Rolex's long-standing relationship with tennis dates back more than 40 years, to 1978, when it became the Official Timekeeper of The Championships, Wimbledon. Its support for the game now extends to all four Grand Slam® tournaments – the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open – as well as legends of the sport such as Rod Laver, Chris Evert and Swiss phenomenon Roger Federer, along with today's champions, including Garbiñe Muguruza and Dominic Thiem, and the next generation of stars, notably Bianca Andreescu and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Rolex is a key partner at leading team events, the Davis Cup, the Laver Cup and the ATP Cup, and of the organizations that govern the professional game worldwide. Rolex's contribution to excellence in tennis is based on a rich heritage of continuously championing supreme performance and innovation while respecting the sport's finest traditions.
Ferdinand Piëch was the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche who founded Porsche. Piëch was an engineer and was responsible for creating the Porsche 917 that won Le Mans.
Ferdinand Piëch rocking his GMT-Master at Le Mans in 1969
The image above of Ferdinand Piëch wearing his GMT-Master was discovered by my pal Cam @ Craft & Tailored. Ferdinand Piëch was also involved in the design of many iconic German cars including the Porsche 911, as well as the Audi Quattro and Volkswagen Phaeton. In the photo below we see Ferdinand Piëch pictured in 1969 on the left with his cousin, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (middle) and his brother, Hans-Michel Piëch on the right. The three of them are largely responsible for the design of the Porsche 911.
Ferdinand Piëch in pictured below with his Porsche 917 race car on March 12, 1969 at the Geneva Motor Show Press Day event talking to Gerhard Mitter who was a Porsche racing driver.
Ferdinand Piëch was a billionaire who developed the Volkswagen Group which acquired other iconic brands like Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley. Ferdinand began his automotive career at Porsche but was forced to leave after a restriction said that no member of the Porsche or Piêch families could work in day-to-day operations at Porsche.
Ferdinand Piëch moved on to Audi where he eventually became the CEO. During his tenure at Audi Ferdinand grew Audi into much larger company that would compete successfully with Mercedes and BMW.
Today Stefanos Tsitsipas successfully defended his Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters title against Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. He captured his second ATP Masters 1000 crown in a row... with a Crown on his wrist, a two-tone Submariner 126613LN.
Tsitsipas has now become the sixth player to win back-to-back Monte Carlo titles in the Open Era joining Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Thomas Muster, Bjorn Borg and Ilie Nastase.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS
A new generation of tennis players have carried on the perpetual torch of Rolex. Rod Laver, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Roger Federer—all have kept the time of their lives with a Rolex on their wrists. Now the next generation is here, including 23-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas, who is the highest ranked Greek tennis player in history.
Tsitsipas is the second youngest player ranked in the ATP top 10, and currently has a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world, making him the highest-ranked Greek player in history. Tsitsipas was the champion at the 2019 ATP Finals, becoming the youngest winner of the year-end championships in eighteen years. He has won seven ATP singles titles.
Tsitsipas throwing a football on the Harvard University campus, a Rolex Cellini moonphase on his wrist, an unusual sight as he is always spotted with a white-dial, ceramic Daytona.
At 6-foot-4 (1.93m), Tsitsipas is often nicknamed the Greek God by his fans, especially female fans, because of his striking features. His father is Greek and his mother is Russian of partial Greek descent. Both of his parents are experienced tennis players. His mother was a world No. 1 junior who had a career-high professional ranking inside the top 200 and represented the Soviet Union in the Federation Cup.
His parents had been working as tennis instructors at the Astir Palace resort hotel in Vouliagmeni at the time of Stefanos' birth. They originally met at a WTA tournament in Athens where his mother was competing and his father was a line judge.
...Rolex Super-Coolness...
ROD LAVER
Australian Tennis Legend Yellow Gold Datejust
Special Burled Madrone Wood Dial
36mm Reference 16018
Rolex has published a Rod Laver profile on the "Every Rolex Tells A Story" gallery on Rolex.com. Being a tennis player and huge professional tennis fan, over the past decade I have written many stories about Rolex and tennis, and I have been meaning to write a piece about Rod Laver, so here it is: Rod Laver is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players in history with an unmatched record he holds to date of having won 200 singles titles. Laver was a dynamic player that excelled on all court surfaces including hard, grass, clay, carpet and wood/parquet.
He began his amateur tennis career being ranked at Number 1 from 1961 to 1962. From 1964 to 1970, he was ranked as the number one tennis player in the world, which spanned four years prior and three years after the beginning of the Open Era in 1968.
I have to admit, I am totally fascinated with Rod Laver's yellow gold Rolex Datejust he is wearing in these official Rolex photos. As far as I know, Rolex no longer makes burled wood dials, which is a big mistake in my opinion. In the 1970s through the 1990s Rolex made these wood-based dials with applied yellow gold indexes, that were magnificent. Each wood dial is unique and has a very warm vintage look.
In 1981, Rod Laver purchased his yellow gold Datejust which was the same year he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. What a cool guy, and what a cool Rolex!!!!
The 1979 Rolex ad seen below is from my Vintage Rolex Christmas Story and shows a yellow gold Day-Date with a similar dial. Rolex refers to this wood as being from a Madrone tree which is an evergreen tree belonging to the genus Arbutus, which grows in North America and Canada, as well as in Europe, and are known for their pale reddish-brown wood.
An Amazing Career with Rolex Keeping The Time Of His Life
To date, Tom Hanks is the best known leading actor in the world and has starred in 48 films that rank him #1 in the history of box office gross with a total of over $9 Billion, which averages out to over $187 Million per movie!! Tom Hanks has been nominated 5 times for the coveted Academy Award for Best Actor and won two times for his performances in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.
Tom Hanks has been wearing Rolex watches for several decades. In the firsts two photo below we Tom wearing his Rolex SEA-DWELLER.
Some of Tom Hanks' most memorable roles were in Splash, Forest Gump, Bonfire Of The Vanities, Sleepless In Seattle, Philadelphia, Apollo 13, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, The Green Mile and Scully–just to name a few!!!
In this next set of photos, we see Tom Hanks wearing his Rolex Explorer on an Oyster Bracelet
If you click on this next image, you will see the close-up detail on his Rolex Explorer dial.
In these two recent photos, seen below, we see Tom Hanks wearing his Rolex GV Milgauss.
Sully
Oscar Worthy Performance
Tom Hanks movie Sully, and although I have not seen it yes, I understand he gives an Oscar worthy performance. Sully was directed by Clint Eastwood, and you can watch the trailer below. Sully is about Captain Chelsea Sullenberger III, who is a real-life hero, who also wears a Rolex.
Mr. Rogers
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Tom Hanks recently made a movie about Mr. Rogers who was a childhood favorite on mine that I grew up on, and we see the movie poster below as well as the trailer. Hanks was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in this film.
It never ceases to amaze me, how absolutely timeless Rolex watch design is. Take for instance this vintage Rolex Submariner from the 1950s. In particular, I was tripping on how much modern Rolex watches have been inspired by past design. Notice this 1950s Rolex Submariner, essentially has a Supercase, which Rolex brought back when then they introduced the ceramic Submariner.
I found this picture in the archive of Jake's Rolex World. The post is dated May 30, 2008, when the watch internet was barely waking up! Jake titled it "Photoshop Fun: Rolex GMT II-Ceramic Sprite." Nice Photoshop rendition that could have inspired Rolex! (A month later Jake would report the sighting of a real left-handed Rolex.)
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme"
—Mark Twain
I wasn't expecting Danny to post this story, but I thought it would be great to offer some additional context. Back in the early days of Jake's Rolex World I went a little crazy with a series of posts named "Photoshop Fun" where I posted images that I created as well as readers images that showcased some interesting dream Rolex concept watch ideas. This was inspired by the LV Submariner that shocked the Rolex collectors world by offering a Submariner with a green bezel. The most interesting detail about my 2008 post was the nickname of calling the black and green color combination the "Sprite".
Hopefully in the future Rolex will continue to expand its color options as different colors are almost like color therapy. I will point out that the 2008 "Sprite" is NOT the only Rolex that came to life, but so did my idea to create a Submariner with an all blue bezel insert. I would still love to see a white dial GMT-Master or Explorer with a black spinning bezel, which I dubbed the "Oreo Cookie" fourteen years ago, back in 2008!!!
The Day-Date is considered the emblem — nay, scratch that — the ultimate watch of prestige at Rolex. It was Hans Wilsdorf in 1956 who wanted a watch that displayed the day. The Day-Date was Rolex founder's brainchild, and it became the first wrist watch in the world to show both the day and the date in full letters, a feature widely considered a major innovation in horology worldwide.
The Day-Date, which is offered only in precious metal — yellow gold, white gold, Everose and platinum — is available in 26 languages, including Latin, as Latin is still spoken in the Vatican. The ice-blue dial is reserved exclusively for platinum watches at Rolex.
The technical feat achieved in 2022 was to offer a fluted bezel in platinum, something that was made possible only after years of research and development, Rolex told me. Platinum is soft and challenging to work with, especially when carrying out finishing.
The Rolex representative told me it was akin to scooping soft butter ("du beurre mou") without leaving any residue. The most challenging part was to create the sharp edges and smooth sides that are emblematic of the fluted bezel. And Rolex had to come up with a new manufacturing process.
Rolex is discontinuing the smooth bezel on the Day-Date, as the fluted bezel is the signature design of Rolex. I wrote last year about the fluted motif seen even in Rolex architecture throughout the world. So today the Day-Date in platinum — the quintessential watch of prestige — is getting the quintessential Rolex design. It is fascinating to see a brand whose watches sell themselves still invest in research and development to improve design, quality and manufacturing.
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.
