Vintage Rolex Ad: Pianist Sophie Mautner...

...Rolex Hotness...


Sophie Mautner

Award Winning Pianist

Studio Shot of the Day:1957 Rolex Chronograph

...Studio Shot of the Day...

1957 Rolex Chronograph

The Rolex Chronograph pictured below was made in 1957 and features dual scales on the dial in red and blue. It is amazing how many different looking models Rolex has made in its history!

Happy Thanksgiving from Jake

   

A Note from Jake

Happy Thanksgiving 

Hi Everybody!!!

It is hard to believe it is already Thanksgiving again on Jake's Rolex World!!! It has been another absolutely amazing year filled with growth and fascinating new Rolex historical content!!! I am now in my 17th year of publishing Jake's Rolex World and I still feel like I am just getting warmed-up with Rolex history. I have many, many more exciting pieces of the Rolex history puzzle to share with you in the future, as well as some major announcements coming up, including some REALLY cool new Rolex History stories, coming this holiday season, so be sure to stay tuned...

"The First Thanksgiving" painting by Jean Gerome Ferris (1863-1930)

2024 has been another "interesting" year for everybody—but nonetheless, I am very grateful to have so many great readers all over the world and I hope you have found some solace and inspiration in all the amazing Rolex history I have shared with you. So many of you have written in over the years to help correct my typos, as well as to share your valuable insight and enthusiasm, for which I am eternally grateful!

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday as it gives us a chance to pause and reflect on how fortunate we all are to be able to experience this amazing miracle, known as life, on this spinning marble we all share–named Earth.

I wish you all a great holiday season!!!

Warmest regards,

Jake ;-)

Rolex & Pan Am Travelling Through Time

Rolex & Pan Am
TRAVELLING THROUGH TIME
Nick Gould (@niccoloy) discovered this amazing Rolex film about the history of time. I love stuff like this, where it's literally like a Rolex time capsule.

DAYTONA METEORITE DIAL

DAYTONA METEORITE DIAL
ROLEX Meteorite dials are amazing, as each one is unlike any another. Each Rolex Meteorite dial is like a fingerprint—in the sense they all possess a unique pattern all their own. Rolex once beautifully described and waxed so poetically on this intrinsic characteristic:
METEORITE & BLACK DIAL
FROM ACROSS THE SOLAR SYSTEM
    "Meteorite comes from the heart of an asteroid or possibly even a planet that has exploded, propelling material across the Solar System until chance brings it into our planet’s orbit and gravity pulls it to Earth. During its journey, the centre of the meteorite is gradually transformed, producing highly unusual metallic patterns, resulting from the very slow cooling of molten asteroid cores. The designers at Rolex create from these configurations a unique treasure for some of the most prestigious models, including this Cosmograph Daytona." —ROLEX

1993 Rolex Datejust Manual Cover

1993 Rolex Datejust Manual Cover

Jon Jones: The Greatest Mixed Martial Arts Fighter of all Time Rocking His Rolex President...

Jon Jones

Greatest Mixed Martial Arts Fighter of All Time 

UFC Heavyweight Champion of the World

Does the Happy Trump Dance

I live blogged the 2024 Presidential Election a few weeks ago, which was pretty fascinating, as both President Biden and President Trump both own and wear Rolex watches. Last weekend, Jon Jones won his UFC Heavyweight match, with some pretty fascinating pomp and circumstance surrounding it. In the video below we see President Trump arriving at New York City's Madison Square Garden, doing a presidential election victory lap of sorts, which might seem reminiscent of Caesar being hailed after returning to Rome.

I was so focused on my Mike Tyson v. Jake Paul boxing match story, last weekend, I decided to delay this story, but it's absolutely fascinating...

Also, this past week, I covered Rolex's exclusive sponsorship of The Governors Awards, so I would argue there has simply been too much Rolex related news lately for me to cover in real time. It's safe to say there is never a dull moment in the world of Rolex watches, as it's a fact the sun never sets on the Rolex World as there is always something interesting going on around earth with people rocking Rolex—and this is just one of them.

A Night @ The Fights

President Trump has been traveling all over the United States since he won the 2024 Presidential Election with his dream team and it appears he has been on fire with planning out all the details of his new administration, which certainly have their work cut out for them if they want to get America back-on-track, and clean up the severe mess left behind by the Biden Administration. 

If you read that last statement I made and assume I am a Republican, you assumed wrong. I am politically agnostic. I am simply a human being that wants to see what's best for all of humanity, and the indisputable facts are the price of many things have doubled during the Biden Administration, including milk, bread, car insurance—you name it...This is terrible, especially for people on fixed budgets, like elderly, or people with larger families.

President Trump is pictured below with his dream team including Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr, and House Speaker, Mike Johnson. It's worth pointing out, like President Ronald Reagan before them, all four of the people pictured below on the left, were once Democrats (pun intended ;-) Now that I think about it, methinks RFK Jr. remains a Kennedy Democrat, which he argues has very little, if any, resemblance to the current Democratic Party. On a side note, I recall a conversation I had with President Reagan, back in the 1980s, where he said to me "I used to be a proud Democrat. As a matter of fact, I voted for FDR, all four times."

Strangest Bedfellows

American culture has long been a fan of pugilistic endeavors. Weekends in the U.S. for the past 250+ years have been entertained with prize fights, and last weekend the world saw an unmatched spectacle with President Trump holding court at the Jon Jones UFC fight. 

In the photo below we see President Trump flanked by RFK Jr., Dana White, Kid Rock and Elon Musk. Notice Kid Rock is rocking his Rolex President, Day-Date as he has his arm around Elon Musk.

The RFK Jr. / President Trump dynamic is super bizarre if you think about it. I mean, what strange bedfellows they make. RFK Jr. mounted a pretty courageous and effective presidential campaign himself against Trump in 2024, but then gave it all up to be a member of Trump's team, and of course we now know Trump appointed RFK Jr.,  Director of The United State Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is a very powerful position in the U.S. government, as the HHS controls the CDC, FDA, NIH, and all of America's Health System. The Directorship of HHS, is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. Federal government which was created to protect the health of the U.S. population, while providing essential human services.The HHS motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of American."

Just by having Elon Musk and RFK Jr., by his side, Trump has the opportunity to completely revolutionize and significantly overhaul the United States, which is a very exiting value proposition...

I am going to go out on a limb, and say methinks RFK Jr., perceives or relates to President Donald J. Trump, as he kind of reminds him of his Uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and thus he ultimately feels very comfortable in his presence, perhaps in the same way his father, RFK Sr., was totally loyal to his brother, JFK. 

If I told you the photo above was a photo of RFK Jr., with his uncle JFK taken in 2024, you might mistake Trump for JFK, in the sense Trump has the full head of hair, is tan (looking) with the big smile JFK had, along with the conservative suit style. The photo below, which appears courtesy of RFK Jr., shows him with his Uncle, President John F. Kennedy, who autographed the photo and said, "A President gets his advice from many sources."

President Trump is obviously NOT President Kennedy, but has a kind of similar vibe. Both came from families with self-made fathers that were really wealthy. The both part their hair on the left side. They both have big teeth, with big full smiles, and they both have a clean-cut ivy league style of dressing.

If somebody told you the man pictured below was the same man pictured above, 4 decades later, it would not seem that far-fetched.

    “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)

Jon Jones

Greatest Mixed Martial Arts Fighter of All Time 

Jon Jones fought Stipe Miocic in UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York, and basically knocked him out with a roundhouse back kick to the ribs, which will likely go down in history as one of the most iconic UFC moments.

Jon Jones set a new record as he became the first fighter in UFC history to successfully defend his title in three different title reigns. 

I was talking with my longtime pal, Michael Young, about the Jon Jones fight. Michael and I used to practice Karate together many years ago, and today he is an ardent student of Krav Maga, and Michael quipped:

    "Jon "Bones" Jones is a beast with a very dark history. His fighting IQ is the highest of anyone in history. He’s basically the GOAT because he trains and thinks differently than anyone else and there’s a fire in him just like a trained assassin. He has skills that are beyond anyone else that we have seen so far. As an example, Jones went up a weight class and won that as well, which is an extremely difficult thing to achieve...

I train in Krav Maga 3 days a week, and Jon Jones is somebody I study a great deal! I’m working on my spinning elbow because of him. When I saw him bend the knee to Trump I almost started crying. One of the greatest moments in sports!! Like bowing to Ceasar! I have never seen anything like that in my 61 years. That’s something you did 1000 years ago."

Then, much to everybody's surprise, Jon Jones did a Trump Happy Dance, which Joe Rogan thought was really funny.

Then Jon Jones proceeded to climb over the fence to shake hands with President Trump.

Jon Jones handed President Trump his UFC championship belt which we see Trump holding below, as to suggest he was America's champion. This was kind of ironic in the sense that just nine days earlier, Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27, which featured jokes from a comedian many people felt might turn-off voters and destroy Trump's election campaign.

Jon Jones fought the most decorated heavyweight in UFC history, and won, and in the images below we see President Trump giving Jones a congratulatory handshake.

Celebratory Meal After The Fights

Aboard Trump Force One

It's nice to see Trump and his A-Team of X-Men, decided to take a break from reinventing the American government on Saturday night, November 16th, 2024 as they decided to attend the UFC Heavyweight fight at Madison Square Garden.

In the photo below we see Trump with his team dining on McDonald's aboard Trump's Force One Airplane (pictured above) after UFC 309, and the look on RFK Jr's face is priceless...Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)...It's fascinating to note that Trump loves McDonald's and at age 78 seems to be perfectly healthy...If you closely examine the photo we see that Trump apparently had a Big Mac and a Fish Fillet, and Elon is having a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and 10 Chicken Nuggets...

Also, notice Trump has his iPhone sitting on the table in front of him. It's also extremely ironic, that Trump being a multi-billionaire could have the most fancy gourmet frou-frou food served on his highly customized Boeing 757 airplane, but instead choses to dine on simple McDonald's fast-food..

Jon Jones Rolex President

Below we see a photo of Jon Jones with Steve-O, and notice Jon is rocking his yellow gold Rolex President. This is the Rolex watch Jon Jones seems to wear most.

Below we see Jon Jones with Michael Strahan, who is also a big Rolex fan.

While Jon "Bones" Jones owns and wears multiple Rolex watches, it appears his daily driver watch is his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date "President", which he purchased back in 2013, which he photographed and proudly showcased on Instagram in his post.

Look Good, Feel Good

Jon Jones is a warrior and a man who not only thinks differently, but lives life on his own terms. He is in the same Pantheon as other legendary iconic athletic greats, including Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson, Reggie Jackson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Ted Williams—all of which chose to keep the time of their life rocking Rolex watches on their wrists.

Weekend Watching Codie Sanchez The Iced Coffee Hour

 Weekend Watching

Codie Sanchez 

 

The Iced Coffee Hour

It's always fascinating to listen to people rocking Rolex watches have a brilliant conversation and this one is filled with all kinds of brilliant insight from Codie Sanchez, who is a fascinatingly successful entrepreneur. 

New Release 2022: Day-Date 40 With Green Matte Dial

The Color of Money

Rolex Day-Date

With Green Lacquered Dial

By DANNY CRIVELLO

The thing about Rolex watches, is often times you fall in love with a model, and then you just can't seem to get her out of your head, and that's the case here...well actually it's more the dial...Rolex introduced this magnificent beauty at Watches and Wonders back in 2022, and at the time a few escaped the press releases though they had never been in the Rolex catalog before. And they deserve a mention. Check out Jake's story, for example, on his favorite release of 2022, a release that flew under the radar: The Datejust 41 blue fluted motif dial.

The Rolex that caught my eye at the time was the then new 40mm Day-Date in yellow gold⁠ with a lacquered green dial and gold Roman numerals which also escaped media coverage. I find the watch just absolutely beautiful. Long-time watch aficionado Kristian Haagen was able to try one on. This was a new 2022 model.

Photo Credit: Kristian Haagen

The yellow gold combined with this green dial reminds me a lot of the discontinued yellow-gold GMT-Master II. 

I find this new Day-Date beautiful; it's pure class and surely deserves to be highlighted.

Photo Credit: @Watchesbykell

Defying the Depths of Innovation

Defying the Depths of Innovation

Engineered to shine in the ocean depths. The Rolex Deepsea in 18ct yellow gold features a blue lacquer dial as well as a Cerachrom bezel insert in blue ceramic. A technical innovation, the high-performance compression ring of the Ringlock system is made of ceramic, which is also blue. The compression-resistance and anti-deformation properties of this high-tech material contribute to the waterproofness of the watch, guaranteed to the extreme depth of 3,900m (12,800ft). 

SUBMARINER: Timepiece Of Inner Space

SUBMARINER
Timepiece Of Inner Space

The photos below are of a Rolex Submariner brochure from the early 1970s that fascinatingly refers to the Rolex Submariner as "Timepiece of inner space." Inner space is an antithetical metaphor to outer space.

If you look closely at the inside of the Rolex brochure pictured below, you will notice it features a classic stainless steel Single-Red Rolex Date Submariner [Reference 1680] with Maxi Markers. Notice it does NOT feature solid end links (SEL), but the yellow gold version next to it does feature solid end links. The yellow gold Rolex Submariner was the very first Rolex sports watch to feature SEL.

Also, notice the yellow gold Rolex Submariner dial features "nipple" indices with matching yellow gold surrounds, which are much smaller than the classic "Maxi" indices, also commonly referred to as "Maxi Markers." Modern Submariner indices, or markers, evolved from these models. So today the 2019 Submariner has Maxi Markers with white gold surrounds. Nick Gould brilliantly observed: "The Gold Rolex Submariner [Reference 1680], was really the first luxury sports watch". 

Quincy Jones Honored at the 15th Governors Awards Presented Exclusively by Rolex...

Quincy Jones

Honored by Oscars Governors Awards

Sponsored by Rolex

Quincy Jones passed away earlier this month, and back on November 4, 2024 I published his obituary which appears in the second half of this story. It turns out that Quincy Jones was looking forward to attending the 15th Governors Awards presented by Rolex, which was an event which was exclusively sponsored by Rolex. In this first video, we see Quincy Jones daughter, Rashida Jones deliver his acceptance speech he wrote, as he planned to attend, just before he unfortunately passed away at age 91:

Legendary actor, Jamie Foxx also gave a speech about his relationship with Quincy Jones, and shares a fascinating anecdote about how Quincy helped him dial-in on playing Ray Charles.

Rolex decorated the Green Room Lounge for the Governors Awards, and did so in a most beautiful Rolex emerald green color way. Rolex also put together a beautiful microsite to showcase their involvement with the Governors Awards.

The Oscars also honored, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who are the children of James Bond, producer, Cubby Broccoli, who ended up taking over the James Bond franchise. Former James Bond actor, Daniel Craig presented Wilson and Broccoli with their award.

Quincy Jones

Lived 33,472 days

Now Belongs To The Ages

1933-2024

Yellow Gold Rolex GMT Master II

50th Anniversary Celebration Model with Green Dial

Reference 116718LN

I originally published my story on Quincy Jones back on September 23, 2018, when Netflix debuted what they referred to as the "Definitive Documentary" on Quincy Jones life, and it was AMAZING!!! Quincy sports his yellow gold Rolex GMT-Master throughout the documentary as seen below.

Quincy passed away yesterday at age 91, and was an international musical treasure whose career achievements as a composer and arranger remain unparalleled. Ironically, in his Netflix documentary, Quincy quipped, "You only live 26,000 days", which is around 70 years, but Quincy actually lived exactly 33,472 days—to be exact...

The screenshot below from the "QUINCY" documentary shows Quincy Jones playing the piano and on his left wrist we see his yellow gold Rolex GMT-Master and on his right pinkie, we see Quincy wearing Frank Sinatra's yellow gold pinkie ring he wore for 40 years until he passed away. The ring features Frank Sinatra's family crest from Sicily. Frank Sinatra left his pinkie ring to Quincy Jones who has been wearing it ever since.

Fly Me To The Moon
Quincy Jones arranged and conducted the music in the video below that features Frank Sinatra singing with Count Basie playing piano in 1965. This video is considered to be Frank's best performances of "Fly Me To the Moon." Fly Me To The Moon was the first song ever played on the moon—by Buz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 landing. At 9:00minutes into the video you can see Frank wearing his yellow gold pinkie ring as he introduces Quincy Jones.

Frank Sinatra gave Quincy Jones his nickname of "Q", and both men absolutely adored each other.

Quincy Jones produced Michael Jackson's album Thriller, is the best selling international album in history.

The Quincy Jones Documentary was directed and produced by one of Quincy's daughers and is AMAZING...

Quincy Jones learned how to play many different musical instruments when he was young and ended up focusing on playing the trumpet. Quincy (right) is pictured below with Dizzy Gillespie (center) back in 1955 in New York.

Photo above was taken by Herman Leonard in 1955 in New York City:

 Joe Gordon, E.V. Perry, Dizzy Gillespie, Carl Warwick & Quincy Jones,

Quincy Jones is pictured below with Dizzy Gillespie who is wearing his trademark Pepsi Rolex GMT-Master back in the 1960s.

It is kind of ironic that Quincy Jones is wearing a GMT-Master a half-century after the photo above was taken!

The screenshot below is from the QUINCY documenary and it shows Dizzy Gillespie wispering to country music legend Willie Neslon and notice Quincy Jones is wearing his yellow gold Rolex GMT-Master.

The wristshot below shows a straight on of Quincy Jones yellow gold Rolex GMT-Master.

Yellow Gold Rolex GMT Master II

50th Anniversary Celebration Model with Green Dial

Reference 116718LN

I have been publishing Jake's Rolex World for 11 years now, and in that time my banner has never changed, and if you look closely, on the right side you  will notice it features the 50th Anniversary Yellow Gold Rolex GMT-Master with the forsest green dial.

  Dr. Dre   

Dr. Dre is featured in the Quincy Jones documentary is a podcast recording session that takes place at Quincy's home in Bel Air, California and notice Dr. Dre is wearing his yellow gold Rolex Masterpiece Day-Date.

In the photo below from the Quincy documentary we see a screengrab from a video that was taken decades ago, which shows a young Dr. Dre sporting a yellow Gold Rolex President.