1936 Italian Rolex Prince Ad

1936 Italian Rolex Prince Ad

This super cool Italian art deco Rolex Magazine ad is from my story titled, "The Complete History of The Rolex Prince & Princess." I included this super-cool 1936 Art-Deco Italian Rolex Prince magazine ad. 

Unworn 1959 Rolex Day-Date Gifted to Henry Ford II

Unworn 1959 Rolex Day-Date

Gifted to Henry Ford II
Hugh Austin is a reader of Jake's Rolex World and he wrote in to share this super cool video of an unworn Rolex Day-Date on a Jubilee bracelet that was gifted to Henry Ford II by Rolex Director, Rene-Paul Jeanneret. 

It's interesting to note that in 1959 the Rolex Day-Date came in a really elegant ruby red presentation box as seen below.

William 'Bill' Ford who is the great-grandson of Henry Ford also wears Rolex watches and in the photo below we see him wearing his LV Submariner.

Seeing this watch made me recall an image in my unpublished archives of Edsel Ford II who is another great grandson of Henry Ford, and in this photo he is wearing a two tone Rolex Datejust on a leather strap.

Paul Newman rocking His DAYTONA REFERENCE 6263

 

...Rolex Ultra-Super Coolness...

Paul Newman

RACE TRACK DAYTONA

REFERENCE 6263

I recently discovered this vintage Rolex Magazine cover from Japan which features a great photo of Paul Newman rocking his famous black dial Reference 6263 on a bund strap. There is also a bizarre red dial Daytona model on the cover which looks kind of cool, but unfortunately it’s a Fugazi. Back in 2008, I showcased several red dial Daytona models that appeared in the wild, which look super cool, but the best scholarship suggests they were real Rolex Daytona models with modified dials, or perhaps prototype dials. Even though Rolex NEVER made a red dial Daytona, I thought they looked so cool, I created a dream red dial Daytona design reference for one back in 2008.

1957 Rolex Datejust Turn-O-Graph

1957 Rolex Datejust

Spanish Turn-O-Graph Ad

The history of the Rolex Turn-O-Graph is beyond fascinating. It originally looked too similar to the Rolex Submariner, so Rolex decided to add a Date feature to it, and turned it into a Datejust model. This might sound confusing, and it is. As a matter of fact, the Rolex Turn-O-Graph, actually began its model life a the Rolex MonoMeter, but it appears Rolex liked Turn-O-Graph better.

The 1957 Rolex advertisement was from the "Men who control the destines of the World wear Rolex watches" campaign, which ran for years.

Nick Gould and I were recently examining this 1957 Spanish Rolex Magazine ad, and Nick said "It's rare to see Rolex advertising the Datejust with a Turn-O-Graph bezel." In my upcoming book series I go into great detail on the early history of the Turn-O-Graph, which is absolutely fascinating, and in my recent article published back in December of 2024 titled "The Complete History of The Rolex Thunderbirds and Rolex TURN-O-GRAPH", I go into great detail on it's history.

Rolex Macro Shot Of The Week: Greg's GV 50th Anniversary Rolex Milgauss

Rolex Macro Shot Of The Day

Greg's GV 50th Anniversary Rolex Milgauss

Rolex Coolness: Clint Eastwood, Clint Eastwood GMT Root Beer

...Rolex Coolness...

Clint Eastwood

1981 Two-Tone Root-Beer Rolex GMT Master

[Jubilee Bracelet: Reference 1675]

This photo of Clint Eastwood was taken at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in April of 1981 and we see Clint in front of the very first Space Shuttle, Columbia just after it completed its first orbital flight.

A Magnificently Unusual Daytona

A Magnificently Unusual Daytona

Cosmograph Daytona Reference 116500LN

Raja is a reader of Jake's Rolex World from Texas, and recently we had an absolutely fascinating conversation about his Stainless Steel Daytona with a black dial and matching black ceramic bezel. This Daytona blew my mind when I first saw it as I was shocked with how amazing it looked on Raja's Jubilee bracelet. But wait a minute!?!! What is going on with this great looking watch? 

Rolex offers some models, like the GMT-Master on both a Rolex Oyster bracelet, as well as on a Rolex Jubilee. Think Batman v. Batgirl. That being said, my understanding is that Rolex only has offered the stainless steel Daytona on an Oyster Bracelet for many years now.

I asked Raja: 

"What inspired you to put the Super Jubilee on your Daytona? And where/ how did you obtain the Super Jubilee? Did you purchase it separately?"

Keep in mind, this is NOT the current Daytona model, but the previous model.

Raja responded: 

"I have had both the white and black Ceramic Daytona’s (116500LN) for quite some time and I felt both of them needed some extra distinction in addition to the dial colors being different. 

Here comes the Super Jubilee bracelet (ref 63600), which differentiated the wearing experience of the black ceramic Daytona by making it much more lighter aka comfortable while adding a very slight “shine” to the watch that I secretly liked. 

Not to mention I now do not have to worry about the pesky micro scratches that one can observe on the polished center links. Overall the black Daytona quickly has became my go-to daily wearer inside or outside the house whereas in the past I would gravitate more towards the white Daytona.

I bought the super jubilee bracelet (ref 63600) from my AD. They were able to special order it for me. It was delivered to me in about 3 weeks after the order was placed.

In all fairness I tried the super jubilee on the white ceramic as well but the super jubilee did not resonate with the white one as it did with the black one."

Many, many years ago, Rolex once offered the stainless steel Daytona on a Jubilee bracelet. In my opinion, Rolex should definitely bring back this AMAZING combination, or at least offer it both way, as it looks so RAD!!!!!!

I asked Raja to tell me more about himself and how he got interested in watch collection and he said:

"I have been into watch since the beginning of time (pun not intended). Growing up I used to have a scrapbook of watch pictures that I would collect from various magazines or newspaper articles. I knew of pretty much all the brands like Audemars, Vacheron, Patek, Rolex, Omega, JLC, Tissot etc although my pronunciation of few of them were absolutely questionable, especially JLC. That childhood hobby turned into watch collecting along with watch photography. 

I have learnt quite a bit from other watch enthusiasts/photographers during the process. I have met some really amazing people in this journey of collecting, discovering and learning about watches and even in that set of friends, I call a subset of them good friends among whom we share our life experiences with each other every day." 

Best Regards,

Raja

Captain Danny saw this image of a similar model Daytona and shared this wrist shot image with me from Karleone on RolexForums.com:

Alan Cousteau Three & A Half Men

...Funny Rolex Moment In Time...

Jon Cryer

Alan Cousteau Submariner

Two & A Half Men

Rolex has been featured in many pop-culture contexts, and this is probably one of the funniest examples. Jon Cryer starred on the mega-hit comedy TV-Show Two and a Half Men from 2003 to 2015. Most of those years he co-starred with Charlie Sheen (WINNING!!!!!), and both of them wore Rolex watches on the show. Jon wore a Submariner and Charlie wore a medium size stainless steel and Platinum Yatch-Master.

Lume Shot of The Day Rolex DEEPSEA

...Lume Shot of The Day...

ROLEX DEEPSEA

1938 Rolex Magazine Locomotive Ad from Europa Star

 1938

Rolex Magazine Locomotive Ad 

This 1938 Rolex Magazine ad originally appeared in the Europa Star Magazine and the caption reads: "The locomotive and the Oyster Perpetual are hailed as "two masterpieces of technology". Typical of Rolex advertisements from the first half of the century, the text adopts an almost didactic tone, explaining the automatic movement offers exceptional regularity and that the Oyster case is water resistant to 6 atmospheres.