For the first time in history, that I am aware of, Rolex CEO, Jean-Frédéric Dufour, in response to the Coronavirus COVID-19 Virus Pandemic made the decision to temporarily close down all of the Rolex factories which are all located in Switzerland.
Below is a letter Rolex CEO, Jean-Frédéric Dufour that discusses Rolex's approach to protecting all employees from the COVID 19 virus.
Jean-Frédéric Dufour Letter seen above translated into English reads, Ladies and Gentlemen Dear Colleagues, I already told you last week, we are facing a very serious problem. In order to protect you, your families and your loved ones, but also to limit as much as possible the risks of spread of Coronavirus, we decided to close our production sites in Geneva, Bienne and Crissier on Tuesday March 17 5:00 PM until Friday, March 27, 2020. Of course, this date may be postponed depending on the evolution of the epidemic. Certain services will have to remain open for reasons of operational imperatives. Your managers will give you more details on this. In the meantime, we ask you to respect to the letter the containment measures issued by our authorities in Switzerland and in France. I am sure that this is a difficult time and that if all of us adapt the right behavior, it will help to help stabilize the situation and allow work to be resumed safely within the shortest possible time. Thank you for respecting the instructions of your managers to ensure this closing in good conditions. Good luck for the days to come, take care of yourself! Best regards, Jean-Frédéric Dufour Geneva, March 16, 2020 This news does not come as a surprise although much of the world remains shell-shocked by the unfolding events. This is the first time in history that I can think of where the entire planet has had to respond largely as a single organism, and hopefully when all is said and done, it will have served as a blessing in disguise. Rolex's response, as always, is ultra-professional, which is what makes Rolex, Rolex.
On a Positive note, since we are on the subject of the Rolex factories, all of which are in Switzerland, let's hop in the Rolex Time Machine and go back to 2013 to take a tour through the Rolex factories.
Seven years ago, back in November of 2013, Rolex invited me to become one of four horological journalists to be the first to tour all four Rolex factories in Switzerland. Ariel Adams, from A Blog To Watch took the photograph of me standing in front of Rolex's International Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland seen below.
Benjamin Clymer, James Dowling, Ariel Adams, and Jake Ehrlich on November 19, 2013
(Hodinkee.com, Timezone.com, ABlogToWatch.com, and RolexMagazine.com)
I wrote a super-detailed article which outlined my experience touring all the Rolex factories, which is named, "Inside Rolex: Exploring What Makes Rolex Tick", which I highly recommend reading.
Below are a bunch of images from my tour story of the Rolex Wonka Works in Switzerland:
French Star, Singer, Songwriter Michel Sardou Wears Rolex... en chantant !
By DANNY CRIVELLO
I've always felt that one of the most wonderful things about growing up in France is to be able to understand its music. The richness of French lyrics and the soul of their love songs are unfortunately un-translatable. We are far here from the She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.
To understand French talent in music making is to be reminded that probably the most famous melody in the world, "My Way" sung my Frank Sinatra, started as a French song ("Comme d'Habitude"). The song came out in France in 1967 and was sung by Claude François, pictured sitting below, right, before the rights were bought for the American market and released in the US in 1969.
In a previous story in these pages I wrote about Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis," after he passed away in 2017. He is pictured above, center. Michel Sardou, the subject of my story today, is on the far left.
Michel Sardou and Johnny Hallyday are both trans-generational giants of French music. Your mom would hum their tunes, but you also took your petite-amie to their concerts. To give you an idea, Michel Sardou's first No. 1 hit ("La Maladie d'Amour")came out in 1973 while his 2004 album Du plaisir went straight to the number one spot on the French album charts.
And just like with Johnny, I often saw Michel's portrait adorn the front pages of the French press and teen magazines. Posters were hung on bedroom walls; marriages and divorces were thoroughly chronicled. Some of the pictures of Michel Sardou I found wearing a Rolex are very rare because they date back from the 80s. Theyare nowhere on the Internet in the digitized format. Please indulge me. I decided to post them even if you see the aging and crease on the paper as they highlight his stardom; they are a piece of Rolex history.
In one of my favorite songs, "La Maladie d'Amour" (The Love Disease), he describes the symptoms of being in love and compares it to a beautiful disease. Elle fait chanter les hommes et s'agrandir le monde (It makes men sing and make the world bigger) / Elle fait parfois souffrir tout le long d'une vie (It sometimes makes one suffer for an entire life) / Elle fait pleurer les femmes, elle fait crier dans l'ombre (It makes women weep, it makes us cry in the shadows) / Mais le plus douloureux, c'est quand on en guérit (But the most painful is when we are cured from it).
Michel was a romantic and always felt the best part of a relationship is the beginning. There was also a rebel side to him. He sang against French colonialism; another song talks about the rights of women in Islamic countries ("Musulmanes"). Though France had abolished the death penalty, he sang a song called "Je Suis Pour" (I am for it). But to understand Michel Sardou is to know that his own son had been taken from him.
He also had a song called "Les Ricains," the nickname French give to Americans. Si les ricains n'étaient pas là / Vous seriez tous en Germanie / A parler de je ne sais quoi / A saluer je ne sais qui / Un gars venu de Géorgie / Qui se foutait pas mal de toi / Est v'nu mourir en Normandie / Un matin où tu n'y étais pas
(If the Ricains hadn't been here, you'd be all in Germany / Talking about who knows what / Saluting who knows whom / A guy who came here from Georgia / And though for you personally he didn't much care / He came and died in Normandy / One morning when you weren't there.)
Nick from Adpatina.com sent in this 1967 Rolex Daytona ad which features a mystery that Nick Gould first pointed out to me. The mysterious detail is that the Rolex chronograph in the ad lacks a tachymeter scale on the bezel or dial, which contradicts the text description which reads: "The Rolex Daytona Chronograph is for pinning down your lap time to a fifth of a second. It has second, minute and hour stop-recorders as well as a small continuous second hand and tachometer engraving on the bezel."
I reached out to vintage Rolex Dealer Eric Ku from 10pastten.com on this mystery. Eric Ku is like an 10th degree black-belt when it comes to Rolex knowledge. Eric Ku said:
"It's NOT a mistake. There is a batch of late Rolex Reference 6238 models with that same configuration. Late production 6238 cases that were well into production range of 6239 (1.2 Million or later Reference 6238 sometimes come like this). Jake's Take: I have never seen one of these really rare Daytona models before which appears to have been some kind of transitional model. I have seen Pre-Daytona models that featured the scale on the dial as seen on George Lazenby below, but never one without a scale. I have seen other chronographs in the past that lacked any kind of scale and I thought they looked clean and interesting, as does this model. My best guess is Rolex experimented with this clean design and concluded the watch would look sportier or be more useful if it had a tachymeter scale.
George Lazenby Rolex Pre-Daytona Chronograph
George Lazenby wore two different Rolex watches when he playedJames Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Lazenby wore a Rolex Submariner as well as a Rolex Pre-Daytona Chronograph which we see in the photo below taken in 1968 by Heinz Baumann.
In the photo above of George Lazenby we see him flipping through his Louis Vuitton notepad which is a classic as the Pre-Daytona Rolex Chronograph he wore which is pictured below. The photo below is of the actual Rolex Chronograph pictured above on Lazenby's wrist. Lazenby's Rolex Pre-Daytona was originally sold by Bucherer in Interlaken, Switzerland and was purchased by Eon Productions on October 23, 1968. The original Bucherer receipt was made out to Mr. David Middlemas, Eon Production LT, with the price tag of 790 CHF. This watch unique as it was the only Pre-Daytona Chronograph 6238 with a red hand. It featured a Caliber 722 which was produced by Rolex between 1965 and 1968.
At the end of the film shoot, Eon productions decided to sell the wardrobe and accessories, as well as the watch. The accountant of the production bought the watch and later auctioned it with Christie's in December of 2003 in an auction in Kensington. The watch was offered for auction in by Artcurial Auction House in 2016 and the bidding reached €300,000, which was below the reserve price, so it did not sell.
...Rolex NASA Coolness... THE REAL TOP GUN Scott "Scooter" Altman U.S. Navy Test Pilot & NASA Astronaut
What is more exciting that discovering another NASA Astronaut who wore his Rolex in Space? Scott "Scooter" Altman is one of the most experienced U.S. Navy Test Pilots and NASA Astronauts in history as he flew on four Space Shuttle Missions.
Top Gun
Scott Altman was enrolled at the U.S. Navy's Topgun School located at Air Station Marimar. Scott worked as one of the lead stunt pilots in the movie 1986 movie Top Gun, which starred Tom Cruise. Scott stunt-doubled Tom Cruise's character 'Maverick' as he flew an F-14 fighter jet during the aerobatic flight sequences. We see Scott 'flipping the bird' in the video excerpt below from Top Gun, which makes Scott one of the most famous middle finger flippers in history.
In a 2000 NASA interview just before his spaceflight aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-106 Scott Altman said:
"Well, Top Gun was a real thrill. I still remember that so vividly. The word was going around town that Hollywood was coming to Miramar, where I was stationed, and they were going to do a movie, and we were all kind of excited. My squadron had just gotten back from a seven-and-a-half-month cruise about a week and a half before, so our airplanes were at home, we were available, we weren't too highly tasked. And it turned out they picked my squadron to supply the F-14s.
Then the skipper got together and tried to pick four guys that he thought, were mature enough, I guess, to handle, you know, the capability that they were being given in working with the movie, and all the things that were required. And the director wanted to have a small cadre of people that he could work with so you develop an understanding of what the movie folks want versus what we can do and how to try and balance those two requirements.
The flying was incredible. You know, most Navy pilots don't get to buzz the tower like in the movie – if you did you could just peel your wings off and, throw 'em at the door because you probably wouldn't be flying anymore – but, since it was Hollywood, you know, they wanted the scene. I had to buzz the tower. And, of course, they wanted nine different takes – so we did it nine times!"
I Feel The Need...
...The Need For Speed!
Val Kilmer is pictured below in the original Top Gun movie and we see him rocking his GMT-Master.
Tom Cruise recently reprized his role as Maverick in the Top Gun Maverick which is scheduled to be released in June 2020.
Scott Altman was a Top Gun in the U.S. Navy where he flew fighters off the deck of aircraft carriers. He went on to become a NASA Astronaut and flew on four different Space Shuttle Missions.
Scott was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2018. In 1998 he flew as a pilot on Space Shuttle Atlantis aboard STS-90, which was a 16-day mission for the European Space Agency's Spacelab Laboratory. In the photo below taken aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia we see Scott Altman orbiting earth as seen out the Space Shuttle cockpit window, and notice he is playing with his Rolex Submariner.
In 2000 Scott served as a Pilot aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-106, which was an 11-day mission that flew to the International Space Station, which prepared for the arrival of the first Expedition. This mission successfully delivered close to three tons of payload cargo from the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station and it the photo below we see Scott Altman rocking his Root Beer GMT-Master. Nick Gould discovered this image and sent it to me after I published this story. The caption reads:
STS106-388-025 (8-20 September 2000) — Astronaut Scott D. Altman, STS-106 pilot, works on a laptop computer in the SPACEHAB Logistics Double Module onboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
In 2002 Scott served at the Commander of Space Shuttle STS-109 which serviced the Hubble Space Telescope, and completed a series of spacewalks while setting a new record at 35 hours and 55 minutes.
In 2009 Scott was again the Commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis for the STS-125 (pictured below) which was the final Hubble Space Telescope service mission.
The 2009 photo below shows Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 taking off as she heads for the heavens.
In the photo below we see the Hubble Space Telescope docked inside the cargo bay of the Space Station Atlantis after it was captured and locked-down in the bay as it spins above earth which we see in the background.
In the photo below we see NASA Astronauts at they prepare to elevate the Remote Manipulator Arm (RMS) to the top fo the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in order to install protective covers on the magnetometers.
In the photo below we see Space Shuttle Atlantis crew members working on the Hubble Space Telescope with earth in the background.
In this next photo we see the Hubble Space Telescope after it was released back into space after being repaired and updated aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
In the photo below we see Scott Altman successfully landing Space Shuttle Atlantis after the STS-125 mission.
In the next photo below we see the Space Shuttle Atlantis which is perched on top to a modified Boeing 747 which is flying it back to Florida from California after it landed at Edwards Air Force Base.
The NASA photo below of STS-125 Commander, Scott Altman was taken on January 1, 2010 as he spoke at a press conference and notice he is wearing his stainless steel Rolex Submariner.
The photo below of the Orion Nebula was taken in January 2006 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope which was successfully repaired and updated as part of the Scott Altaman's STS-125 Mission.
Special thanks to Philip from MoonWatchUniverse for sending in this photo of Scott rocking his Root beer GMT-Master while piloting the Space Shuttle.
Philip wrote: "Spaceflight & wristwatch fans know that astronaut Scott "Scooter" Altman loved his Rolex watches... wearing several Rolex watches on each of his 4 spaceflight missions!"
"18 years ago... March 2002, Commander Scott Altman gives thumbs up in the cockpit of space shuttle Columbia during mission STS-109, the 4th Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
Note he wore his personal Rolex GMT-master Rootbeer pilotwatch, together with the NASA-issued sleep-wake monitor actiwatch at his left wrist."
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.
