Bill Russell, who was one of my childhood heroes passed away today at the age of 88. Russell was arguably the greatest NBA basketball player in history, and certainly the winningest having been an 11 time NBA champion.
Russell was also the first black basketball player in the NBA and was a major role model. Nick Gould discovered this superb photos of Russell, rocking his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date.
I will never forget, when I was a kid (more than 40 years ago), Bill Russell was interviewed on 60 Minutes, but Morley Safer. I remember Morley asked Bill:
"Many professional athletes these days have drug and alcohol addictions. Did you ever experiment with drugs?"
Russell responded:
"You know Morley, that's an interesting question, as my two sons asked me the same question to which I responded 'No. I have not tried drugs, which are stupid. There is something to be said for living life at its own speed.'"
For some reason, Bill's eternal words have stuck with me to this day, and I often remember them!
Roberto is from Italy and he has an amazing collection of vintage Rolex watches. He took this stunning image of his pre-Daytona Rolex Chronograph. Notice is has a different scale running around the outside of the dial, along with the secondary scale on the bezel insert.
If we got in the Rolex Time Machine and went back to 1966-1968, and peeked in between some of the pages of Playboy magazine, like James Bond actor, George Lazenby is doing below in the movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, what would we find him staring at?
Well, he could definitely have been staring at this super cool Rolex 1966 magazine ad that appeared in Playboy back then. In case you were wondering the car on the right is 1966 Ford GT40 MKII. And notice it has an early Rolex Daytona in front of it.
Also notice the Submariner in the ad above and below have the rare 3, 6, 9 (Explorer) dial, as well as the slogan, "When a man has a world in his hands, you expect to find a Rolex on his wrist."
If you look closely at the image below, you will notice George Lazenby, in his role as James Bond, took off his Rolex Submariner and placed it on the table in front of him (as seen in bottom left-hand corner) of image below.
Keeping The Time Of His Life with a Rolex GMT Master
Who is the greatest Rock n' Roll band of all time? Led Zeppelin–of course!!! Or another way to put it, is that NOBODY ever rocked like Led Zeppelin, and I mean NOBODY!!! I would even go so far as to say that Led Zeppelin is in a class all by itself, just like Rolex is like no other watch. I am really excited to share this fascinating story with you, which has three amazing full-length Led Zeppelin concerts included at the end of the story.
John Paul Jones is a founding member of the Led Zeppelin and is considered to be one of the greatest and most innovative musicians alive today. John Paul Jones has always been really low-key, and kind of quiet, but a giant in the world of music.
John Paul plays many, many different instruments, and in Led Zeppelin he plays bass guitar and keyboards.
If we take a close look at John Paul Jones Two-Tone Rolex GMT Master, we can see it is definitely a vintage Rolex GMT with nipple indices, and a Jubilee bracelet. I saw a photo of him wearing it in 1977, and my best guess is that it was made in the early 1970s. He still wears it today, so we know he is in his fourth decade of wearing it–at least.
Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling, most innovative, successful rock bands is history. Not only is their music unlike anything else, it is otherworldly. All their songs are unusually long-form, and almost more like a hard Rock n' Roll symphony. It's also interesting to note, that despite being a British band, in many ways they seem a lot more American, which likely makes sense since they were so deeply influenced in their early day by American Rhythm and Blues.
John Paul Jones is pictured below sitting between fellow founding Led Zeppelin band members, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, in a photo taken in 1985 at the Live Aid concert, which represented the first time Led Zeppelin got back together for a reunion after they broke up in 1980, and you can see that John is wearing his two tone Rolex GMT-Master.
John Paul Jones is pictured below in in 1985 wearing his two-tone Rolex GMT-Master.
John Paul Jones is pictured below, chillin' backstage with Jimmy Page in 1977, and John Paul is wearing his Rolex GMT Master.
As I mentioned earlier, John Paul Jones was the quiet giant of Led Zeppelin, and that is easy to understand when he was on stage with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, who rocked like nobody else ever has, or likely ever will. Led Zeppelin was together going full-speed ahead from 1968, to 1980, when they disbanded after their drummer, John Bonham died.
Nobody Ever Rocked Like Led Zeppelin!!!
In many ways Led Zeppelin music definded a generation, and in the photo below we see Robert Plant and Jimmy Page rocking out on the Madison Square Garden stage in 1977.
Stairway To Heaven
Founding Led Zeppelin members, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are pictured below with U.S. President Obama, at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012, where they were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In the video below, we see President Obama celebrate Led Zeppelin at the White House.
You can and SHOULD watch Led Zeppelin at the Kennedy Center Honors in the video below which is superbly INSANE!!!!! Heart's rendition of Stairway to Heaven, featuring Ann and Nancy Wilson with John Hohman's son, Jason Bonham is absolutely mesmerizingly otherworldly and outrageous!!!!! I mean it's almost impossible to believe that anybody could ever top Led Zeppelin's own version of Stairway to Heaven, but this version certainly is a great candidate for doing so...It's so great, I could listen to it a million times!!!! Even, Rolex brand ambassador, Yo Yo Ma, is rocking out super hard to Stairway to Heaven...
Next we see a performance from their seminal Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunion in 1995, as they rock-out to Kashmir.
Wade from Chicago took this absolutely stunning/over-the-top/mystifying/crazy beautiful lume shot of his ceramic Supercase Rolex Submariner. This has got to one of the prettiest lume shots I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!
Reggie Jackson "Mr. October" Legendary Baseball Player
Legendary Professional baseball player and civil rights leader, Reggie Jackson has been rocking Rolex for at least 5 decades and in the image above taken back in the later 1980s we see him sporting his yellow gold Daytona (Reference 6263).
In the recent image we see below, Reggie is still rocking a Daytona. I would go so far as to argue Reggie Jackson is the living personification/manifestation of Rolex, in that he is bold, strong, successful, timeless and highly confident.
Paul Boutros from Phillip's Auction House was at the U.S. Open Golf Tournament back in June of 2019 and he snapped this super cool picture of baseball legend Reggie Jackson (Mr. October) rockin' his vintage Pepsi GMT-Master [Reference 1675].
Below we see Reggie Jackson in 1976 as he puts on his New York Yankees Ballcap when he joined the sports franchise, and notice he is rocking a Rolex Presidential bracelet.
Reggie Jackson is a member of the 50 Years wearing a Rolex Club and has worn Rolex for 5 decades.
As a child, Reggie Jackson was one of my heroes and great role models.
Reggie Jackson is a renowned car collector and obviously a big Rolex collector as we see him sporting many different Rolex watches spanning over 4 decades. In the photos below we see Reggie wearing a white gold Rolex Submariner with a blue dial and bezel.
In the two photos below we see Reggie rockin both a white and yellow gold Rolex Daytona.
There is a great Reggie documentary on Prime and you can see the trailer below
The photo below of the vintage Rolex GMT-Master appears courtesy of Christie's Auction house, and is a beauty indeed! This is a very early yellow gold GMT, as it has the sword hands, which lack the traditional Mercedes Marker on the hour hand, and it also has the tiny arrowhead on the 24-hour hand. The dial on this watch has nipple markers, and more importantly a very rare original brown bakelite bezel insert, with matching yellow gold 24-hour time numerals.
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.
