Hodinkee's brilliant senior editor, Danny Milton, is joined by Rich Fordon who is Hodinkee's Vintage specialist, as they walk through the AMAZING history of the super-iconic Rolex Daytona. I HIGHLY recommend watching this SUPERB overview of the Rolex Daytona:
Point 1: The Rolex "COSMOGRAPH" designation that appeared on early Daytona models, made its debut on the Rolex Triple Date Moonphonase, and Rolex later repurposed in for the Daytona.
The following excerpt is from my story named "The Complete History of The Rolex Moonphase". It is interesting to note that in Rolex's advertisement the ref. 6062 was referred to as the 'COSMOGRAPH'.
Point 2: I have been working for some time now on a dozen books that cover the entire Rolex history arc, and one of my books focuses on Rolex's Conquest for Speed, and covers the history of the Rolex Daytona. In the upcoming volume I will share previously undocumented insight on the origins of the Rolex Daytona, which is mind numbing!!! I plan to start rolling out my 12 volumes next year, with Volume 1 dropping in late Q1 of 2023, with each following volume releasing on a rolling quarterly basis, which means I expect to publish the final volume in Q4 of 2025.
This is a fascinating Rolex magazine ad from 1929, which means Rolex had obviously already introduced their revolutionary "Oyster" waterproof case, but had not yet introduced their "Perpetual" automatic movement, which came along in 1931. I am always fascinated when I find and publish another aquatic themed vintage Rolex ad which completes another piece of the Rolex history puzzle!
In my mind the illustration above shows the ships captain with his first and second mate and they are tripping on how cool their waterproof Rolex watches are. If you were alive in 1929 and you were a ship captain and you tried on or wore a Rolex waterproof watch it would be shocking—like driving a Tesla for the first time when it first came out...just otherworldly!!!
The black-and-green GMT-Master II with the crown on the left, released on March 30, 2022, surprised the watch community and industry experts. The current CEO of Rolex, Jean-Frédéric Dufour, is left-handed and Rolex insiders say he instigated the project for a watch that can be worn on the right wrist.
Rolex told me it is not marketing the watch as a watch for lefties. After all, right-handed Rolex lovers might want to wear it too. It is simply calling it "the GMT with the crown on the left" and letting clients decide how they want to wear it. Still, this is not the first time the brand has made a left-handed watch.
But this watch is a first for Rolex in two important ways:
1. It is the first time a Rolex watch has a date on the left.
2. It is the first time Rolex is mass-producing and marketing the watch "with a crown on the left." Until now, unusual and rare "Destro" Rolexes have surfaced during auctions. But the brand had never advertised left-crown watches though it occasionally made some. Jake spotted a Destro Rolex and posted a picture in these pages 14 years ago.
Among the famous, Charlie Chaplin, who was left-handed, owned a Rolex ref. 4453 made in 1945 with the crown on the left.
Here are other (rare) examples of Rolex watches with the crown on the left:
Jake's Take
Danny's idea to write a story about left handed Rolex watches took me by surprise and is a BRILLIANT idea.
You probably noticed Danny showed a left-handed Rolex owned by legendary comedian, Charlie Chaplin. This is kind of profound if you think about it, as Chaplin in real life was a man who was extremely debonair and elegant, yet his on-screen identity/persona was the opposite.
Chaplin's onscreen persona was very entertaining, expressive and outstanding, and that is what Rolex's Green Lefty GMT-Master reminds me of. In other words, the regular GMT-Master models are Charlie in real life, and the Sprite/Green Hornet/Riddler GMT is Chaplin on screen.
Adrian Barker gets hands-on with an Rolex Explorer II 216570 Black Dial that was allocated to the Special Air Service, the special forces unit of the British Army. The SAS was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, Adrian explains, and was catapulted into the public eye in 1980 during a hostage rescue in an embassy in London.
This Explorer II sports a special engraving made by Rolex — not a third-party — for the soldiers. You could only buy it from Rolex London in 2012 if you were a service member of the SAS. About 100 to 150 were made and distributed by Rolex, Adrian estimates. The engravings include the SAS motto "Who Dares Wins" on the case side; on the back, the SAS dagger with the soldier's initials and serial number.
Adrian says the watch looks like it hasn't been babied by the soldier, a fact he finds "pretty damn cool."
"It's pretty badass to have a limited-edition Explorer and a limited-edition Rolex," Adrian finally said. "Not only that but to have an SAS limited-edition Explorer II. It really does make me happy to see that this has been worn and enjoyed."
This is such a big news I had to borrow Hodinkee's "Breaking News" banner again.
According to USPTO-licensed trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis, Rolex filed for metaverse-related trademarks last week. Mr. Kondoudis broke the news on Monday by tweeting Rolex had filed applications to trademark NFTs, crypto keys and virtual goods.
Luxury watchmaker #ROLEX has filed a trademark application claiming plans for:
This is quite a big deal because using NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, would allow Rolex to have a Master database of serial numbers recorded in a protected blockchain and accessible online (non-fungible means unchangeable). Rumors from Geneva abound, but some say Rolex wants its movements, dials and cases each to have a specific serial number. The three serial numbers together could be entered in a blockchain that is safely stored online and accessible to watchmakers, who can then determine if a dial or movement was swapped. Would the database be accessible to customers as well?
Rolex has never been first to use digital technology, but it has embraced it and done it well. One look at its Instagram account, YouTube channel — or more recent sister website, rolex.org — and we deduct the 117-year-old Swiss watchmaker doesn't shy away from the internet. Maybe it has to do with the relatively young CEO at the helm of Rolex, Jean-Frédéric Dufour.
Interviews of him to properly gauge his views on the digital mixed with a traditional industry are hard to come by. But I found an interview filmed a decade ago when he was CEO of Zenith. He was just 43. Mr. Dufour said the internet and "new media" are the tools of the future when it comes to communication. And it looks like he still means it at Rolex.
What makes explorers brave is not just the decision to volunteer for a risky mission, but to press on when things break, danger mounts, and aborting the mission is a justifiable option.
During Apollo 11's powered descent to the moon, in 1969, there were a total of five unexpected computer alarms in the last 12 minutes. These alarms all indicated that Eagle’s computer system was overloaded, with the last of these alarms less than three minutes before landing, at 500 meters above the Moon.
The computer was guiding the spacecraft towards an unsafe touchdown point in the rugged, boulder-filled surface. With low-fuel-indicator lights flashing, Neil Armstrong took manual control and flew to a safe landing spot beyond the crater.
On opposite ends, U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard, in 1960, were landing on the deepest spot on the planet, Challenger Deep. Challenger Deep is more than 35,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean, at the southern end of the Mariana Trench.
They were descending through depths no humans had reached before when suddenly the cabin of their bathyscaphe violently shook and a loud cracking noise was heard.
They turned off everything on board that made a noise, as they attempted to discover the origin of the crack. The plexiglass viewport that was used to enter the sphere had cracked in several places. But they pressed on for another 3,000 feet and completed their mission to land on Challenger Deep.
When Rolex released a new Deepsea Challenge on Nov. 1, carrying for the first time a commemorative caseback engraving (two dates referring to the first two dives to the Mariana Trench), the watch immediately reminded me of the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch whose caseback engraving links the watch to space missions.
To be sure, Rolex watches have gone to space multiple times as recorded in these pages. Rolex GMT-Masters often adorned the wrists of prominent astronauts including Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Michael Collins who was the third man in the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Still, Rolex has never claimed a stake in the space conquest. (Rolex's webpages about the GMT-Master still refer to Pan Am and Concorde pilots, but eschew any mention of astronauts.)
After giving myself a week to ponder this latest release, I realized Rolex wanted to claim the greatest depth on Earth, Challenger Deep, as its own the way Omega has claimed the moon. And it must be important enough for Rolex if for the first time ever it decided to engrave the caseback with historical references.
Rolex wants you to know it was part of the first expedition to go to the deepest spot on the ocean floor. And it was also part of James Cameron's expedition when he broke the record for first solo dive to Challenger Deep.
The deep-sea exploration and the space program both include building and testing crafts that go into virgin and inhabitable worlds. In both cases, crew members sit cramped inside a module untethered from any human rescue possible, staring through a window into a dark, black emptiness in an environment as strange and hostile as any to be found on other planets.
The picture of Lt. Don Walsh sitting in the confined bathyscaphe holding a U.S. flag while at the bottom of the ocean floor looks like a picture that could have been taken in a space capsule. It's also the picture equivalent of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary atop the Everest.
In my research for this article, I found a 1960 newsreel, which is using a U.S. Department of Navy footage of the bathyscaphe's return to the surface.
You can hear the old-timey, staccato voice of the reporter saying: "The mission recorded in these event's Department films is as great a feat, and as important a scientific breakthrough, as will be the first trip of man to the moon."
Jake shared with me the vintage ad below, which dates back from the 1960s, showing how Rolex tied the ocean to "inner space" (as opposed to outer-space). The ad is for a Submariner, but the Sea-Dweller is a Submariner variant.
Following their successful mission, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard were invited by President Eisenhower to the White House, the way astronauts would be greeted by Presidents in years to come.
Lt. Walsh received the Legion of Merit and Mr. Piccard the Distinguished Public Service Award. "As President of the United States, I extend the nation's recognition and gratitude for your resourcefulness, courage and devotion to duty and your contributions to our country and to all free men," President Eisenhower's citation read. "I offer my personal congratulations."
As of today, only 22 people have visited Challenger Deep, a number that only recently exceeded the number of people who have walked on the moon.
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.
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