Hans Wilsdorf, Founder Of Rolex: The Only Known Film Interview

Hans Wilsdorf

Founder Of Rolex

The Only Known Film Interview

Ten years ago, when I started publishing Jake's Rolex World, I wanted to learn everything I could about Rolex's founder, Hans Wilsdorf. The challenge was that history seemed to have forgotten him, which made no sense to me. There was only one photo of him that had ever been published, and that drove me crazy! I thought this was blasphemous, and began my eventful exploration to try to learn all I could about his amazing career, and to share it with you, my readers. This resulted in my publishing "The Complete History Of Rolex Leadership: Part 1: The Hans Wilsdorf Years."

The subtitle for my story was "Ghost In The Machine", as every Rolex ever made has a significant amount of Hans Wilsdorf's DNA inside it, yet he seemed to never have existed. Today, I am so excited to share the above video with you, which is the only video I know of that shows Hans Wildorf speaking. The video is in French, but you get a tremendous sense his personal disposition and manner of speech. Enjoy!!! The video was shot on September 19, 1959, and Hans Wilsdorf passed away less than a year later on July 6, 1960.
The context of this features Hans Wilsdorf speaking French, at the Rath Museum in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was attending a Watch & Jewelry exhibition. This occurred just after Rolex was crowned the winner of The Geneva Grad Prix. To add further context, Hans Wilsdorf had introduced the Submariner for sale in 1954, as well as the GMT-Master in 1955. In 1955 Rolex also introduced the Day-Date. So at this time, Rolex and Hans Wilsdorf had already laid the foundation for the Rolex of today!
In this video, Hans Wilsdorf talks about his early years, and the contributions he made to the horological world to popularize the wristwatch. Special thanks to Jose for interpreting this video from French to English!:


Translation Transcript September 19, 1959

We are here at the Rath Museum in Geneva, at the Watches & Jewelry exhibition to be precise and our objective today is to present the laureate of the Geneva award.
We have Mr. Hans Wilsdorf at our microphone and in front of our camera. He is the director of a big watch company who received the award. Sir, you have been here in Geneva for a very long period of time if I’m not mistaken.
Hans Wilsdorf: For 40 years. I came to Geneva after the first war in 1919, with some absences due to trips I made around the entire world. I've traveled a total of three times around the globe, to every nation in the world. I know a little bit something about all people and their taste. This helped me not only to understand the needs to make watches which… (Interrupts Mr. Wilsdorf) I see. Your watch is a wristwatch and I believe we can say that you helped diffuse the wristwatch.
Well, I entered the watch business as a young man at 19 years of age, in the year 1900, which was 60 years ago when wristwatches didn’t exist. People didn’t wear watches on their arms. Women wore pendant watches, especially enamel watches or watches with diamond settings, attached to chains worn around the neck. Wristwatches for women or men didn’t exist at all. Men wore pocket watches which went from father to son and son to grandson and the opportunity for the watch industry to grow was extremely limited as sales were very slow. As a young man, I understood my future would be very difficult in order to obtain results in an industry that had little chance to make lots of money. Watches were cheap and the quality was not very good, especially since there was no factory able to produce small watches with lever escapements which were necessary for wearing them on the arm…
(Interrupts Mr. Wilsdorf) And you are especially proud that a wristwatch won the award, I think that you consider this a little bit like the peak of your career.
Hans Wilsdorf: It’s the peak of my career as I foresaw the total development of the wristwatch for the Swiss watch industry. Of course, we still produce some pocket watches but the biggest business is wristwatches and here and I can say I was one of the initiators in the whole watch industry...
(Interrupts Mr. Wilsdorf) One of the pioneers…
Hans Wilsdorf: One of the pioneers, as I was not only the first to understand the potential of the wristwatch but I also made personal efforts which contributed largely to the development of the industry... (Interrupts Mr. Wilsdorf) Thank you very much, Mr. Wilsdorf…

Logan Paul: First Rolex

Top Influencer

Logan Paul

Gets a Rolex 

 By DANNY CRIVELLO           

Logan Paul, a YouTuber who lives in Los Angeles, is virtually unknown to anyone above the age of 25. Yet, he ranks No. 3 on Forbes' 2017 List of Top Influencers in Entertainment. He's appeared in commercials for brands ranging from Hanes to HBO; he makes $150,000 per Facebook post and $80,000 for sponsored content on Instagram. A meteoric rise is no overstatement to describe him: Three years ago his YouTube channel had a mere 150,000 subscribers. Today: 13 million. With over 2 billion video views, his estimated net worth is 6 million dollars. Did I mention he was 22?

During a trip to a Dubai mall a week ago, he was greeted by no fewer than 11,000 fans. In Dubai he also bought his first Rolex. 

Logan Paul, who bought a $6.55 million estate in Encino, Calif., just last month went for the 41-mm Rolex Day-Date II (ref. 218206) with an ice blue dial and a 3156 movement.

Is this story a big deal? I believe so. It is because Logan Paul is young and is a top influencer in the world who speaks to the youth, at a time where many wonder if they should own smart watches. 

In his video he is incredibly excited for finally owning a Rolex. It almost seems like the epitome of success for him. The video was posted six days ago and has already been seen over 4 million times! Less than a week in and it received 250,000 likes. Check out an excerpt of his video where he talks about his new watch and see how excited he is. 

Though this is the first Rolex he owns, it's not the first time he bought one. He bought his roommate an iced-up Rolex Submariner 16610 back in August as a gift. That video received over 8 million views. Now that's influence!

Aurel Bacs Reveals Who Bought Paul Newman's Daytona

Aurel Bacs

Reveals Who Bought Paul Newman's Daytona

Italian Rolex aficionado, Pucci Papaleo just published this fascinating video interview in which Aurel Bacs addresses "The Million Dollar Question" or "Who bought Paul Newman's, Paul Newman?", kind of. I have covered the auction of Pual Newman's Daytona extensively and speculated on who bought Paul Newman's Daytona for close to $18 Million. Aurel is a charismatic, intelligent man, and I highly recommend watching his interview.

My only response to this video is below :-)

Christopher Wray FBI Director

Christopher Wray

FBI Director

36MM Rolex Thunderbird

Christopher Wray assumed office as the director of The FBI several months ago on August 2, 2017. The FBI conducts many investigations in the United States as well an in international territories. The FBI has offices in 60 different foreign countries and employs a total of 35,000 FBI agents. The director of The FBI is considered to be the top cop in the land.

FBI Director Christopher Wray is pictured above and below wearing his Rolex Turn-O-Graph which features a cobalt blue dial with a red second hand.

The photo below is the same model the FBI Director is wearing on his wrist. The Rolex Turn-O-Graph is a Datejust variant that is basically a standard Datejust with an addition of a spinning fluted white gold bezel, that has 10-minute markers.

The video below is from FBI Director, Christopher Wray's Senate Confirmation hearings, and it's absolutely fascinating!!! The whole video is about 4.5 hours long. One of the most interesting details—at least to my way of thinking—is how paranoid the Senators are about giving the Director so much power, as they often bring up how FBI founding director J. Edgar Hoover had and abused his absolute power.

Tudor Is Back In Black

Back In Black

The Tudor watch company was founded by Rolex founder, Hans Wilsdorf back in 1946, and has been making watches ever since. The Tudor concept from the beginning was to make less expensive watches that were in many ways like a Rolex. Several years ago, Tudor changed gears and kind of reinvented itself to make watches that were largely inspired by their vintage watches. In other words, making watches that featured many retro Tudor design details. One of the most popular Tudor models today is the Tudor Black Bay, which is what we are taking a look at in this story.

Tudor Black Bay Bronze

One of A Kind

Sold for $355,000 At Only Watch 2017

The unique left-handed Tudor Black Bay Bronze One pictured below sold at the Only Watch Charity auction for $355,000 back in May of 2017. This set an all-time record for the price of a Tudor Watch at auction.

Tudor seems to have become a hotbed of experimentation for Rolex. Tudor has been doing all kind of things that seem very unRolexy, like offering special Tudor models exclusive to certain retailers. For instance, Revolution just ran a story on Harrods world-famous department store in London will be carrying a special Tudor Black Bay model that features Harrods trademark green color on the bezel, as seen in the two photos below. 

This special edition Tudor Black Back reminds me of the original LV Submariner, but with a gilt dial and matching gold hands. This watch is also offered with a retro riveted Rolex Oyster style bracelet as seen below.

Speaking of Tudor and Limited Special Editions, Tudor made their first special edition for Bucherer, which is a very successful Rolex and Tudor authorized dealer in Switzerland. This model is referred to as The Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze Blue, which looks really cool. 

Midnight Blue Tudor Heritage Black Bay

41MM Reference 79220B

Tudor is very popular in Hollywood with many famous actors, and in the photo below we see Will Smith wearing a Tudor Midnight Blue Black Bay.

Tudor Heritage

Black Bay Bronze

Brad Pitt is a huge fan of Rolex and wears many different models. Brad Pitt is pictured below in a photo from the 2017 GQ Style Summer issue, and he is wearing a Bronze Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze watch, which is very cool. This great photo of Brad Pitt is from a GQ Style story named: "Brad Pitt Talks Divorce, Quitting Drinking, and Becoming a Better Man."

Tudor is owned by Rolex, and the Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze Brad Pitt is wearing in the photo above is pictured below. This watch is very cool and has an updated size of 43MM. Brad is also wearing it on the standard Tudor aged leather strap, which gives it an awesome vintage look. Tudor watches are much less expensive that Rolex watches, and this model retails for only $3,975.
Tom Cruise can be seen in the photo below wearing a Tudor Heritage Chronograph, which is a different model altogether from the Black Bay, but I thought I would include it as it looks very cool. 

New Tesla Roadster

Going Plaid!!!

New Tesla Roadster

0-60MPH in 1.9 Seconds!!!!!

Just yesterday I wrote a story about how much the founder of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf admired American inventor, Thomas Edison. This is ironic, as Elon Musk is not only the Thomas Edison of our time, but also the Henry Ford, and Nikola Tesla—all bundled into one person. 

Tonight, in Southern California, Elon Musk just unveiled the new Tesla Trucks, and surprised everybody by unveiling the upcoming next-generation Tesla Roadster which can do 0-60MPH (97KPH) in 1.9 seconds, making it the faster production car ever made!!! 

Tesla semi-truck next to next-generation Tesla Roadster. Photo appears courtesy of TechCrunch.

Photo of Tesla Roadster appears courtesy of Engadget.

And even crazier, it has a 620 Mile range, achieved by a 200 Kilowatt hour batter, which means it will be able to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles and back on one charge!!!

Tesla.com/Roadster

A post shared by Tesla (@teslamotors) on Nov 16, 2017 at 9:04pm PST

On a side note, the fact the upcoming next-generation Roadster has a 200 Killowat hour battery, that can travel 620 miles before it needs to be recharged, is probably a sign of things to come for the Tesla Model S and Model X, which currently max out at 100 Killowat hours. Basically, this could very well be the death knell for internal combustion engines, assuming a Model S or X Tesla could travel over 600 miles on one charge!

You can watch a replay of Elon Musk's AMAZING Keynote he gave tonight by watching the video below:

I almost forgot!?!! The star of the Tesla Keynote this evening in California was supposed to be the new line of Tesla Semi Trucks, as seen below. These vehicles represent a complete game-changing disruptive technology. 

Basically, in about 10 years there will be no more diesel trucks on the road. Instead, we will see these Tesla Semi Truck driving up and down the highways of the world with complete autonomy. In other words, they drive around and pick up and drop off cargo without even having a human on board. This will make highway driving much safer while significantly reducing freight cost, not to mention it will be much more environmentally friendly as these Tesla trucks will be powered exclusively by solar power generated from sunlight. 



Going Plaid!!!
During Elon Musk's keynote, which can be seen in the video above, he mentions how the only speed beyond Ludicrous is Going Plaid, which you get to witness yourself in the video below.

Going Plaid is a reference to the movie Spaceballs, which was a Mel Brooks parody of the original Star Wars Trilogy. Going Plaid is a play on Hyperspace. 

Now that I think about it, we are living in a fascinating time where many things are going plaid so to speak. Beyond the Tesla, there was the recent release of the iPhone X, not to mention Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona selling for close to $18 Million, which was definitely a great example of something Going Plaid!!!   Now that I really think about it, Sir Jackie Stewart comes to mind when I think about Going Plaid and Super-fast cars.

Rolex and Cinema

Rolex and Cinema

I was just visiting Rolex.com and noticed on the front page there was a banner for a Rolex and Cinema microsite, so I clicked on it, and noticed the video below is live. Why is this strange? After Rolex announced they were sponsoring the Academy Awards earlier this year I wrote a detailed history of Rolex @ Academy Awards. 

A month or so, after I covered the Oscars, I noticed the video above was not available on YouTube, as it said the video was private, so I assumed they were only airing it for a limited period of time. BTW, I did a detailed analysis of this video, to figure out who all the characters were, which was fascinating!!!

Friedrich Gulda's Tangerine Dream Day-Date...

...One Of The Greatest Pianists That Ever Lived...

Friedrich Gulda
1930-2000

Friedrich Gulda is considered to be one of the greatest pianists in history. His unconventional style gained him many accolades as well as criticism. He was known for his amazing interpretations of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Shubert. He was also known for his eccentric behavior that defied convention. In 1999, a year before he actually died, he faked his own death and later said he did so because he wanted to see what the media would write about him.

Friedrich Gulda began his piano career as a classical pianist, but he tended to stray and would improvise. This resulted in him being nicknamed by some as "The Terrorist Pianist". I always perceived him as being almost the Jerry Lee Lewis pianist of classical music. This video below was shot back in 1964, and showcases Gulda's amazing classical piano abilities, as he plays Bach.

Light My Fire

Later in Friedrich's career, he was considered to be the cross-over maverick of his age, as he got into playing jazz piano. In this next video—shot in 1989—Friedrich plays, a radical version of Light My Fire (By The Doors) which was one of his favorite songs. Notice he is wearing his yellow gold Rolex Tangerine-Dream Day-Date. Bravo!!!!!!!!!!

Tangerine Dream Day-Date

The photos of the Orange Sherbert Dial Rolex Day-Date seen above are the actual watch that was owned by Friedrich Gulda as seen on his wrist in the photo below.

I have said in the past I believe many Rolex watches are high art, and this Tangerine Dream is no exception. It is so unusual and it reminds me of tangerines and a burst of sunshine. I think it is fascinating.

Night & Day

Here is a video you can watch of Friedrich Gulda playing live with Herbie Hancock and in the video you can see him wearing his Tangerine Day-Date. This is just amazing!!!!!

Here is another performance on Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 5, with Gulda sporting his Rolex. It is amazing how talented he was!!!!!!!

Amazing Documentary

Below is an incredible documentary on Friedrich Gulda's life and career achievements which explored and spanned so many different musical genres...as a piano playing Larry David ;-). It has English subtitles and offers fascinating insight into his personality and highly experimental career, as well as his many transformations.

Now We Are Talkin'!!!!

 Now We're Talkin'!!!!! 

Danny just sent me a text to let me know that Rolex just launched this fantastic new video which covers Rolex's new strategic partnership with National Geographic. You can find out way more on the Rolex.com Exploration microsite. You can learn much more about the Global Exploration Partnership between National Geographic and Rolex in the article I wrote back in July.

Contemplating The Paul Newman Daytona

Contemplating The 

Paul Newman Daytona

Friday before last stunned the world when Paul Newman's trademark Exotic Dial Daytona sold for close to $18 Million. I am working on a Super-Detailed follow-up article that will offer the most holistic overview of the significance of The Paul Newman, and as soon as I get it done I will publish it. 

The Paul Newman Daytona Thinker

If you missed the Paul Newman Daytona, or if you just want to trip on it again, you can watch a HD version below shot from different angles than the live Phillips feed. This was one dramatic event to witness!!!

People everywhere are in awe and contemplating what this new reality means, which is almost as fascinating as the auction event itself.

If you missed the event, Hodinkee created this AMAZING video overview of the Paul Newman Daytona auction highlights: