way for at least 25+ years of me being a watch enthusiast?"
I responded:
"@whiskeyrolex The best scholarship suggests an unscrupulous Italian auction house back in the 1990s wanted to try and get more money for Rolex Explorer ‘Orange Hand’ models at auction, and they saw how well the accurate ‘PAUL NEWMAN DAYTONA’ was performing, so they decided to try and do the same thing by falsely associating the Explorer with Steve McQueen.
Don’t forget this was in the pre/early internet days when they could get away with something so ridiculous. They kept falsely associating the watch and it caught on, so other auction houses saw the false association generating more $$$$$, so they followed in lockstep and perpetually followed in their footsteps.
BTW: They did the same thing by falsely associating the Triple-Date Rolex Chronograph with Jean-Claude Killy…"
Update 3: Somebody asked, "What about calling a Rolex GMT-Master a Batman or an LV Submariner a Kermit or Hulk?"
Those are nicknames made by watch enthusiasts in the collectors community based upon their color combination similarities, thus I have no challenge with them. Nobody thinks Kermit The Frog, Batman, Batgirl, or the Incredible Hulk wore an LV Submariner.
Falsely associating a celebrity with a Rolex model so you can sell it for more money at a public auction is different.
I will give you an example:
Let's say an auction house refers to a highland green 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback as a 'Bullit Mustang', or 'Steve McQueen Mustang', that might make sense as Steve McQueen famously drove such a car in the 1969 movie Bullit.
But what if an unethical auction house said, "Hey why don't we falsely associate Paul Newman with a 1966 Ford GT40 Mark II, which Paul Newman NEVER drove, and at auction started calling it the "Paul Newman GT40" that would clearly be an unethical false association!!!
Paul Newman wearing his trademark Rolex Daytona with
Exotic White Dial which is a Rolex Reference 6239 Chronograph
There really is something to be said for authenticity!!!
I rest my case your honor...
On a side note, the video below is what the auction houses remind me of in their relentless quest and unscrupulous pursuit for trying to make easy $$$$$$$$$$.
"Yeah, I have a Rolex Explorer II prototype for sale that my best friend, Steve McQueen wore his whole life!! Yeah! That's what happened! Then you know what happened next? 'Steveo' as I affectionately called him—in-fact—took it off his wrist and gave it to his favorite stuntman, who later gave it to me since I saved him from a pit viper snake attack!!! Yeah, that's what happened! That's the ticket!!! You bet it is...You can guarantee on that!" I'm not kidding you!:
Thursday, May 11, 2023
White Gold Rolex Daytona As Seen on Rolex.com in 2007
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Monday, May 08, 2023
Elon Musk and Franz von Holzhausen from Tesla wearing Rolex...

...Rolex Super Coolness...
Elon Musk
Tesla & Rolex Connections
I was talking to a friend of mine who is a serious Rolex expert and we were talking about how we were both in complete awe of Elon Musk's achievements. My pal said, "It's too bad Elon Musk never wore a Rolex, did he?" I agreed, and then he said, "Elon seems like he would be the kind of man who would wear a Rolex."
I responded by saying "I agree, and I have spent a lot of time studying photos of him, but unfortunately I never discovered evidence that he wore a Rolex :-( Then several weeks ago, much to my surprise, I FINALLY discovered multiple photos of Elon Musk rocking a Rolex.
The reason why it took me so long to discover photos of Elon Musk wearing a Rolex is it appears he wore a Rolex Datejust 30 years ago, back in 1994 when he was attending Queen's University college.
After I wrote this article, I later discovered a photo of Elon at Space X headquarters in California, taken in 2004, standing in front of an early Space X rocket, wearing his Rolex Datejust as seen below.
I have a funny anecdote to share with you. I was talking with our Captain Danny, and I shared my discovery with him that I had found images of Elon Musk wearing a stainless steel Rolex Datjust back in 1994, and I showed him the photos. Captain Danny said "Nice! Elon and you looked alike when you were young" and he included the images below of me, which was interesting as I responded to Captain Danny and said "I noticed that as well."
The photo below of me was taken when I was around 18, back in 1984, and I was rocking my stainless steel Rolex Datejust on a Jubilee bracelet, whereas in the photo above of Elon Musk clearly shows he was wearing his stainless steel Rolex Datejust on an Oyster Bracelet.
Elon is 5 years younger than I am, and I am proud, yet embarrassed to admit it, but I joined Twitter before Elon did... Obviously Elon is probably the most successful man in human history, and if not, he is certainly in that pantheon. Captain Danny included both the image above and below when he said Elon and I looked alike when we were younger. In the photo below taken in San Francisco in 1999 I was rocking my Coke GMT-Master.
Nick Gould discovered a photo of Elon Musk rocking his Rolex where we can finally see the face of his watch, and to my eyes it looks like he is wearing a Rolex Datejust, Thunderbird model as seen below.
Update on May 13, 2023: David is a fan of Jake's Rolex World and he sent in the two photos below along with a nice message:
Gday Jake
David down in Melbourne , Australia here. Thank you for the wonderful reading over many years that you have supplied. I've been on your blog since you started. You recently had a story on Musk wearing a Rolex . I watched a doco the other day about him and noted an oyster bracelet but cannot determine which model rolex he is wearing. The video is low res unfortunately. Attached is two screenshots. The best I could get I’m afraid. Thanks again for all your work.
Cheers
David
Back on April 8, 2022 I discovered the lead designer at Tesla, Franz von Holhausen rocking a vintage Paul Newman Daytona, so I thought I would add that story here.
Franz von Holzhausen
@ Giga-Texas launch April 6, 2022
Rocking a Paul Newman "Big Red"
I was working on a story for TeslaMagazine.org showcasing the Tesla Keynote for Giga-Texas and I think I discovered Tesla lead designer, Franz von Holzhausen rocking what certainly appears to be a vintage Rolex Paul Newman Daytona Big Red!?!! Assuming I made a correct positive ID, I wonder if he owns the Paul Newman's Daytona #2 that Paul Newman actually wore?
The video below is of Elon Musk's keynote for the launch of the brand spanking new Tesla Giga-Factory which is completely mind-boggling!!!!
