Ellen Rocking Her Paul Newman Daytona...

Ellen Rocking Her Paul Newman Daytona
Interviewing Ringo

In this video we get a look at Ellen rocking her beautiful white exotic dial Daytona as she interviews Ringo Starr, who is rocking his Jumbo Patek Aquanaut. All the Beatles are amazingly charismatic, but for some reason I have always had a special appreciation for Ringo, who is one cool dude...

Simon Garfield's titled, "Still ticking. The improbable survival of the luxury watch business.

I have a confession to make. I typically don't like reading long articles with pages and pages of words, without any photos. Despite having tried many times to enjoy magazines like The New Yorker and The Economist, I can never seem to last very long with reading them. This is due to the fact I am so visual and photo-centric. I definitely subscribe to the school of thought that says a photo is worth a thousand words, which should come as no surprise to any reader of Jake's Rolex World.

This being said, I just finished reading one of the best written, most enjoyable watch articles I have ever read, and no I am not referring to Jack Forester's Brilliant Article On The Rolex Day-Date that was recently published on Hodinkee.com.

Instead, I am referring to Simon Garfield's article he wrote for the Guardian titled, "Still ticking. The improbable survival of the luxury watch business." In this amazingly well written article Simon asks: "In an increasingly digital world, people are still willing to spend huge amounts on analogue timepieces. The question is, why?"

Simon's article is highly educational, insightful and offers a super historical perspective, to which I would like to add a few key points the author did not elaborate upon:

The first point is that the United States before World War II was a huge producer of timepieces, but the war caused many of the watch factories to be converted to making armaments and munitions, which in turn contributed to Switzerland becoming the world leader in watchmaking.

Secondly, while Simon briefly mentioned the Quartz Crisis, he completely glosses over Beta 21 movement, and how it was really the Swiss who figured out how to produce accurate and productionable quartz based wrist watches. Basically, the Swiss consortium named Centre Electronique Horolger (CEH), which included, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega, Piaget, Longines, IWC, Zenith, Bulova and Bucherer, developed the quartz watch technology, which ironically was based upon an earlier American design, but stumbled with being able to introduce it succesfully into the internatoinal marketplace. Instead, the Japanese successfully figured out how to capitalize on the opportunity, with brands like Seiko and Casio, which largely decimated the Swiss watch industry in the 1970s.

In an ironic twist of fate, Rolex and Patek Philippe  were largely the primary beneficiaries of this Quartz Crisis.

Rolex made many Quartz watches, as did Patek Philippe over the decades that followed, but Rolex stopped altogether. One of the questions I have always wondered about is, if Hans Wilsdorf, the Founder of Rolex, who died in 1960, had lived another 20 or 30 years, what would he have thought about Quartz technology? His predecessor, André Heiniger was the head of the Rolex ship during that time period, and did many great things to further Rolex's lead in the Swiss watch industry, but he was also the person who was largely responsible for the failure of the Quartz technology. 

In other words, I think he was confused by how to handle the Quartz juggernaut. In the final analysis he did not encourage  his salesmen to sell Rolex Oyster Quartz watches. He also priced them slightly less than mechanical movements, despite the fact they were technically more sophisticated that their mechanical counterparts in many ways. Thus, he positioned the quartz technology as being inferior to mechanical.

This is the story I have learned and am passing on from many old-timers in the watch industry. The greatest question one can ask, is how this will eventually effect Rolex in the future? In other words, Rolex basically, invented the SMART Watch, whether it was creating and bringing to market the first waterproof watches, as well as the first automatic Perpetual models, through the 1950s with the advent of the Datejust, Day-Date, Submariner, GMT-Master, Explorer, and Milgauss models.

If Rolex had maintained Hans Wilsdorf's innovation trajectory, would they have beat Apple to the punch in the 21st century? Or was it inevitable that somebody else would have to do so. 

OK. So now I am starting to write a long-read diatribe, but this is a question I intend to explore more in the future. In the meantime, I VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading Simon Garfield's amazing article from The Guardian titled, 'Still Ticking: The improbable survival of the luxury watch business." Enjoy and savor it like a great piece of Swiss Chocolate!!!

Sir Laurence Olivier Rolex Datejust + Patek Philippe Calatrava

...Rolex Super-Coolness...

Academy Award Winner For Best Actor

Sir Laurence Olivier

1907-1989

Stainless and Gold Rolex Datejust 

I figured since we were just looking at another very famous Englishman last week (Michael Caine) it makes sense to take a look at another extremely famous Englishman; Sir Laurence Olivier. 

There are many famous men who wore two Rolex at the same time, including NASA Apollo Astronauts as well as figures like Fidel Castro. In the photo below, take in 1972 we see "Sir Laurence" wearing his two-tone Datejust along with another watch I can't make a positive ID on.

Laurence Olivier is considered by many to be one of the greatest actors who ever lived, and he left behind an amazing legacy, both on the stage, and in film and TV roles.

Laurence Olivier preferred for people to call him "Larry". Just to put things in perspective, he was born in England in 1907, three years after fellow British actor, Cary Grant (1904), and died three years after Cary Grant Died (1986) in 1989. In other words, both men lived to be 82 years old, born three years apart from each other.

Thierry Stern CEO of Patek Philippe Voices Opinion of Rolex

...Patek Philippe On Rolex...

Thierry Stern

CEO of Patek Philippe

Voices Opinion of Rolex

Hodinkee recently published an interview of the CEO of Patek Philippe, Thierry Stern. If you are not familiar with Patek Philippe you should visit Jake's Patek Philippe World. Essentially, if Rolex is the Mercedes-Benz of watches, Patek Philippe would be the Rolls Royce of watches.


Theirry Stern, said he "respects Rolex a lot" and went on to say:


"The quality of Rolex is fantastic, and to keep that so high making as many watches as they do is incredible. I would love to see the Rolex factory, but they never let me in!"


I hope the top brass at Rolex reads this and extends an offer to Theirry to tour their facilities, and visa versa. I would love to see Rolex and Patek Philippe collaborate together in the future. I think Patek Philippe should make special complicated Rolex watches for Rolex.


Theirry Stern is pictured below with his father, Philippe Stern.

Credit:  https://www.uhrenkosmos.com/patek-philippe-geschichte-unter-familie-stern/

Rolex used to make really cool complicated Rolex watches, like the yellow gold Rolex Triple Date Moonphase [Reference 6062], pictured below. Rolex, it is time to get back into making beautiful complicated watches again. Time to re-discover your magnificent legacy...

Patek Philippe Moonphase: Charlie Sheen

Patek Philippe Moonphase: Charlie Sheen

Patek Philippe Moonphase [Reference 2438J]

"My motto is enjoy every moment!!!" –Charlie Sheen

Recently, actor Charlie Sheen has been all over the place and he has been on a bit of a rampage. Just this evening he started his own live online TV show named Sheen's Corner. Charlie recently had some challenges with his x-wife and he seems to have decided to go full-regalia into bachelorhood.

Charlie Sheen is pictured below with one his live-in girlfriends named Rachel Oberlin, who he refers to as one of his Goddesses.

Patek Philippe Moonphase

[Reference 2438J : 37 Millimeters]

Charlie is an absolutely fascinating guy, and he is the star of the very popular and funny TV show named two and a half men. Charlie Sheen recently opened his first Twitter account and started posting images on TwitPic, and he shared this photo showing-off his wristwatch and ring. Charlie Sheen placed a caption under the photo that read:

The only watch that keeps Warlock time - Class of 1927 ring "Bambino U"

So what does Charlie's cryptic message really mean? Well, his 1927 world championship ring belonged to and was won and worn by Babe Ruth!!!! That is pretty impressive in-and-of-itself, but for a fellow WIS, it is not as impressive as his Patek Philippe wristwatch!!!!

Charlie is wearing what is probably the most elegant, timeless watch ever made. He is sporting an EXTREMELY RARE Yellow gold Patek Philippe 2438J, Complicated Moonphase that was made in the late 1950s through the mid 1960s.

Charlie Sheen's Patek Philippe Moonphase photo above actually looks like one of Bernhard's Sneaker and Pant Wrist Shots!!! So just how rare and valuable is Charlie Sheen's Patek Philippe Moonphase? Somewhere between $500,000 and $750,000!!!!

Update: Patrick who is a daily reader of Jake's Rolex World, just pointed out that Charlie's Patek says the date reads, TUE (Tuesday), FEB (February) 29th, but there is no February 29th, 2011, so it is possible Charlie did not set the leap year setting, or now that I think about it, I think on this model, it probably lacked the leap year setting complication. Maybe that is what makes it a "Warlock" watch, in that he gets another day, we don't?

The next three photos below are of a very similar watch to Charlie Sheen's 18kt Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Moonphase which is a reference 2438J which was made in 1959. Its case measures 37mm in diameter and 13mm tall.

One of my favorite features of the moonphase watches from the 1950s is the dauphin hands. Dauphin hands are shaped like an extended pyramid and they are not only timeless, but have a distinct Art-Deco "Populux" design.

Charlie Sheen is obviously wearing this watch on a black strap, but it sure does look great on the honey-rust crocodile strap!!! What a timeless, beautiful, elegant watch!!!

In my personal opinion, Charlie Sheen's Patek Philippe is the most beautiful, well designed watch ever made, and if I could have any watch ever made in history, but I could not ever sell it and I had to wear it at least 3 days a week I would choose Charlie Sheen's Patek Moonphase, but there is one other watch I might choose over Chalie's Patek Moonphase, and put heavy emphasis on the word might, because it would really almost be a tie.

Rolex Black Star Moonphase

[Reference 6062]

The only watch ever made on planet earth that I think might be better than Charlie Sheen's Patek Philippe Mooonphase would be the 1952 Rolex 6062 Moonphase pictured below. Why Rolex does not bring this watch back to life is so far beyond me!?!?!?!?!?! Rolex design, if you are reading this, please, please, please bring back this watch!!!!! Don't change anything just make it 40mm.

So why might I chose this Rolex Moonphase over Charlie's Patek? I like the dark black dial and I love the star markers. I also kind of dig how the date ring runs around the outside of the dial, giving is a more sporty look. Ironically, I think I like the shape of the Rolex lugs and case better, but it is probably a close tie. Basically, Charlie's Patek Moonphase [Reference 2438J] and the Black Star Dial Rolex Moonphase [Reference 6062] are my two Grail watches!!!!!

If you are not familiar with Patek Philippe watches, if Rolex watches are considered to be the Mercedes-Benz of watches, Patek Philippe's are considered to be the Rolls Royce of watches.

So Charlie Sheen is wearing Babe Ruth's 1927 World Series Championship ring, is porting a Patek Moonphase [Reference 2438J] and has his own harem, and one of the top rated comedy TV shows in history. A man could not ask for much more ;-)

Charlie Sheen refers to his girlfriends as his Godesses and he is pictured below with Natlie Kenly on the his right side, and Rachel Oberlin on his left side.

Some people think Charlie may be losing his mind. It looks to me like he is just having a really good time, and if you ask me, any dude who wears a Patek 2438 is alright by me. Of course Charlie Sheen is a complete WIS and he also wears a Rolex Yacht-Master.

Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Moonphase Rose Gold: Reference 5396R: 38mm

Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Moonphase

Rose Gold: Reference 5396R: 38mm