1964 Rolex Submariner

This Rolex is $195

Just a few years before I was born, a Rolex Submariner not only looked materially the same as it looks in 2026, but it cost less than $200, which just completely blows my mind, as we witness with this vintage Rolex Magazine ad from June of 1964. The more things change, the more they remain the same...

Clyde Beatty 1964 Datejust Ad

Clyde Beatty

1964 Datejust Ad 

Circus Impresario 

Lion Tamer with Two Tiger Cubs

One of my absolute favorite aspects of journaling Rolex history is discovering brilliant vintage ads that had previously disappeared into the abyss. In other words, I think vintage Rolex ads are often times even more interesting than the Rolex watches featured in them. Every so often I discover a vintage Rolex ad that takes my breath away and this beauty from 1964 is one of them. 

There is something so cool about the overall composition of this ad I recently acquired that makes it so cool looking. As I have mentioned before, I perceive these vintage ads as being high-art in-and-of-themselves.

1964 Clyde Beatty Rolex Datejust Magazine Ad

Another one of my favorite things to do when exploring vintage Rolex ads is to do a deep dive into the backstory behind the person featured in the ad, which often times offers me a fascinating history lesson and this ad is no exception. Let's begin by examining a photo that Nick Gould discovered that features Clyde Beatty wearing his Rolex Datejust on a Jubilee Bracelet. In the photo below we see Clyde Beatty with Prince Rainier of Monaco along with his son, daughter and beautiful wife, Princess Grace of Monaco with Clyde Beatty pictured on the far right rocking his Datejust which is featured in the 1964 Rolex ad seen above.

What can be said of a man long after he has departed the living world? That he left the world having made it a better place than when he entered it? That he made a significant contribution to mankind's understanding of the world we still share? Or, as Saroyan brilliantly said:

"In the time of our life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it." 

—William Saroyan 

(Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote: The Time of Your Life, 1939)

Clyde Beatty was born in 1903 in Bainbridge, Ohio and passed away at age 62 in 1965 in Ventura, California. Clyde was a famed animal trainer, actor, circus mogul, and zoo owner. 

Clyde Beatty stood 5 foot 6 inches and was nicknamed  'Scrap-Iron Shorty' was the first lion tamer to be featured in a circus and was best known for his 'fighting Act' where he would enter the cage only equipped with a chair, whip, pistol on his hip and a tremendous amount of courage and confidence. 

I was not familiar with Clyde Beatty until I saw his really cool 1964 Rolex ad featured toward the top of this story, but researching and sharing his career achievements has been fascinating. My takeaway from this story is that he personally exhibited many of the characteristics that make a Rolex a Rolex which are strength, value, competent, timelessness, elegance and precision.

1964 Magazine Ad Men who guide the destines of the world wear Rolex watches

1964 Magazine Ad

Men who guide the destines

of the world wear Rolex watches

This 1964 Rolex magazine ad really demonstrates that Rolex was really excited and proud to share with the world that many of the top leaders wore Rolex. The most interesting detail is that U.S. President Lyndon Johnson had recently begun wearing what became his trademark yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date in 1964, and it appears Rolex could not wait to indirectly let everybody know. You can always learn much more this subject by checking out my 11 part series on The Complete History Of The Rolex President.

I believe the hats on the table are symbolic of the actual men who wore them, so the obvious question, is who wore those hats? My best guess for who the hats belong to or symbolize would be U.S. General Eisenhower, French General de Gaulle, Swiss General Henri Guisan, U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Lord Mountbatten of the U.K. and U.S. President, Lyndon Johnson. I am a little confused by the unusual hat located closest to the front of the table? Does anybody know what kind of hat that is?

Update: A bunch of people wrote in to answer the question. It turns out it is a Russian Cossacks lambswool hat, which makes you wonder who the ad is referring to? It must be Nikita Khrushchev? I know Nikita's son, Sergei Khruschev wears a yellow gold Rolex. Hmmm!?!? 

Update 2: I am really embarrassed to admit this, but Jake's Rolex World reader, Karl wrote in from Austria and said:

"Have a look at Russian/Soviet Leaders and at Russian/Soviet Hats and your Blog Archive and you will see for what and whom this picture hat stands."

The hat was symbolic of Leonid Brezhnev, who became the General Secretary of the Communist Party in October of 1964. Leonid Brezhnev is pictured below with U.S. President Gerald Ford, and Ford is wearing a Soviet mink hat, which I tried on one, and was stunned with how luxurious, soft and warm it was.

Now that I think about it, that is a trip that in 1964-1968, then U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and U.S.S.R. leader, Leonid Brezhnev were both wearing yellow gold Rolex watches.

I thought I would share this next photo of me back in 1973 when I was 7 years old, and I am wearing a similar U.S. Presidential seal necktie as President Gerald Ford in the photo above...just saying...

Did I make you laugh, or at least smile?