Rolex Coolness: Sylvester Stallone

...Rolex Super-Coolness...

Sylvester Stallone

Keeping The Time Of His Life With Rolex

Sylvester Stallone celebrated his 80th birthday today, which is interesting as I remember when I was a 10 years old, Rocky came out in 1976, which was also the Bicentennial of the United States as it turned 200 years old. So when Slye debuted Rocky he was 30 and I was 10, not he's 80 and I am almost 60...

Sly is pictured below sporting his yellow gold Rolex Submariner with the black dial and bezel in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Since the yellow gold Rolex had no nickname I officially nicknamed it the "Sylvester Stallone Submariner back in 2016."

The amazing original soundtrack for Rocky was written by Bill Conti and featured the Rocky theme song named, "Gonna Fly Now", which was the number 1 Billoward hit in 1976. You have to click the play button on the video below to get into the true spirit of this article...and this special performance by Maynard Ferguson originally aired on the Michael Douglass show back in 1977, and it's friggin' AMAZING!!!!!!!

Rocky

Rocky is considered to be one of the best sports films ever made, and it debuted in 1976 to critical acclaim, which among other things inspired a worldwide fitness craze. Rocky is the story of Rocky Balboa who goes from being a small-time club fighter who gains the opportunity to fight for the world heavyweight championship. Rocky was made in 28 days, for a budget of a little more than $1 Million. It became the highest grossing film of 1976, and won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Rocky grossed $5 Million on its opening weekend, and for the North American box office did a total of $117 Million, which adjusted for inflation would be close to $500 Million at 2016 prices. Rocky did just as well internationally In 1976, having grossed $107 Million. Rocky was a "Knockout" success!!!!

Rocky has had six sequels to date, with Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky IV (1985), Rocky V (1999), Rocky Balboa (2006), and most recently, Creed (2015). Sylvester Stallone wrote the first five sequels and played Rocky Balboa in all six sequels.

Rocky III

The Photo below was taken during Rocky III in 1982, and in it we see Sylvester Stallone wearing his yellow gold Rolex Submariner. When Stallone was younger, he tended to wear his Rolex Submariner on his right wrist, Steve McQueen style. In later years, would switch to wearing his Rolex watches on his left wrist.

Speaking of Mr. T and Rolex; below is a photo of Mr. T wearing his blinged-out Rolex President.

Stayin' Alive 1983

The Photos below of Sylvester Stallone and John Travolta were taken during the filming of Stayin' Alive, which was the follow-up sequel to the mega-hit, Saturday Night Fever. Sylvester Stallone wrote and directed Stayin' Alive.

Rockin' A Rolex President

In the following series of photos below, we see Sylvester Stallone wearing a Yellow Gold Rolex Day-Date "President." 

In the photo above, we see Sylvester Stallone with legendary boxer, Ray "Boom-Boom" Mancini."

Ronald Reagan & Sylvester Stallone

Two California Classics

Sylvester Stallone is pictured below with his wife at the time, Briget Nielsen at a White House party with then U.S. President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Who You Callin' Girlyman!?!

Sly is pictured below with the Gubernator, and notice Arnold Schwarzenegger is wearing his yellow gold Rolex Mocha GMT on a Jubilee. Rolex seriously needs to bring back the brown bezel and dial on the yellow gold GMT Master–it was a superb color combination!!!

The photo below shows Sylvester Stallone holding his wife, Bridgette Nielsen up in the air on Long Island in 1987. The photo was taken by Herb Ritts, and if you look closely you can see Sly is wearing his Rolex Submariner.

The Contender
2005-2007

Sylvester Stallone co-starred in an early reality TV show named The Contender, and in the photo below we see hime wearing a stainless steel Rolex Submariner while standing next to his brother, Frank Stallone, and boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. I remember former Rolex USA executive, T. Walker Lloyd talking about his relationship with Sylvester Stallone, as well as his brother Frank Stallone in a podcast interview I did wit him back in 2008.

Sugar Ray Leonard is pictured below wearing his Platinum Rolex Day-Date, and he also wears a bunch of other Rolex models.

Sly's Black-Out Concept Rolex Daytona

In the below from 2011, we see Sylvester Stallone wearing his customized Black-Out Concept Rolex Daytona.

Sly's Rolex DEEP SEA

In the recent photos below, we see Sylvester Stallone wearing his Rolex DEEPSEA SEA-DWELLER.

In the photo above we see Sylvester Stallone wearing his Rolex DEEPSEA, standing next to filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, who interviews him in the video below, which I highly recommend watching!!!

CREED 2015

Sylvester Stallone recently starred in a new movie named CREED, which is based on Rocky, and Stallone is currently up for the Academy Award for Best Costar. He also won the 2016 Golden Glob Award for Best Supporting Actor. In the first photo below, we see Sylvester Stallone with Mr. T in a photo shot during Rocky III.

In this next photo from 2015, we see Sylvester Stallone wearing the same vintage yellow Gold Rolex Submariner he was wearing in the photo above.

The photo below shows boxer Oscar De-La-Hoya with Sylvester Stallone, and if if you look closely at Sly's Rolex, you can see the Nipple indices that confirms it is a vintage Rolex Submariner.

White Gold Pepsi Rolex GMT-Master

In the photos below we see Sylvester Stallone in recent photos showing off his White Gold Pepsi Rolex GMT-Master.

The photo below shows the bejeweled white gold Rolex GMT-Master model that Sylvester Stallone is wearing.

Paul Newman Daytona

...Rolex Studio Shot Of The Day...

Paul Newman Daytona

1970 Rolex USA Catalog Shots...

...Vintage Rolex Hotness...

1970s Rolex Brochure

Strange as it may or may not sound, I think many Rolex watch designs and brochures are high-art and these images from the 1970 Rolex USA catalog are no exception. I really like this first vintage Rolex Hotness image. It is remarkable how timeless the photo, watch, clothing and hairstyle is, and I love those beautiful light pink nails.

Rolex Macro Shot of the Day: Submariner Fat Hands...

...Rolex Macro Shot Of The Day...

Jocke's LV Sub with fat hands.

Rolex Mystery Man: Any Idea Who This Cool Dude Is?

Hans Wilsdorf

Founder of Rolex

Rolex Time Machine Thought Experiment 

What if you sat down with Albert Einstein, but he looked nothing like the iconic wild-haired genius we all know—would you still recognize the brilliance in his mind through conversation alone? What if you sat down with Leonardo da Vinci, but he looked nothing like the familiar portraits we are all familiar with—would you still recognize the extraordinary mind of the ultimate Renaissance genius through conversation alone?

If Rolex Founder, Hans Wilsdorf stepped out of a time machine from 1906—years before Rolex even existed, and decades before he would sport his famous wild white hair—would you recognize his brilliant genius? I’ve spent decades studying everything I could about Hans Wilsdorf and how he became the man he did. So here’s a fun thought experiment: What if we could hop in a time machine, go back to 1905, and bring a 25-year-old Hans Wilsdorf back to 2026—with his permission, of course?

We brief Hans on the modern world, show him iPhones, take him on a ride in a self driving Tesla, and explain how the company he would go on to found has become one of the most prestigious brands in history over the past 121 years. Once he’s done totally tripping-out on all the deeply profound progress, Hans shaves off his handlebar mustache, ditches the stiff three-piece suit, with the bow tie and super high collar, throws on a black t-shirt (looking a bit like Elon Wilsdorf), and decides to rock an LV Submariner.

What would he look like? You’re looking at the answer:

If Rolex's Founder Was 24 Today

A few years ago, I was playing around with AI, and took the image below of Rolex Founder, Hans Wilsdorf at age 24, which was taken 121 years ago in 1906, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland in an attempt to improve it so it looked much more realistic and 3 dimensional.

Hans Hilsdorf, Founder of Rolex pictured above in 1905 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

My goal was to make Hans Wilsdorf much more photorealistic, for my book cover on my upcoming book series on Rolex leadership. I increased the resolution, and colorized the photo as seen below, and at the time I thought it looked pretty good. Since we are on the subject of my upcoming book series on Rolex's Founding Fathers, I think it would be appropriate to point out the first four books in my series focus on seeing the world through Hans Wilsdorf's eyes. In other words, seeing and experiencing everything the way Hans did—from cradle to grave...

For the record, I have spent countless hours over the past 19 years of publishing RolexMagazine.com restoring vintage photos and Rolex Magazine ads. My goal has ALWAYS been to only restore images to make them look the way they originally did. I will point out, in my opinion, there is a very fine-line between restoration of images versus enhancing images. Restoration, is making images look the way they did originally, and enhancing is taking an original photo and making it look better, often times by recomposing it. This to a large extent takes away from the historical consistency, which is why I typically shy away from doing so.

I was recently experimenting with compelling new AI models, and I thought I would start with my original image of Hans Wilsdorf, pictured two images up in this story, and I prompted it to:

1. Remove grey background 

2. Colorize and make him look way more high res and photorealistic.

The first result is pictured below:

I thought it did a good job, and it's interesting to see how far photorealistic AI has come in the past few years, but for some reason, the anthracite colored (dark grey) suit threw me off. So I prompted the AI to adjust the jacket to brown, which it did, but I also noticed it slightly rotated the camera angle, as seen below.

Face-To-Face

This seemingly beautiful mistake really got me thinking!?!! Next, I directed the AI to rotate the camera angle so Hans Wilsdorf would be looking straight at the camera, which we see the results of below. This sent chills down my spine as it looks so real, almost like I had discovered a never before seen photo taken 120 years ago of Hans Wilsdorf. In other words, it was shocking to see a young Hans Wilsdorf staring me straight in the eyes, as if he were looking at me!?!!

Next, I asked the AI to remove Hans' mustache and put a black T-Shirt on him. It did exactly that, and once again I was shocked, although I was surprised it kept his jacket on.

My next prompt was to ask the AI to remove Hans' jacket, and all of a sudden we have what would almost appear to be like Elon Wilsdorf. This image completely shocked and surprised me as we see what he would look like at age 25, but today, and we see he was a really handsome, clean-cut, GQ looking kind of doood.

The next obvious step was to put a modern Submariner on his wrist, which we see below, which also looks friggin AMAZING!!!!

In my recent, super detailed article on the Complete Early History of the Rolex Oyster, I mentioned many readers of Jake's Rolex World have written-in asking how they could find an early Rolex Oyster model, which are almost impossible to find these days. 

I also mentioned I thought Rolex should re-introduce/re-issue these original OYSTER model watches, but larger, and without soldered lugs, in order to make it easier to change the strap. Rolex could easily do what Panerai has done with the wire lugs that are easily removed for quick strap changes. Or even better, Rolex if you are listening, you could create an Apple Watch Like strap system where users could instantly swap their straps and bracelets, which would be AMAZING!!! Thus, I created the image below that shows a young Hans Wilsdorf rocking an original looking 1926 Rolex Oyster that is scaled up to a modern 42MM, and man, does this look AMAZING, or what!?!!

Despite the fact I had made so much progress with my 2026 AI Hans Wilsdorf, Rolex Time Machine thought experiment, a voice in my head kept saying there was still something missing, and I finally figured it out! The original source image showed Han's rocking a mustache, which I had removed, so I decided to add a short beard/facial hair, which makes him look even more like he is in 2026.

One More Thang!

I also decided to create a render that shows Hans Wilsdorf smiling, while rocking a triple date, Rolex Moonphase Reference 6062 on a cigar colored leather strap.

My objective with this AI thought experiment was to hop in the Rolex Time Machine, and travel back to 1906, and pickup Rolex Founder, Hans Wilsdorf, and bring him back to today so he could see how amazing his lifetime achievements would be. The huge challenge with this thought experiment is that in 1905, he hadn't even started Rolex yet, so if we brought this 24-25 year old Hans Wilsdorf forward 120 years, he would probably be completely gobsmacked and stunned to see exactly what he would be achieving in his future.

I think in the final analysis, Hans would be VERY proud of how well Rolex prospered after his passing in 1960, and I am fairly certain he would be a big fan of Jake's Rolex World :-)

Yesterday, I published the following story:

...Fun AI Thought Experiment... 

Rolex Mystery Man

Any Idea Who This Cool Dude Is?

I am running a contest to see who the first person is that can successfully identify the cool looking dude rocking his LV Rolex in this photo. You can submit your guess on the Rolex.Magazine Instagram page. The first person to figure out who the mystery man is will be mentioned in this article.

His identity will be revealed tomorrow, along with the fascinating context surrounding this image. If you need a clue, I will let you know he is somewhat famous.

CONCLUSION 

Ironically, despite the very similar looks, nobody recognized young Hans Wilsdorf in today’s modern context.

That’s the real power of this thought experiment.

Just as you might sit down with a man who looked nothing like the iconic wild-haired Albert Einstein, yet still recognize his towering genius through conversation alone, the same holds true for Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf.

Even transformed—clean-shaven, wearing a black t-shirt, and rocking an LV Submariner in front of the Palace of Fine Arts—his core essence remains.

This brings to mind the ancient Ship of Theseus paradox: if you replace every single plank of a ship over time, is it still the same ship?

In the same way, if you change Hans Wilsdorf’s mustache, his suit, and even the era he lives in, is he still the same visionary who founded Rolex?

The answer is yes. True identity and greatness are not defined by outward appearance or the passage of time, but by vision, character, and relentless pursuit of excellence.

This image is more than just a fun AI creation. It’s a powerful reminder that the spirit of Rolex began with one remarkable young man—and that spirit is still very much alive today, and certainly his DNA is still alive and well in every Rolex every made... Long live Hans Wilsdorf!!!

Updated Book Cover 

I was so impressed with the results of my AI experiment to try and make Hans Wilsdorf more life-like, I think I am going the switch the cover artwork on Volume 1 to the image below.