Keeping The Time Of His Life with a Rolex GMT Master
Who is the greatest Rock n' Roll band of all time? Led Zeppelin–of course!!! Or another way to put it, is that NOBODY ever rocked like Led Zeppelin, and I mean NOBODY!!! I would even go so far as to say that Led Zeppelin is in a class all by itself, just like Rolex is like no other watch. I am really excited to share this fascinating story with you, which has three amazing full-length Led Zeppelin concerts included at the end of the story.
John Paul Jones is a founding member of the Led Zeppelin and is considered to be one of the greatest and most innovative musicians alive today. John Paul Jones has always been really low-key, and kind of quiet, but a giant in the world of music.
John Paul plays many, many different instruments, and in Led Zeppelin he plays bass guitar and keyboards.
If we take a close look at John Paul Jones Two-Tone Rolex GMT Master, we can see it is definitely a vintage Rolex GMT with nipple indices, and a Jubilee bracelet. I saw a photo of him wearing it in 1977, and my best guess is that it was made in the early 1970s. He still wears it today, so we know he is in his fourth decade of wearing it–at least.
Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling, most innovative, successful rock bands is history. Not only is their music unlike anything else, it is otherworldly. All their songs are unusually long-form, and almost more like a hard Rock n' Roll symphony. It's also interesting to note, that despite being a British band, in many ways they seem a lot more American, which likely makes sense since they were so deeply influenced in their early day by American Rhythm and Blues.
John Paul Jones is pictured below sitting between fellow founding Led Zeppelin band members, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, in a photo taken in 1985 at the Live Aid concert, which represented the first time Led Zeppelin got back together for a reunion after they broke up in 1980, and you can see that John is wearing his two tone Rolex GMT-Master.
John Paul Jones is pictured below in in 1985 wearing his two-tone Rolex GMT-Master.
John Paul Jones is pictured below, chillin' backstage with Jimmy Page in 1977, and John Paul is wearing his Rolex GMT Master.
As I mentioned earlier, John Paul Jones was the quiet giant of Led Zeppelin, and that is easy to understand when he was on stage with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, who rocked like nobody else ever has, or likely ever will. Led Zeppelin was together going full-speed ahead from 1968, to 1980, when they disbanded after their drummer, John Bonham died.
Nobody Ever Rocked Like Led Zeppelin!!!
In many ways Led Zeppelin music definded a generation, and in the photo below we see Robert Plant and Jimmy Page rocking out on the Madison Square Garden stage in 1977.
Stairway To Heaven
Founding Led Zeppelin members, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are pictured below with U.S. President Obama, at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012, where they were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In the video below, we see President Obama celebrate Led Zeppelin at the White House.
You can and SHOULD watch Led Zeppelin at the Kennedy Center Honors in the video below which is superbly INSANE!!!!! Heart's rendition of Stairway to Heaven, featuring Ann and Nancy Wilson with John Hohman's son, Jason Bonham is absolutely mesmerizingly otherworldly and outrageous!!!!! I mean it's almost impossible to believe that anybody could ever top Led Zeppelin's own version of Stairway to Heaven, but this version certainly is a great candidate for doing so...It's so great, I could listen to it a million times!!!! Even, Rolex brand ambassador, Yo Yo Ma, is rocking out super hard to Stairway to Heaven...
Next we see a performance from their seminal Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunion in 1995, as they rock-out to Kashmir.
Wade from Chicago took this absolutely stunning/over-the-top/mystifying/crazy beautiful lume shot of his ceramic Supercase Rolex Submariner. This has got to one of the prettiest lume shots I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!
Reggie Jackson "Mr. October" Legendary Baseball Player
Legendary Professional baseball player and civil rights leader, Reggie Jackson has been rocking Rolex for at least 5 decades and in the image above taken back in the later 1980s we see him sporting his yellow gold Daytona (Reference 6263).
In the recent image we see below, Reggie is still rocking a Daytona. I would go so far as to argue Reggie Jackson is the living personification/manifestation of Rolex, in that he is bold, strong, successful, timeless and highly confident.
Paul Boutros from Phillip's Auction House was at the U.S. Open Golf Tournament back in June of 2019 and he snapped this super cool picture of baseball legend Reggie Jackson (Mr. October) rockin' his vintage Pepsi GMT-Master [Reference 1675].
Below we see Reggie Jackson in 1976 as he puts on his New York Yankees Ballcap when he joined the sports franchise, and notice he is rocking a Rolex Presidential bracelet.
Reggie Jackson is a member of the 50 Years wearing a Rolex Club and has worn Rolex for 5 decades.
As a child, Reggie Jackson was one of my heroes and great role models.
Reggie Jackson is a renowned car collector and obviously a big Rolex collector as we see him sporting many different Rolex watches spanning over 4 decades. In the photos below we see Reggie wearing a white gold Rolex Submariner with a blue dial and bezel.
In the two photos below we see Reggie rockin both a white and yellow gold Rolex Daytona.
There is a great Reggie documentary on Prime and you can see the trailer below
The photo below of the vintage Rolex GMT-Master appears courtesy of Christie's Auction house, and is a beauty indeed! This is a very early yellow gold GMT, as it has the sword hands, which lack the traditional Mercedes Marker on the hour hand, and it also has the tiny arrowhead on the 24-hour hand. The dial on this watch has nipple markers, and more importantly a very rare original brown bakelite bezel insert, with matching yellow gold 24-hour time numerals.
Phillip's Watches auctioned this magnificent rare yellow gold Paul Newman Daytona which is one of the most beautiful Rolex watches ever made. The design language of this watch is beyond timeless...
I was chatting with Nick Gould and he observed "King Harald has to be the oldest single owner of a GMT-Master!"
King Harald is pictured above and below with his wife, Queen Sonja, and in the photo below taken in 1968 he is rocking the exact same Pepsi GMT-Master pictured above on his wrist. Of course, the fundamental difference in appearance is back in 1968 his Pepsi Bezel was still bright blue and red, and today the patina is so faded, it looks like its silver, almost looking like he is wearing a stainless steel and platinum YACHT-MASTER!
In the 1970s and 1980s Rolex went crazy making all kinds of fascinatingly beautiful Rolex Day-Date and Datejust models with very colorful exotic dials, and the watch pictured below is no exception. The green Rolex dial is known as a Malachite dial, which is very cool looking.
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.