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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Rolex Studio Shot of the Day: Rolex Thunderbird by Kokota...

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

Rolex Thunderbird by Kokota

Monday, April 14, 2014

Rolex Appoints New CEO

Rolex Appoints New CEO

Jean-Frédéric Dufour

Today is a historic Rolex day. For only the sixth time in history, the torch has been passed to a new Rolex CEO, and for the first time in history, Rolex is bringing on-board a CEO from OUTSIDE the company. This is profound since Rolex has ALWAYS promoted internally. Perhaps this is a sign the Rolex board want to mix things up a little bit.

Today Rolex appointed a new Rolex CEO. His name is Jean-Frédéric Dufour, and he was previously the CEO of Zénith. If you are not familiar with Zénith, they used to make the chronograph movements for the Rolex Daytona, before Rolex began manufacturing them in-house. Jean-Frédéric Dufour will be replacing Rolex's CEO, Gian Riccardo Marini. On behalf of the readership of Jake's Rolex World, I would like to wish Jean-Frédéric Dufour, nothing but Godspeed on his fantastic new journey!

Benjamin Clymer from Hodinkee interviewd Jean-Frédéric Dufour in 2011 as seen below.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Hodinkee Reference Points... The Rolex Paul Newman Daytona

...Hodinkee Reference Points... The Rolex Paul Newman Daytona
My pal, Benjamin Clymer from Hodinkee just posted a superb article which covers all the Exotic Dial "Paul Newman" Daytona models from Andrew Shear's collection. I highly recommend checking out the excellent article on Hodinkee, which is Superb!

You can alway learn much more about the Paul Newman Daytona by checking out The Complete History Of The Paul Newman Daytona story, and you can also learn much more about the The Complete History Of The Rolex Daytona Cosmograph.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Sir Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay On Top Of The World

...Rolex Super-Coolness...

Sir Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay

On Top Of The World

Sir Edmund Hillary is pictured below wearing the navy blue parka and his quote as seen below is profoundly true. Tenzing Norgay is pictured below wearing his gold parka. Tenzing was a supreme climber, and he also said something really profound that has resonated with me for may years. Tenzing Norgay said:

"It is the ultimate wisdom of the mountains that a man is never more of a man, than when he is reaching for something just out of his grasp." –Tenzing Norgay

Below is a copy of the very first Rolex Mount Everest Ad which was published 3 days after Mount Everest was conquered. You can learn much more about Rolex conquering Mount Everest in 1953 by exploring my article named "Rolex Conquers Mount Everest–The Complete History."

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Rolex Coolness: John Huston Stainless Steel Rolex Oyster Quartz Datejust

...Academy Award Winning Director...

...Rolex Coolness...

John Huston

Apple Think Different Poster

Stainless Steel Rolex Oyster Quartz Datejust

Movie directing legend, John Huston is pictured below in a vintage Apple "Think Different" Poster, sporting his stainless steel Rolex Oyster Quartz. This vintage Apple poster may become ironically prescient in several weeks, when Apple CEO, Tim Cook will likely showcase their iWatch smartphone platform at the WWDC Keynote in San Francisco, at the Moscone Center.

You also have to wonder what role Rolex may or may not play in smart watches in the future. The supreme irony in this poster is that John Huston appears in an Apple "Think Different" poster, and he is wearing a Rolex OysterQuartz, and of course Rolex and the entire Swiss watch industry was caught way off guard in the last major round of smart watch history, when the Swiss watch consortium that included Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Omega developed quartz watch technology in Switzerland, under the Beta 21 program, and then failed to take implementation action.

The Japanese watch industry ended up wreaking havoc on the Swiss Watch industry. So it appears the Swiss watch industry is slated to undergo another major revolution with this newest round of smart watches, so one can't help but wonder how Rolex will redact this time around. As they say, time will tell.

John Huston's career achievements were amazing and he directed many movies which are now considered classic, like, The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), Moby Dick (1956), The Misfits (1960), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and Prizzi's Honor (1985).

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Mario Andretti & Paul Newman

UPDATE (December 4, 2017): I wrote a significant update to this story that revealed Paul Newman was actually wearing a Rolex Daytona on his Rolex President Bracelet:

http://www.rolexmagazine.com/2017/12/another-paul-newman-daytona.html

...Rolex Double Super-Coolness...

Mario Andretti & Paul Newman

Rolex Day-Dates

This is an interesting story. First, we see a 1976 Mario Andretti Rolex ad that features the Rolex Day-Date, which I have never published before today.

Next we see a photo of Paul Newman shaking hands with his good pal, Mario Andretti.

Paul Newman Rolex Day-Date!?!?!?

I was shocked when I looked closely at this photo taken in 1988 at the Indianapolis 500, and noticed Paul Newman wearing a Platinum or White Gold Rolex Day-Date.

Why was I shocked? Because Paul Newman is renowned for wearing at least five different Rolex Daytona models, as well as having worn a stainless steel Rolex Datejust, which I documented in detail in "The Complete History Of The Paul Newman Daytona". This new photograph shows him rockin' a Rolex Day-Date, which is very cool...

Just to reiterate, I was shocked to discover the photo of Paul Newman wearing his Rolex Day-Date on his "President" bracelet because like so many of my readers, I am used to seeing iconic photo, like the one below, of him wearing his trademark Rolex Daytona. It is interesting to note that I have never seen a photo of him wearing a yellow gold Rolex. He only wore stainless steel, white gold and platinum.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

All-New Tudor Model Introduction

All-New Tudor Model Introduction

...BaselWorld 2014 Introduction...

Midnight Blue Tudor Heritage Black Bay

41MM Reference 79220B

Tudor is owned by Rolex and they just introduced a 41MM Midnight Blue version of their Tudor Heritage Black Bay, and it looks great!

Tudor is on fire, and this all new Tudor Baselworld 2014 video has got to be one of the coolest videos I have ever seen!!! It was filmed at the Trevi Fountain in Rome, which was made famous in 1960 in the movie, La Dolce Vita. The video features Nat King Cole singing "LOVE" in french, which is beyond sublime!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

A New Rolex Moonphase?

A New Rolex Moonphase?

...BaselWorld 2014 Introduction...

ROLEX Cellini Dual Time

39MM Reference 50529 in Everose Gold

Rolex introduced a new dress watch today, and it is called a Cellini Dual Time, and it kind of looks like a classic moonphase, and I definetely has a nice symmetrical balance. This all new model has an AM/PM complication that switches between an icon of the sun and moon, which looks kind of cool. The watch also has beautifully engraved "Guilloche" dial, what offers a great deal of visual interest. The version below is made from Rolex Everose gold.

This innovative new model has an automatic movement and keeps time in two different zones. It achieves this by having the standard time on the big hands, and the time in the second zone, on the sub-dial hands. This is much easier to understand than keeping time in a second time-zone, like on a GMT-Master.

In my opinion, Rolex needs to ditch the "Cellini" designations and only make "Rolex Watches." "Cellini" is a genuinely beautiful Italian name, but it dilutes the "Rolex" brand name, and is confusing, and unnecessary. This Rolex dress watch model should be a "Rolex Dual Time", not a "Rolex, Cellini, Dual Time."