Boris Yeltsin Rolex Datejust...

Boris Yeltsin

Capitalism For The Masses

Rolex C.E.O. Patrick Heiniger Resigns

Rolex C.E.O. Patrick Heiniger Resigns

Rolex GENEVA issued the following press release:

GENEVA, December 16, 2008

Mr. Patrick Heiniger, has informed the Board of Directors of Rolex S.A. of his decision to step down as CEO and administrator at the end of this year in order to pursue personal interests.

In 1992, he followed after his father, Mr. André Heiniger; under his leadership, Rolex companies worldwide have sustained unprecedented growth.

Mr. Heiniger will remain available as an adviser to the Rolex Group and to carry out any missions entrusted to him.

Management and Board of Directors will proceed in the conduct of the Group's business. 

Lance Armstrong Sporting His Stainless Rolex Daytona With White Dial...

Lance Armstrong–The Greatest Cyclist In History

My pal, Sheldon Smith of www.Minus4Plus6.com is an avid road biker and he sent in what he refers to as the cover of "The Ultimate Bike Geek Magazine."

Sheldon said he likes Lance's GMT Master on Lance better than the Stainless Steel Rolex Daytona Lance Armstrong started wearing about 6 months ago.

In the photo above and below, Lance Armstrong is wearing his stainless steel Rolex Daytona with a white dial. Lance will be back in France in 2009 again to attempt to make his 8th consecutive conquest of the Tour de France. 

Prior to Lance Armstrong, the record for the number of wins for the Tour de France was 5 times. That puts Lance in a class all by himself with his record breaking 7 wins.

Men & Watches is about the equivalent of Women & Shoes

Men & Watches = Women & Shoes

I just read an interesting article that says that watch sales are defying the economic crisis which you can find by clicking here.

The Rarest Rolex from John Goldberger...

The Rarest Rolex In The World

John Goldberger is a Rolex connoisseur/collector. His passion for excellent, beautiful and rare Rolex watches is both intoxicating and awe-inspiring at the same time.

John is from Italy, and he recently wrote an amazing Rolex book named 100 Superlative Rolex Watches which contains Rolex watches from the top 5 Rolex connoisseur's on earth–including his own magnificent collection. You can read the review and also listen to the detailed podcast interview by clicking here.

Last year, John took this photo of what he refers to as the rarest Rolex, a Reference 4113, split-chronograph. Rolex only made 12 of these watches in 1943 for the Italian Army. 

The watch came from the Mondani collection and was originally auctioned by Antiquorum in 2006. John also owns another one of the 12 which you can find in his book on page 62. 

Click on image for great detail

John Goldberger took this stunning photograph of his prized possession split-chronometer next to jumbo stone crab claws at Garcia's Restaurant in Miami, Florida. Those claws are really jumbo because the Rolex Reference 4413 split-chronograph is a whopping 44mm.

The Rolex split-chronographs have a Valjoux 55 caliber movement. John mentioned in his email to me that "This caliber was used in other split chronographs like the 24h. Chronograph by Universal (made also for Italian military supplier Cairelli in Rome.)"

The Rolex has a matt silvered dial with pink gold relief Arabic and Baton indexes, with an outer 1/5 seconds division, outer black tachometer scale along with a blue inner telemeter scale. The watch also has pink gold Baton hands and a subsidiary seconds and 30-minute register dial.

In the future we are going to do a detailed story on this watch.

Rolex Lume Shot of the Day: Rolex Explorer...

Rolex Air King Lume Shot

At first, I thought this was a Rolex Explorer, but as Douglas pointed out, it is the new Air King. The way you can tell is that an Air King has a Rolex Crown at 12, and the Rolex Explorer has an upside down triangle like the Submariner, which would glow in the dark. 

Photo Credit: Frank

Marlon Brando Rolex Moonphase...

Marlon Brando Rolex

All The Crazy Moonphases

John Goldberger, the author of 100 Superlative Rolex Watches pointed out that in the 1960 movie, The Fugitive Kind, starring Marlon Brando and Joanne Woodward, that Marlon Brando mentions his Rolex Moonphase 6062. John also points out that he thinks the watch is a chronograph, but I can't see it well enough to tell. I definitely see the moonphase on the dial of the watch when Marlon hands it to Joanne.

John Goldberger pointed out to me in an email "I think this is the first Rolex advertising in the movies, because I bet the original book or script by Tennessee Williams didn't exist with the words Rolex Chronometer." 

Update: In a follow-up email, John mentioned "Tennessee Williams wrote the script for The Fugitive Kind in 1937, at which time Rolex had NEVER made a Moonphase of any kind. This means that in 1960, the screenplay authors added the words Rolex Chronometer as well as the description for the Moonphase. Also the description is too precise for the knowledge of a film-maker, and the supreme irony is that the model was out of production in 1960!!"

The President on The Godfather

Anyone whose favorite movie is The Godfather is alright by me

The Bulibeer Rolex Milsub...

Bernhard Wears It Well

Bernhard is a vintage Rolex collector of the highest order. A true purist.

Bernhard goes by Bulibeer on the forums. Yesterday Bernhard mentioned to me that his 7 year old son spent a half hour on the James Bond section of Jake's Rolex Watch Blog yesterday just looking at all the Bondwatches.

I must admit that I was flattered to learn this fact, and I must also mention that I have learned much from Bernhard about some fantastic watches he owns. Today we are going to examine Bernhard's Rolex Milsub [Reference 5517] with the rare W10 engraving.

Milsub stands for Military Submariner. The Milsub as it is popularly dubbed has some unique design characteristics including sword hands, and 60 minute indices on the bezel. The Milsub also has a Tritium "T" in a circle designation on the dial just above the 600ft designation.

Bernhard bought his Milsub from the original owner who was a commando. Bernhard points out "The Milsub's were issued to the SBS and some other Special forces units close to them like, Mine divers and Intel units."

In both photos, Bernhard is wearing his Milsub on a NATO spec band. Bernhard is a really cool guy and I want to thank him for sharing these stunningly cool images of his very rare Milsub.

John Mayer, Jennifer Aniston Rolex Love

So In Love...With Rolex

John Mayer is an ultra-talented singer, songwriter, guitarist and he has been dating the gorgeous actress, Jennifer Aniston for some time now. Both of them were Rolex fanatics before they met. 

Here is a great video of John playing Let the good times Roll with B.B. King at the Grammy's. Both B.B. King and John Mayer are Rolex collectors.

Here is a video of John playing Hummingbird and you can see him sporting a Paul Newman Daytona:

John Mayer WISdom

John Mayer is a big Rolex collector and has quite a collection. Here is a photo of James Dowling hanging out with John Mayer at the June 6, 2007 IWJG show. John refers to James Dowling as "The Obi-Wan" of vintage Rolex collecting. Of course, James Dowling is the co-author of The Best of Times that I did a review on which you can view by clicking here.

James Dowling & John Mayer

John Mayer definitely suffers from WISITUS. On one of John Mayer's blogs he showed the photo below that he took of his two pristine Rolex Explorer watches [Reference 1655]. 

John Mayer wrote:

 "Three people in the world will think this is interesting...A pair of Rolex 1655 Explorer IIs...As sharp and clean as they come. That's right. I spend nights at home taking pictures of watches. And I love it. So there."

Photo Credit: John Mayer

John Mayer has an amazing Rolex collection. I have been working on putting together a definitive article about John Mayer's Rolex collection which I will publish sometime soon. Also, I hope to do a podcast interview with John.

Update: The day after I published this story, John Mayer posted the photo below on his blog and he said:

"Tonight's watch is a ref. 1680 "red" Submariner, issued to the Peruvian Air Force. The only brown dial "feet first" dial I've seen. Bezel faded to a gorgeous gunmetal gray."

Beautiful Rolex Daytona Strap & Endlinks Removal Illustration...

Otto owns this beautiful yellow Gold Rolex Daytona and he just purchased an authentic Rolex brown crocodile strap to go with it. The honey-rust Rolex strap on the yellow gold Rolex Daytona creates a magnificent color combination.

Did you ever wonder how with White Gold & Yellow Gold Rolex Daytona's how the matching end-links attach to the watch? Now you can see in the illustration below. On top we have a white gold Daytona with the solid end links. First you remove the bezel then the end links come off.

I was surprised to find that the case is machined out under the bezel to accommodate the solid end links.