A Swedish Explorer
Marcus from Sweden is a fan of Jake's Rolex Watch Blog and he sent in the great set of photos of his Rolex Explorer on a red NATO strap. Great Shots!!! Thanks for sending them in Marcus!!!
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Steve Wynn: The King of Las Vegas & his Rolex Day-Date...
Steve Wynn
The King of Las Vegas
Steve Wynn is more responsible for building modern Las Vegas than any other man, and he is an extremely talented designer and business man. As you see in the photo below, he wears a platinum Rolex Day-Date with an ice blue dial.
Steve Wynn pictured above in 2008. Photo by Laura Rauch appears courtesy of The New York Times.
The video below is AMAZING!!!!!!!! The speech Steve Wynn gives in this interview is one of the most inspirational speeches I have ever seen. I remember when I first saw it–Steve blew my mind!!!!!!!!!! I highly recommend you watch it.
This next video is of an earlier Charlie Rose interview of Steve Wynn which is also fascinating and tells more of the story of how he built his empire. I noticed if you close your eyes and listen to Steve Wynn speak, his voice often sounds like Ronald Reagan speaking.
You can watch the video of Steve Wynn on 60 Minutes by placing your cursor over the image below and hitting the play button.
I had a chance to visit the Rolex Store at the Wynn Hotel earlier this year and I was blown away with how beautiful it was!!! I took some photos, and the first one below shows the Rolex Wynn & Company logo on the wall when you first walk in. The Wynn Rolex store had an amazing selection of Rolex watches and the employees were extremely professional and nice.
I took the photo below in the foyer at the Wynn, which was decorated to celebrate Chinese New Year. I must say The Wynn completely blew my mind with how beautiful and elegant it was. I have never seen such a beautiful hotel in my life. It was simply breathtaking!!!!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
...Rolex Presents... The History of The Open
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Rolex Coolness: John Mayer Supercase Stainless Steel GMT Master
Rolex Coolness: John Mayer
Supercase Stainless Steel GMT Master
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
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...
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
John Goldberger 2013 Rolex Day-Date Cover
John Goldberger
2013 Rolex Day-Date Cover
John Goldberger is a world-renowned Rolex collector and expert. Every year he creates a themed Rolex calendar which he give out to his friends as a holiday gift, and here is the cover for his 2013 calendar, which covers the Day-Date. I perceive John's calendar covers as a true litmus test for how well you know Rolex history. If you can identify everybody and ever thing on the cover you are a true Rolex History expert.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Apollo 14 Rolex Story...
Apollo 14
Rolex Moon Watches
Pepsi Rolex GMT Master
In the story I wrote the day before yesterday we saw photos of Jack Swigert wearing his Rolex GMT along with a presentation piece that confirmed he wore a Rolex when he went to the moon aboard Apollo XIII. Last month we saw Michael Collins from Apollo 11 wearing a Rolex Turn-O-Graph.
I have heard for years that Omega was the official Moon watch. I am not so certain exactly what official means, and if Omega was the official Moon Watch then I think it would be safe to say that Rolex was the "Unofficial Moon Watch."
If we examine the photo below of the three NASA Astronauts that flew to the Moon on board Apollo 14, we see they are all wearing Omega Speedmaster's on the "Outside" of their space suits, not on their wrist. Essentially, they used the Omega Chronograph as a stopwatch.
Let's start by familiarizing ourselves with the crew of the Apollo 14 which was the third manned space mission to land on the Moon, touching down February 5, 1971. From left to right in the photo above are Stuart Roosa (Command Module Pilot), Alan Shepard (Commander) and Edgar Mitchell (Lunar Module Pilot).
Here is where it starts to get really interesting. If you examine Alan Shepard in the photo above, he appears to be wearing a Pepsi Rolex GMT Master on a NATO strap. In Photoshop I zoomed in really deep on his wrist and can see Red & blue on his bezel and the size and shape are consistent with a GMT. It is definitely too small to be an Omega Speedmaster.
In this next photo we see Alan Shepard (light blue shirt) and Ed Mitchell (cap) on a geology field trip, at Craters of the Moon, Idaho on August 22, 1969. Notice that Ed Mitchell is wearing his trademark Pepsi Rolex GMT on his left wrist.
In the image below, the watch really looks to me to be a GMT Master on a NATO strap.
The photo above is of Al Shepard (blue short-sleeve shirt) taken on November 9, 1970.
Next we switch over to Edgar Mitchell's Rolex GMT Master. One obvious question is why is Edgar Mitchell adjusting and winding two Rolex GMT's (as seen in the photo below) just before he boards Apollo 14 to go to the Moon? The answer comes from the photo above that was taken in July of 1970 when Edgar Mitchell (mustard yellow t-shirt) and Alan Shepard (purple shirt) were practicing in the simulator. Notice in the photo above that Edgar Mitchell is wearing what appears to be a Rolex GMT on each wrist.
Tip: Click on all images in this story to see much better detail
My best guess is that one GMT was for keeping time on earth at Cape Canaveral as well as Greenwich Mean Time and the other was for measuring some performance characteristic or local time on the Rocket Ship. Also, Edgar Mitchell was well aware of the challenges that Jack Swigert encountered in the previous Apollo XIII mission and knew that his Rolex GMT was a life saver. Maybe he wore two watches for redundancy?
According to NASA this photo (KSC-71P-88) of Ed Mitchell was taken on January 31, 1971 as Ed Mitchell suited up on launch date just before they took off for the Moon. The official NASA caption for this image reads "Ed Mitchell adjusts his watch. 31 January 1971."
It is crystal clear to anybody that the watch NASA officially refers to as Ed Mitchell's watch is a Rolex GMT, which in my mind means that NASA is officially confirming the Rolex to be a Moon Watch!!!!!!
I have not rested my case yet...
These images of the Apollo 14 during take-off toward the heavens are spectacular. Click on them to see all the glorious detail!!!
Alan Shepard on the Moon above.
This next NASA photo is of the NASA Apollo 14 Lunar Module parked on the Moon surface which delivered Dr. Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard to the moon surface and returned them to the Service Module.
Apollo 14
Lunar Module Moon Lift-Off
February 6, 1971 18:48:42 UT
Lunar Module Pilot: Dr. Edgar Mitchell
Rolex GMT-Master
The following three photos show Dr. Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard as they take-off from the Moon surface to return to the Apollo 14 Command/Service Module in the Grumman-made Lunar Lander module named "Antares." During their moonwalk, Dr. Edgar Mitchell set the all-time record for the longest moonwalk at 9 hours and 17 minutes.
In this first image, we see Alan Shepard putting on his oxygen mask and if you study his facial expression you see a bit of trepidation. After all, he has just experienced the most euphoric experience of his life and he is likely exhausted phyically and mentally–kind of like the way you feel after a full-day of great skiing or snowboarding. He likely realizes if the Lunar Lander does not take-off, they would be stranded on the moon and die.
In the next photo we see Dr. Edgar Mitchell as he prepares the 33,000 pound (15,264kg) Lunar Module (LM) for takeoff–since he was the Lunar Module pilot. We see Dr. Edgar Mitchell wearing his Pepsi GMT Master on his right wrist and we get a clear view of his Rolex Oyster bracelet. He is wearing an Omega Speedmaster Chronograph on a velcro NASA Spec Black Nylon Strap on his left wrist.
In the past, Dr. Edgar Mitchell recalled that he wore his Pepsi Rolex GMT Master on the moonwalk, but there has never been any photographic proof to confirm this fact–until today!!!!
This next photo shows Dr. Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard very enthusiastically shaking hands in a euphoric and jubilant moment of exultation as they succesfully take-off in the Lunar Module to return to the Service Module from the moon surface!!!!
Pictured below is Stu Roosa (left), Al Shepard (center) and Ed Mitchell (right) in the isolation van. Roosa is using a the microphone to talk to bystanders on February 9, 1971. Ed Mitchell is wearing his Rolex GMT on his right wrist in both the photo above and below.
Ed Mitchell is pictured below during a 15 day quarantine in the MSC Lunar Receiving Laboratory at the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, holding a sample collection as he shows them to NASA management during a post-mission debrief with geologists on February 18, 1971. Ed is wearing his trademark Stainless Steel Pepsi Rolex GMT Master.
To Learn more about the Rolex Moon Watches please visit the "Rolex Achievement Page" and scroll down to "Rolex's Moon and Space Conquest."
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