...Rolex Studio Shot Of The Day... YACHT-MASTER 40MM: 18KT Everose Gold
OysterFlex Bracelet
I have to say the more I look at the EverRose Gold Yachtmaster on an OysterFlex bracelet, the more I like it. I think I might be falling in love with the beautiful look of this Rolex masterpiece.
I think my newfound love for this Yacht-Master has something to do with the fact the Rolex logo and chapter ring have a gilt dial look, and I also really like the single red YACHT-MASTER dial designation—or something like that...
Summer is almost here in the United States, which conjures up images of beach fun, barbecue and some good old-fashioned country music, so I thought it would be fun to take a look back at Glen Campbell who passed away a seven years ago in 2017.
Legendary Country musician and former Beach Boy, Glenn Campbell passed away at age 81 in Nashville, Tennessee. Glenn had an amazing career that lasted more than a half century, and he wore a Rolex Day-Date to keep the time of his life. Glenn Campbell unfortunately developed Alzheimers toward the end of his life...
Glen Campbell is pictured below in 1969 wearing a watch that looks like Rolex Big Crown Submariner, but I have not been able to see enough detail to make a positive ID.
Glen Campbell is pictured below on the cover of his 1984 album titled, "Letter To Home".
On the album cover below for Glen Campbell's album titled Arkansas, which was released in 1975, we see him proudly sporting his Rolex Day-Date with a champagne dial.
Glenn Campbell's daughter, Ashley Campbell posted the photo below on her Facebook page just after her father passed away and said:
"Heartbroken. I owe him everything I am, and everything I ever will be. He will be remembered so well and with so much love." —Ashley Campbell
It appears in the photo above that Glenn Campbell's daughter, Ashley Campbell is wearing his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date. Below we see a video of Ashley Campbell and her father Glen Campbell in 2012 playing Dueling Banjos, with Glen on guitar.
In the video below we see Glen Campbell and Roy Clark playing 'Ghost Riders In The Sky'. Glen Campbell and Roy Clark were to of the best country guitar players in history.
Beach Boys
1964-1965
Glen Campbell (pictured below on the left) toured with the Beach Boys in 1964 and replaced Brian Wilson.
Glen Campbell was a session guitarist for the Beach Boys, and he played on hits such as Fun, Fun, Fun, and Dance, Dance, Dance. He also played on Pet Sounds. Glenn Campbell is pictured below with Carl Wilson.
Glenn Campbell is pictured below on the far right with The Beach Boys.
Glenn Campbell was good friends with Elvis Presley, and is pictured below with Elvis and Pricilla Presley.
In the video below which originally aired on May 25, 1981, we see Glen Campbell performing one of his biggest hits, "Rhinestone Cowboy", and he is wearing his trademark Rolex Day-Date.
In the video below recorded live in Dublin on May 1, 1981 Glen Campbell covers David Loggins song "Please Come To Boston" which is an amazing song.
In the photo below, we see Glen Campbell on State with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, during performance by the Highwaymen.
I was talking to my good pal, Stan Barrett and he mentioned he read this Glen Campbell story and enjoyed it very much. He said he thought it was very thorough and comprehensive. Then he said, "But I think you left out a key video". I asked Stan which video that was, and he mentioned that it was the last song Glen Campbell recorded and it was called "I'm Not Gonna Miss You". Then Stan warned my and said, "If you watch the video it will probably make you cry." It did :-(
Stan Barrett also mentioned he once met Glen Campbell back in June of 1964, which was just before Glen joined the Beach Boys. He recalled that Glen Campbell was a really nice guy and mentioned that he recalled that Glen really began his career doing demos for songs.
I just discovered the video below which is amazing as we see Glen Campbell sing an acoustic version of Southern Nights, and notice he is wearing his yellow gold Day-Date.
I visited Hearst Castle located in San Simeon, on the Central California coast and took this photo of the Rolex Explorer II "Orange Hand" in front of the stunning swimming pool.
The main outdoor swimming pool at Hearst Castle is a masterpiece of ancient Greek splendor...
Hearst Castle is located on top of a remote mountain range located on California's central coast.
Hearst Castle is a super fascinating place to visit and take tours. It's otherworldly and surrealistic in an Eagle's Hotel California kind of way...
If you take the tour of William Randolph Heart's private residence, which was located up in the top of the Hearst Castle tower, he had a private library where he would work on editing all of his newspapers and magazines.
Located outside his private library there is a Newspaper stand, where he would have his daily newspapers flown in from all over the United States as we witness in the photo below.
In this last photo we see William Randolph Hearst's Gothic style private library located at the top of the tower at Hearst Castle.
One of my favorite things on Jake's Rolex World is when I discover a really cool vintage Rolex advertisement that was previously undocumented, and that is the case with this beauty that appeared in Vogue Magazine in 1974. I LOVE THIS AD, which features a cool Pucci outfit, and a model who kind of looks like Princess Diana—doesn't she!?!!
I recently learned J. Walter Thompson was responsible for somewhere around 90% of Rolex magazine ads during the 1970s and 1980s, so if you sense a British sensibility vibe in Rolex ads from that era this would explain it.
I plan to continue covering Watches and Wonders until I have nothing left to say or share, so stay tuned for more insight, conjecture and opinion. Rolex FINALLY did it!!! They got rid of the Yacht-Master II—at Watches and Wonders 2024—which historically was my least favorite modern Rolex. Although there were some cool characteristics, like being the only other Rolex Chronograph beside the Daytona, I could just never get into the Yacht-Master II.
I would go so far as to say the Rolex Yacht-Master II, was the most un-Rolex, Rolex, in the sense it didn't really look like a Rolex. The Yacht-Master definitely had a sporty vibe, but I could never get used to how it said "YACHT-MASTER II" on the bezel, which seemed just plain silly to my way of thinking...Kind of like dudes back in the 1990s who would wear jackets with a yuuuugee red, white and blue, TOMMY HILFIGER logo running across the front of it, or even like MEMBERS ONLY jackets from the 1980s.
The Yacht-Master II was launched in the late Patrick Heiniger era, and alway kind of seemed out of place. It was designed to time sailing regattas, but the question is, 'Who times sailing regattas with a wrist watch!?!!' [Said with Seinfeld accent :-]
The only dude I can think of that I ever saw rocking the Yacht-Master II, and lookin good was Scott Eastwood, who is pictured below.
Rolex is enriching the Day-Date range with new versions of the Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 40 and the Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 36 showcasing finely worked dials.
Ombré dials make their debut on the Day-Date 40. The version presented, in 18ct Everose gold, introduces slate ombré – a completely new hue for such a dial, whose surface, coloured at the centre, progresses to a deep black around the edge.
Fashioned from 18ct white gold, a second new version of the Day-Date 40 features a dial made of pearlized white mother-of-pearl.
The Day-Date 36 proposes a dial with faceted, deconstructed Roman numerals and faceted index hour markers, which were until now exclusive to the Day-Date 40.
A new variant of the Day-Date 36 in 18ct yellow gold reveals a white lacquer dial complemented by these now-emblematic hour markers with their perfect geometrical forms and uniformly smooth and shiny surface.
For the first time, the Day-Date 36 in 18ct Everose gold sports a blue-green dial which is adorned with ten baguette-cut diamonds.
This dial of remarkable depth and intensity is notably available on a version of the watch whose bezel is set with 60 trapeze-cut diamonds.
Day-Date 40 and Day-Date 36 models are equipped with calibre 3255, a movement at the forefront of watchmaking technology, enabling them to display the day and the date, as well as the hours, minutes and seconds.
Spring is here and summer is around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, and below we see a cool beach wrist shot of the Tudor Chronograph which is arguably represents the first Tudor model that relaunched the Tudor brand, and set the benchmark for the retro-future of the brand...BTW: I LOVE the design of this Tudor model, and think it's really cool...
I have noticed in my life, that most people who wear Rolex are conversationalist, in the sense they enjoy having or observing great conversation. Joe Rogan recently met for the first time and spoke with Tucker Carlson and they had a brilliant conversation, which should not come as a surprise from two men who are both wearing Rolex watches.
Joe Rogan is rocking his D-Blue DEEPSEA, and Tucker is rocking his two-tone Datejust on a Jubilee Bracelet. They even show some footage of Alex Jones, rocking his Submariner, and like with many long conversations, it gets really deep and profound toward the end, particularly what they begin discussing just after 2:33:00.
Now that the Watches and Wonder show has ended in Geneva, Switzerland, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back in the rear-view mirror at some of the novelties Rolex introduced and share my insight with you.
Grey &BlackGMT Bezel
A New Point of Differentiation
Rolex recently introduced a new GMT-Master bezel insert model variant at Watches and Wonder 2024—in Geneva, Switzerland—which features a Black and Grey Bezel insert. When a bezel features a 50/50 split bezel like the Rolex GMT-Master historically has, it is commonly referred to as a First Quarter Moon bezel design, or a Half Moon Bezel design.
I believe Rolex created this color combination as a potential replacement for the standard all black GMT-Master II bezel insert model they discontinued several years ago. I assume this model is for people who prefer a much more subtle and low-key color combination, as apposed to the much bolder, colorful, popping Pepsi, Batman, and Sprite GMT-Master Models.
It is worth noting the all-black bezel Rolex GMT-Master was the very first Rolex model to be introduced with a ceramic bezel insert, which was introduced in 2005. That first model came in the form of a yellow gold GMT-Master II Reference 116718.
Next, Rolex came out with the all-black Cerachrom bezel on the stainless steel Rolex GMT-Master Reference 116710LN. After Rolex introduced the new stainless steel "Pepsi" GMT-Master with the red and blue bezel, the surprised everyone by discontinuing the all black bezel GMT-Master, and now we might have a clue as to why:
Frame Of Reference
I remember talking with T. Walker Lloyd, back in 2008, who was a former long time Rolex USA employee, and he said that back in the mid to late 1960s many commercial airline pilots complained about the Pepsi GMT-Master saying it didn't look serious enough, or looked too Fisher-Price, which explains why Rolex eventually introduced a black bezel GMT-Master variant around 1967-1968. In the photo below we see Gunter Sachs rocking his all black dial GMT-Master back in 1968, which is one of the first known photos I am aware of that shows somebody wearing the all black bezel GMT-Master variant.
The great challenge with the all black dial GMT-Master is that it looked so similar to the Submariner, that it regularly confused customers at retail, in a "You can have any color you want, as longs as it is black"—kind of way.
Also, for many years the GMT-Master had a much smaller winding crown than the Submariner, but with the advent of the Reference 116710LN family they showed up clad with supercases—and more importantly—the exact same JUMBO Big Crown, winding crown that the Submariner models historically featured, so now more than ever they looked almost like identical twins.
The image above appears courtesy of Bob's Watches and shows how similar the Submariner and all black Rolex GMT-Master Bezel Insert looked several years ago, when they both had supercases and Big Crowns.
Beautifully Boring
One could argue, this super low-key Rolex GMT delivers on the original promise of what a professional looking, or perhaps serious looking pilots watch would look like. Or one could argue the new black and grey bezel GMT-Master II is like a naturally beautiful woman wearing no makeup, or lipstick, with plain fingernails, who is wearing a very plain professional business suit. Contrast that with a Pepsi GMT-Master II, which is like the same naturally beautiful woman all dolled up, with perfect warpaint (makeup), high gloss red lipstick, with matching red fingernails, wearing a form fitting yoga outfit :-)
As uneventful as a grey and black bezel insert may seem, it appears Rolex finally found a way to create a meaningful point-of-differentiation with this new model, that now lives up to the purpose of a split in half bezel insert, whereby the top hours represent nighttime and the bottom represents daytime. Basically, Rolex discontinued the all black GMT-Master bezel model years ago, and have now replaced it with the black and grey bezel variant as pictured below as shown on both Rolex Oyster and Rolex Jubilee trademark bracelets.
I recently was talking with Captain Danny about the new GMT-Master and he said he was surprised that Rolex has not yet replaced the SuperCase with the much more old-school, retro, streamlined case like Rolex updated with the the Single Red SEA-DWELLER as well as with the newest Submariner, which is a pretty profound point if you think about it.
My understanding is Rolex used to have a physical museum located in Geneva that was open to the public. If memory serves me correctly, it was located in a home in Geneva. One day, many years ago, Rolex closed the museum and moved all of its contents into a private museum collection in Geneva, located in Rolex's private archives. For years, I have wished Rolex would created a new Rolex museum, similar to the Patek Philippe Museum, located in Geneva, Switzerland, which is a masterpiece in and of itself. If you are ever in Geneva, be sure to visit the Patek Philippe Museum.
I can see the future Rolex Museum in my minds eye. It would be located in Downtown Geneva, on Lake Geneva, and the building would be in the shape of an enormous Rolex five point crown, but only from a top-down satellite view.
The bottom of the crown would contain the museum itself, and would be similar to the Guggenheim Museum in New York in the sense visitors would take an elevator up to the fifth (top) floor, then descend down a continuous circular ramp, and see exhibition pieces all over the outer walls as well as Rolex watchmakers working on actual Rolex watches. If guest walked over to the inner walls, they would be able to look up to a huge glass ceiling or down to the basement level.
The center of the building would be open so you could see the roof from any place in the museum, and there would be a basement floor that would have a large water feature that looks like beach, and it would have Jacques-Yves Cosuteau's Calypso floating in it, where visitors could come on board and explore the great historic ship.
There would be a coffee store/cafe in the basement that would constantly bake cinnamon buns, so the entire Rolex Museum would always smell great. The five circles of the Rolex Coronet crown would have meeting rooms, for special Rolex events and training. I think if Rolex creates such a museum it would be like Disneyland for Rolex watch fans, and would become an international tourist destination where people could get a heaping helping of the Rolex Experience at it's finest.
Unfortunately my idea does not exist yet, but at Watches and Wonders 2024, Rolex put together what appears give us a glimpse into what an actual Rolex Museum might look like. The superb image below appears courtesy of Jason Heaton, via our Captain Danny's Coronet Rolex blog and shows the Rolex GMT-Master Exhibition.
People have already come up with nicknames for the new GMT-Model including The Dark Knight, and the Bruce Wayne. I think what was MUCH more interesting was the super cool Rolex GMT-Master History Exhibition, which was open to all attendees. Cameron from Craft and Tailored took all these superb photos of the GMT-Master Exhibition so we can get an idea of what it looks like.
Rolex also showcased many historically significant Rolex GMT-Master models, including the one below that belonged to one of the early pioneering Pan Am Pilots.
Cameron took the photo below that showcased the history of the differently Rolex GMT-Master Movements begging back in 1955, and moving up to current date.
The image below Shows the raw material elements that make up the pigments and ceramic material that Rolex refines into their Pepsi Bezel insert, which is totally fascinating!!!
Rolex put together this super cool all-new Rolex GMT-Master History video that offers some significant Rolex History puzzle pieces, which is really cool.
Stuart Roosa
Apollo 14 Commander
The entire Apollo 14 team which consisted of Alan Shepard (center), Stuart Roosa (left) and Dr. Edgar Mitchel (right) all wore Pepsi GMT-Master models as their personal watches.
NASA Apollo Astronaut, Stuart Roosa took this super cool photo of his Pepsi GMT-Master aboard the Apollo 14 Mission and profoundly wrote "MY GMT MASTER 200,000 MILES FROM GENEVA" —Stuart Roosa, APOLLO 14".
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.
