What reference is the watch Sir Edmund Hillary wore on Everest?

SpeedyPhill · Apr 18, 2022

Revo
Given that Rolex sponsor the RGS' picture library we can expect no mention of Smiths but lots of carefully-worded attempts to imply that Rolex summited in '53.

😲
Not at all... did over vist a RGS exhibition ? These are always very objective with real artifacts on display !

johnireland · Apr 19, 2022

My understanding is that both Smith and Rolex were both sponsors of the 53 climb. Hillary wore a Smith, Tenzing wore a Rolex. All the major watch manufacturers were involved with sponsoring sporting and adventure events. And they still do it today...paying big money to athletes to wear their watches either during or just after a competition. Omega was the official NASA watch, but inside the space crafts many astronauts liked to wear their Rolex GMTs. F1 drivers, boat racing teams, golf pros, movie stars. It's all about money more than any particular brand of watch. The exception, in my opinion, is the Speedmaster. It got into space on its own merit. Omega didn't build it that way on purpose, it just turned out that it passed all the tests, over and over and over. As a dive watch it would have been a failure. The key is to appreciate them all for what they are.

sxl2004 · Apr 19, 2022

Everest Sponsors:
1952 Swiss expedition Rolex.
1953 British expedition Smiths.

No record I know that Rolex sponsored the 1953 expedition.

johnireland · Apr 19, 2022

I accept your statement as fact. So, Hillary wore the Smith because they gave money to the climb, and Tenzing wore the
Rolex because someone gave it to him. And both men and both watches made it up to the top and back in good order.

sxl2004 · Apr 19, 2022

I doubt that Tenzing wow his gold Rolex to the expedition. Way to risky for a poor Sherpa family. Also never confirmed thy he wore it. As far as I know.

Revo · Apr 20, 2022

sxl2004
Everest Sponsors:
1952 Swiss expedition Rolex.
1953 British expedition Smiths.

No record I know that Rolex sponsored the 1953 expedition.

read the thread. Both Smiths and Rolex supplied watches to the ‘53 Expedition.

only Smiths made it to the summit though

Davidt · Apr 20, 2022

There’s a piece somewhere detailing that Tenzing almost certainly didn’t take his gold Rolex on the expedition.

SpeedyPhill · Apr 20, 2022

Tenzing received a Gold Datejust for his 1952 efforts
Caseback inscription:
Presented by the Rolex Watch Company as a memento of the Swiss expedition to Mount Everest
After the July 1953 London visit, meeting the Queen and RGS staff, Tenzing passed by at Rolex Switzerland, presented yet another watch
Read a decent article on the socio-cultural impact:
Tenzing's two wrist-watches: the conquest of Everest and late imperial culture in Britain 1921-1953.
by Gordon T. Stewart
📖

Revo · Apr 20, 2022

Davidt
There’s a piece somewhere detailing that Tenzing almost certainly didn’t take his gold Rolex on the expedition.

there are lots of colour photos of the Expedition but none show Tenzing wearing a gold watch.

also if he had worn it to summit then Rolex would have said so; instead they conceded the crown to Smiths and have spent the last 69 years trying to imply that Hillary reached the top with a Rolex on his wrist.

SpeedyPhill · Nov 12, 2022

In preparation of the 70th anniversary of chomolunga's 1953 ascent and celebrating 100 years
Everest 1922: The Epic Story of the First Attempt on the World's Highest Mountain
The Royal Geographic Society exhibition "Everest through the Lens" in London shows photos, documents & equipment used in documenting the 1922 and 1924 attemps resulting in the 1924 movie " The Epic of Everest " ...
.

davidswiss · Nov 12, 2022

SpeedyPhill
In preparation of the 70th anniversary of chomolunga's 1953 ascent and celebrating 100 years
Everest 1922: The Epic Story of the First Attempt on the World's Highest Mountain
The Royal Geographic Society exhibition "Everest through the Lens" in London shows photos, documents & equipment used in documenting the 1922 and 1924 attemps resulting in the 1924 movie " The Epic of Everest " ...
.

That's a great photograph of Noel.

SpeedyPhill · Nov 16, 2022

Already as a kid I enjoyed reading the adventures of the British Himalayan expeditions... these stories often mentioned wrist watches !
📖
A few examples:
.

1933, First over Everest - Roof of the World … the frequent glances at wrist watches when the time came to expect the first distant sound of their return and the listening look in people’s eyes as they talked of other things…

1953, Coronation Everest… I discovered that my wrist watch had gone, down into the depths of the crevasse. It was an automatic watch wound up by the motion of my wrist, and I believe it is still ticking away there in the blue vaults of the glacier, rocked and stimulated by the movements of the ice, inching its slow way down into the valley, still faithfully recording Greenwich Mean Time.

sheepdoll · Nov 16, 2022

I love thread necromancy.
I guess this subject and the discussions on cams vs pillar wheels will never die.

Keep thinking I need to add a Smiths watch to my collection. I actually bid on one last week, but got outbid. I love reading the old arguments in the trade jornals written in the 1950s. Smiths was a pretty frequent advertiser in the British Horological Journal. I did seek out the watch which I think was in the Guildhall collection (worth seeing if one is in London.)

My opinion is that the best thing one can do with a Rolex is to sell it. (or one could use it as collateral to borrow money against.) Of course this means that Rolex watch should be loved and enjoyed. By others. So yeah. Buy Rolex watches.

Everest never really interested me. I do like the Disney film 'Banner in the sky.' (or Third man on the mountain.) Having grown up around the California sierras, I do not find such things of much novelty. The church youth group would do summer hikes on the Muir trail. High mountains are pretty to look at. It always impressed me how many people hike in the high country. Such things are best done when one is young and can take the time to enjoy it. Sad story. When we got older and jobs, one of the members of the hiking group went hiking alone in Yosemite. Fell 2000 feet to his death. Another time was witness to some people swept over the falls. Did not actually see them swept over. They were paddling in the river on the top when we went up to the base of Half dome. On the return, the S&R was looking for any evidence. Said t hey would probably be found years later many miles downstream.

ghce · Nov 30, 2022

Fascinating thread but only to the extent that it high lights the lengths Rolex's marketing department stoop to in their self promotion when it's an incontrovertible fact that Smiths was the first to summit Everest and that Tensing could not have worn his Rolex either.
But all that aside there does seem a pausity in the amount of Smiths deluxe 15J watches in this thread to balance the Rolex misleading claims, so here is mine 😁.

sxl2004 · Nov 30, 2022

Mine in Benson disguise and the original

SpeedyPhill · Dec 1, 2022

Even the 1963 ( 10th Mt Everest ascent Anniversary ) Smiths are great watches... ( EVEREST on the dial )
It's all about the amazing era of exploration, a time when watches (whatever brand) played an important, even crucial role 👍
https://www.smithswatches.com/collections/smiths-everest-1

Revo · Dec 1, 2022

Of course there's also the Smiths Quasar . . . but that's a whole other can of quartz . . . .

Revo · Dec 5, 2022

This is rather good:

https://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&th=2447169&rid=12189#msg_7712966

Maybe someone could send relevant part (Ed Hillary's letter) to Phillip Stahl?

JimJupiter · Dec 5, 2022

I am allways happy that at least the second watch that reached the top of Mt. Everest is clear 😁 In 1956 the Swiss started a another try, but climbing the Lhotse first (That was a first!) and Everest second. On their wrists they had Enicar watches, later known under the name Sherpa(s).

(notice the Enicar on the backpack, some rough conditions to be sure 😁 )

sheepdoll · Dec 5, 2022

JimJupiter
I am allways happy that at least the second watch that reached the top of Mt. Everest is clear 😁 In 1956 the Swiss started a another try, but climbing the Lhotse first (That was a first!) and Everest second. On their wrists they had Enicar watches, later known under the name Sherpa(s).
(notice the Enicar on the backpack, some rough conditions to be sure 😁 )

Love the wrist strap.
Wish my Enicar dial had a movement. Must be careful lest I have another watch for the in for a penny in for a pound thread. I have also been watching Smiths online, as I found the Nat Semi I always wanted. Those old advertisements do remain effective. I think a lot of modern online sites could take a lesson and study them for use of layout space given the limitations of the 1940s and 1950s printing processes.