Geeking Out with Jose Over Paul Newman Dials...

Geeking Out with Jose

Over Paul Newman Dials

Discovers 2 New Dial Variations!!!

Jose, who is a member of the Jake's Rolex World team just published a great article titled, "Rolex Daytona 6263 Paul Newman—Two Additional Dial Variations Found", which is a fascinating read over on Perezcope.com.

SEALAB Documentary from PBS American Experience: Chapter 1

SEALAB Documentary

American Experience

Chapter 1 

On February 3rd I published a story announcing the upcoming PBS SEALAB Documentary coming up on The American Experience.  I am beyond exited to be the first to share this SEALAB Documentary Chapter 1 Preview with you!!!! This video is the first 9 minutes from the upcoming PBS SEALAB which will be released in its entirety on February 12, 2019.

The REAL History of

The Rolex 
SEA-DWELLER
Close to twelve years ago, just before I started publishing Jake's Rolex World there was a false Rolex myth that was perpetuated that put forth the idea that Rolex had developed the Rolex SEA-DWELLER model with COMEX, the amazing French diving company. 

I busted this falsely perpetuated myth and put forth the truth, which was that Rolex developed the SEA-DWELLER with the U.S. Navy SEALAB Aquanauts. Over the years I revealed this story in my 20 Part Series named "The Complete History of The Rolex Submariner & SEA-DWELLER: Rolex's Conquest of The Ocean", which you can find the table of content for at the bottom of this post.
The image above is a painting of the U.S. Navy SEALAB that Jose took while in Panama City, along with the photo below of the SEALAB team posing with a 'Tiltin Hilton' sign. Scott Carpenter is pictured in the center of the photo with fellow SEALAB divers, and they are all wearing Rolex dive watches.




Dr. George Bond
The SEALAB program was the brainchild of Dr. George Bond who began his career in medicine as a backwoods Doctor in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.

Dr. George Bond is pictured above as well as at the top of the photo below. In the photo below Dr. Bond is with Walt Mazzone who was his right hand man during the U.S. Navy Project Genesis and Project SEALAB. Back on January 13, 2010 I interviewed Walt Mazzone for a podcast interview I have never published. Walt was 93 years old at the time. We ended up becoming friends and he shared a tremendous amount of SEALAB history with me. When I get a chance I plan to go through my archives and find and publish that interview.

Bob Barth

Dr. George Bond is pictured below with the U.S. Navy aquanaut, Bob Barth, who I also interviewed extensively over the years but have not yet published. Bob Barth was the U.S. Navy Aquanaut who conceptualize the helium release valve for the Rolex SEA-DWELLER and developed it with Rolex, working with fellow Aquanaut, T. Walker Lloyd who went on to become a Rolex U.S.A. Executive.

The photo below shows the SEALAB Underwater Habitat being towed on a barge as she heads out to the Pacific Ocean to travel down to San Diego in 1968.

The photo below shows Bob Barth's SEALAB Submariner he wore as he worked with Rolex to develop the SEA-DWELLER. This is a SERIOUS TOOL WATCH that went through hell and lived to tell an amazing story. Enjoy Chapter 1 of the SEALAB Documentary from PBS's American Experience and stay tuned as BEST IS YET TO COME!!!

U.S. Navy SEA-LAB Interview

1968 Bob Barth Interview

San Francisco Navy Yard

Walter Cronkite is pictured in the next two photos interviewing the legendary U.S. Navy SEA-LAB diver, Bob Barth. Bob Barth was a the only diver who dove on all the SEALAB 1, 2, and 3 missions.  

Bob Barth is pictured below during a SEALAB press interview wearing his Rolex Submariner pictured above or a SEA-DWELLER prototype.


Jose is the Horological Forensics Expert for Jake's Rolex World and also publishes the AMAZING Perezcope.com. Jose visited Bob Barth and interviewed him a few years ago, and in the photo below you can see Bob Barth is still wearing his SEA-DWELLER.

Jose is pictured above on the right at the SEALAB Museum in Panama City, Florida below with Museum Director Jim McCarthy, who was part of the team on SEALAB 3.

Jose and I collaborated on putting together the timeline poster seen below titled "HISTORY OF THE ROLEX SEA-DWELLER: Rolex's Conquest Of The Ocean." You can download a free high-resolution version of this poster by right mouse clicking on the poster below and saving it. You can also purchase a magnificent high-res poster on Perezcope.com.

The Complete History Of

The Rolex Submariner & SEA-DWELLER

Rolex's Conquest Of The Ocean

Table Of Contents

• Chapter 1: Genesis

• Chapter 2: The Perpetual Oyster & The Mermaid

• Chapter 3: Panerai & The Italian Royal Navy (The First Rolex Diving Watch)

• Chapter 4: A Brief History Of Diving

• Chapter 5: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Emile Gagnan & The Aqua Lung

• Chapter 6: The Birth Of The Rolex Submariner: Breaking The Rolex Design Code

• Chapter 7: The Rolex Submariner Through Time: The Evolution Of The Rolex Revolution.

• Chapter 8: The Birth Of The Rolex DEEP-SEA: Jacques Piccard & Captain Don Walsh aboard the U.S. Navy Bathyscaph Trieste Set The All-Time World Depth Record.

• Chapter 9: The First SEA-DWELLER's: Doctor Bond. U.S. Navy Project Genesis and Jacques Cousteau & Project Conshelf.

• Chapter 10: The Birth Of The Rolex SEA-DWELLER: Bob Barth, Scott Carpenter & U.S. Navy SEA-LAB 

• Chapter 11: Henri Delauze & COMEX

• Chapter 12: Dr. George Bass [The Father Of Underwater Archeology]

• Chapter 13: Dr. Sylvia Earle: The First Female Aquanaut

• Chapter 14: Dr. Phil Nuytten [Pioneering DEEP-SEA Explorer: The Real Aquaman]

• Chapter 15: Dr. Joe MacInnis: From U.S. Navy SEA-LAB to The Titanic Discovery Team

• Chapter 16: Dr. Robert Ballard: The Ultimate U.S. Navy DEEP-SEA Discovery Of The 20th Century–Finding The Titanic 

• Chapter 17: Ralph White [Explorer and National Geographic Cameraman] Discovering and Exploring The Titanic

• Chapter 18: The Return of The Rolex DEEP-SEA 

• Chapter 19: The Return of The Rolex Single SEA-DWELLER: 50th Anniversary Jubilee Model 

• Chapter 20: U.S Navy SEALS: Rolex Submariner Heritage

Julian Edelman 2019 Super Bowl Wins MVP

Julian Edelman

2019 Super Bowl Wins MVP 

Julian Edleman was awarded the Super Bowl MVP trophy today from NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell as seen in the photo below. Notice Julian is wearing a GV Rolex Milgauss. Special thanks to Nick Gould for finding and sharing this story and superb images with us.

SEALAB Documentary Coming On PBS American Experience...

SEALAB Documentary

American Experience
Airing on PBS February 12, 2109
Today I spoke on the phone with a few surviving members of the U.S. Navy SEALAB program and one of them mentioned PBS is planning to air their SEALAB Documentary on February 12, 2018!!! I collaborated with one of the research team members on this upcoming American Experience documentary to provide insight and images to help with their production as I have written so extensively about SEALAB and Scott Carpenter in the past. Below are several trailers for the documentary.
American Experience is also debuting documentaries on SEALAB's Scott Carpenter as well as Dr. George Bond, which will be aired for the first time on February 5, 2019 and you can check out their trailers below.

"What is a scientist after all? It is a curious man looking through a keyhole, the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on." –Jacques-Yves Cousteau 

SEALAB's Doctor Bond being interviewed with Conshelf's Jacuqes-Yves Cousteau

So what does this have to do with Rolex? A lot. In particular it has to do with the development of the Rolex Submariner, and in particular the development of the SEA-DWELLER. At the crossroads between the Submariner and SEA-DWELLER there is one central figure and that is the greatest explorer that has ever lived, Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Another key character in this Story is NASA Astronaut Scott Carpenter who is pictured below. Back in 2008 I had the opportunity to interview Scott Carpenter and published a podcast of our conversation.

After Scott Carpenter flew his mission during Operation Gemini at NASA he was fascinated with Jacques-Yves Cousteau and ended up becoming an Aquanaut for the U.S. Navy SEALAB program. 
  "The Rolex Submariner & Rolex SEA-DWELLER have a cachet that is unmatched by any other watch. The Rolex brand is the most highly respected in my book. The Rolex Submariner was the preferred diving watch for U.S. NAVY SEALAB Divers." –Scott Carpenter

In the photo below we see Scott Carpenter wearing his SEA-DWELLER and which is also pictured below in an exclusive photo of his watch he took for Jake's Rolex World. 

SEALAB was one of the most ambitious aquatic undertakings by the U.S. Navy.

In the photos above and below we see the SEALAB underwater habitat, that the first American Sea-Dwellers lived in.

In this next photo we see a photo of a bunch of the members of SEALAB posing for a picture.

In the photo above we see Scott Carpenter in the front row center wearing a suit, and in the photo below we see Scott in the front row second from the left.

In this next image we see Scott Carpenter with legendary U.S. Navy Aquanauts Bob Barth, and Wilbur Eaton preparing to dive down to the SEALAB 2 Habitat in 1965.

U.S. Navy SEA-LAB Aquanauts: Bob Barth, Wilbur Eaton & Scott Carpenter

Team 1 Preparing To Dive Down To SEA-LAB 2 Habitat [August 28, 1965]

Rolex co-developed the SEA-DWELLER with U.S. NAVY SEALAB program. I originally learned this from interviewing Scott Carpenter who put me in touch with retired Rolex U.S.A. executive T. Walker Lloyd who essentially was the liaison between Rolex and SEALAB. I became close with T. Walker Lloyd and spent many hours interviewing him. To date I have published 3 hours of podcasts of those interviews which are absolutely fascinating!!! 

In the photo below we see Jacques-Yves Cousteau's son, Philipe Cousteau who was on the dive team for both Operation Conshelf, as well as on SEALAB 3.

Yes. I have seen some previously unpublished historical video that will debut in this video and there will be new Rolex history revealed in the upcoming documentary on SEALAB!!!

American Experience: Sealab On a February day in 1969, off the shore of northern California, a US Navy crane carefully lowered 300 tons of metal into the Pacific Ocean. The massive tubular structure was an audacious feat of engineering - a pressurized underwater habitat, complete with science labs and living quarters for an elite group of divers who hoped to spend days or even months at a stretch living and working on the ocean floor. The Sealab project, as it was known, was the brainchild of a country doctor turned naval pioneer who dreamed of pushing the limits of ocean exploration the same way NASA was pushing the limits of space exploration. As Americans were becoming entranced with the effort to land a man on the moon, these divers, including one of NASA's most famous astronauts, were breaking depth barrier records underwater. Sealab tells the little-known story of the daring program that tested the limits of human endurance and revolutionized the way humans explore the ocean.

2019 24 Hours of Daytona

2019 Rolex 24

Hours of Daytona

A Very Rainy Rolex Race

Rolex has been a sponsor of the Daytona 24 Hours endurance race since 1966 and has remained the title sponsor since 1992. A really cool feature of the 24 Hours of Daytona is that the winners not only get a trophy, but they also receive a highly coveted specially engraved Rolex Daytona two-tine wrist watch that commemorates their win!

The 24 Hours of Daytona race was run this past weekend and in the photo below we see the winners trophy along with the Rolex Daytona watch prize.

This years Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona experienced torrential rain, which caused the race to be cut short by 10 minutes as visibility was reduced to almost zero as seen in the tweet below:

Visibility is so low in the #Rolex24.

Toni Vilander had no time to react when the 540 Porsche appeared in front of him. pic.twitter.com/pcOiHWaBsO

— Motorsports On NBC (@MotorsportsNBC) January 27, 2019

As we see in the photo above the weather was somewhat cooperative at the beginning of the race, but it kept getting worse. The race authorities had to stop the race one, and tried to restart it later, but ended up having to stop it with a second red flag only 10 minutes before the 24 hours ending...

The Rolex 24 of Daytona is an endurance race that was run on January 26-27 at the Daytona International Speedway which is located in Daytona Beach, Florida. The course course consists of a 12-turn track that is 3.56 miles long, which is made up of areas of the NASCAR tri-oval as well as the infield road course.

In the photo above we see the Cadillac DPi.CR

2019 represented the 57th running of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The race was called short just 10 minutes short of 24 hours as the torrential downpour caused severe flooding.

Tough restart... pic.twitter.com/vsWCGVGp7k

— Autoweek (@AutoweekUSA) January 27, 2019

The 2019 24 Hours of Daytona was won by Fernando Alonso and his team which are pictured below.

In the photo below we see the winning team of the IMSA 24 hour race. From left to right we see, Kamui Kobayashi of Japan, Jordan Taylor, Reneger Van Ser Zande, of the Netherlands, and Fernando Alonso from Spain holding the championship trophy @ The Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, January 27, 2019. Photo taken in Daytona Beach, Florida by Terry Renna.

In the photo below we see the three teams of winners including Wayne Taylor Racing which was the overall winner, as well as BMW's #25 team won the GTLM, along with Crasser Racing which repeated as the GTD winner with their #11 Lamborghini.

The photo above shows all four classes in the winners circle at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona holding their prized Rolex Daytona models and we see:

FROM L-R: #11 GRT GRASSER RACING TEAM, LAMBORGHINI HURACAN GT3, GTD; ROLF INEICHEN (CHE), RIK BREUKERS (NLD), MIRKO BORTOLOTTI (ITA), CHRISTIAN ENGELHART (DEU); #10 KONICA MINOLTA CADILLAC DPI-V.R, CADILLAC DPI, P; JORDAN TAYLOR (USA), RENGER VAN DER ZANDE (NLD), FERNANDO ALONSO (ESP), KAMUI KOBAYASHI (JPN); #18 DRAGONSPEED, ORECA LMP2, LMP2, ROBERTO GONZALEZ (MEX), PASTOR MALDONADO (VEN), SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (COL), RYAN CULLEN (IRL); #25 BMW TEAM RLL, BMW M8 GTE, GTLM; AUGUSTO FARFUS (BRA), CONNOR DE PHILLIPPI (USA), PHILIPP ENG (AUT), COLTON HERTA (USA).

I couldn't figure out which photo I liked better in between the one above and below so I published both. I think the Official Rolex Event Clock is so cool looking!!!