Community Stories

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

ErichPryde
Posts
2,710
Likes
5,073
To be fair to the Rolex Fanboys This Thread started in 2015 and I think I am guilty of reviving it. 🍿



Revo Revo
Incredible is certainly one word for it. I can think of others. I see the Rolex fanboys have gone very quiet on this thread.
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,222
Likes
11,531
Both these 1950s British-made Smiths & Swiss-made Rolex were great watches
Remember Smiths launched a 10th anniversary series in 1963, while Rolex had patented "Explorer" on 26th January 1953 as sooner or later Mt Everest would be climbed to the top...
More on 1933-1953 British Mt Everest expeditions in our Aviators thread 😉
 
Revo
Posts
375
Likes
575
Rolex likely got closer the summit in '52 on Lambert's wrist as part of the Swiss expedition than they did in '53. Rolex do all they can to imply they reached the top in '53 but the truth is they didn't. When it comes to bragging rights and "firsts" the moon belongs to Omega and Everest belongs to Smiths. Now if someone could just tell Philipp Stahl that . . . .
 
sxl2004
Posts
2,454
Likes
6,645
So that leaves Rolex with the two poles 😉, the deepest dive by a person, and Mars 😁 and of course the exploration of Africa 😗
What possible firsts did I forget?
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,222
Likes
11,531
Talking about the Poles, New Zealander Edmund Hillary reached the South-Pole by land on 4th January 1958 and in 1985 flew with former-NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong to the North Pole, althus becoming the first person to be on the three poles !
Everybody who has looked into the history of the British Himalaya expeditions knows that the RGS - Royal Geographical Society was committed to maximal outfitting expedtion memebers with British manufactured equipment & materials... hence British made Smiths A409 wrist watches 👎
Smiths stopped making watches in 1980, the end of Anglo-Celtic Watch Co. Ltd.
(modern day 1996 - 21st Century Smiths Timefactors is another company)
Source for vintage British-made Smiths time pieces = https://www.smithswatches.com/
 
Revo
Posts
375
Likes
575
sxl2004 sxl2004
So that leaves Rolex with the two poles 😉, the deepest dive by a person, and Mars 😁 and of course the exploration of Africa 😗
What possible firsts did I forget?

"So that leaves Rolex with the two poles" Amundsen wore a Rolex? "the exploration of Africa" What, all of it? And done only by people wearing Rolexes?


The odd thing is that Rolex have enough to boast about -- yet they still try and imply that Hillary wore one to the summit of Everest in 1953. It's bizarre. I mean, why? I seems Everest was something of an obsession for Rolex (they even had watches with Everest on the dial) and they supplied watches for both the 1952 and '53 Expeditions. It was also the time: reaching the top was pretty much the last Great Discovery or Final Frontier in the age of Gentlemen Explorers before the coming the Space Age and a new "Final Frontier". So it was still Victorian / Edwardian, but with colour photos (heck, television), which meant it would be almost instantly world famous. The Coronation of the Queen and the easing of post-war austerity meant a celebratory tone was the order of the day. And Rolex wanted a slice of the action. They still do, it seems.
 
sxl2004
Posts
2,454
Likes
6,645
Revo Revo
"So that leaves Rolex with the two poles" Amundsen wore a Rolex? "the exploration of Africa" What, all of it? And done only by people wearing Rolexes?

Yes, all tongue in cheek and some before the Rolex brand.
😁😀
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,222
Likes
11,531
Well, they carefully mentioned " worn to the top of the world " ( NOT " worn on the top of the world " )
March 1953 photo showing a few expedition members "" Schwarzkopfing "" , wearing a wrist watch on each wrist (Charles Geoffrey Wylie)
British gentlemen as none later exploited their mountaineering celebrity in the aftermath, but some devoted their later years to Sherpa welfare!
(Photo: RGS)
.
1953_March_CharlesWylie.jpg

.
Edit: To the Top image added
.
to the top.jpg
Edited:
 
Revo
Posts
375
Likes
575
SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
Well, they carefully mentioned " worn to the top of the world " ( NOT " worn on the top of the world " )

To the best of my knowledge Rolex have never used either phrase, at least not since that first (and never repeated) advert.
 
Revo
Posts
375
Likes
575
SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
Edit: To the Top image added
.
to the top.jpg

Yes, that's the advert they put out immediately after the news broke that Everest had been "knocked off". Rolex, perhaps not unreasonably, assumed one of their watches had gone all the way to the top. But it seems no-one checked the actual facts. Once they emerged Rolex never ran that ad again nor used such unambiguous language. (Neither, of course, did they officially correct themselves or publicly withdraw that statement. It was just "disappeared", to be replaced with more carefully crafted phrases and misleading pictures of Hillary on the summit -- leaving people to draw the conclusion that Rolex did reach the summit that day.)

But the wording of that advert shows how much Everest meant to Rolex and how desperate they were to be the watch that was worn to the top. All the funnier, then, that they weren't. And all the worse that they still try and imply they were.
 
Revo
Posts
375
Likes
575
spacemission spacemission
Rolex marketing, it's another thing.

As I said, Rolex likely got closer the summit in '52 on Lambert's wrist than they did in '53. But the latter was the successful one and Rolex wanted a piece of that cake. The '52 Expedition would have perfect: it was Swiss and there were no other pesky watch companies supplying the team and muddying the water. But it was all about being first to the summit; that crown belongs to Smiths but Rolex want people to think otherwise. Hence the incessant references to Hunt's Expedition in general and to Hillary in particular. It's sad, really; smacks of desperation and dishonesty.
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,222
Likes
11,531
Marketing goes a long way... I believe Rolex were the first to sponsor hourly time checks on the radio... Time by ROLEX
Anyway about 1953 Everest expedition, it remains interesting they made a ten minutes intro movie to the " The Conquest of Everest " documentary.
Did You know they later, in May 1955, made sure Rolex watches were worn on the top of mountains Kangchenjunga and Makalu.
ROLEX marketed their watches worldwide but waited to do so in Switzerland until the 75th anniversary of Hans Wilsdorf, producing leaflets & advertising in French, English, German, Arabic, Spanish and last but not least " no text " !
 
Revo
Posts
375
Likes
575
"In 1953, with the experience gained from the ascent of Everest, as well as other testimony provided by climbers, the brand launched the Explorer watch in honour of the first-ever successful ascent of Everest."

"Everest was to remain the holy grail of mountaineering for the next 20 years until Hillary and Norgay achieved the ultimate goal. Hillary used his ice axe to cut the final steps and they stood triumphant on Everest’s summit at 11.30 a.m. on 29 May"

https://www.rolex.org/environment/a-long-standing-passion-for-adventure?cmpid=rolexcom_rolexorg

I mean, what are you supposed to think?

11:30am?

I believe the so-called "Everest" Rolex in the Beyer museum has its hands set to 11:30, despite there being zero proof or provenance that it was ever Hillary's watch. Even if it was, he didn't wear to the summit in '53.

Rolex-1953-Oyster-Perpetual-Everest.jpg
 
MRC
Posts
3,386
Likes
8,551
SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
Marketing goes a long way... I believe Rolex were the first to sponsor hourly time checks on the radio... Time by ROLEX

The hourly "pips" on BBC radio have been going since 1924. But did not have sponsorship, so not really in this race.... The spoken time-check on UK phones used to be sponsored by Accurist if my memory is good, but as I cannot find any evidence for this I think it means my memory is toast.
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,222
Likes
11,531
Indeed those hourly radio beeps are almost a century old and are technically called the GTS - Greenwich Time Signal
Certainly a subject we'll hear more about next year 👍
Almost 60 years ago, in March 1964 the offshore unlicensed " Radio Caroline " started broadcasting from a converted three-master cargo ship in the North Sea.
The American wrist watch brand Bulova was a sponsor so the hourly time checks on " Radio Caroline " became Bulova time !
 
davidswiss
Posts
1,086
Likes
1,847
Revo Revo
"In 1953, with the experience gained from the ascent of Everest, as well as other testimony provided by climbers, the brand launched the Explorer watch in honour of the first-ever successful ascent of Everest."

"Everest was to remain the holy grail of mountaineering for the next 20 years until Hillary and Norgay achieved the ultimate goal. Hillary used his ice axe to cut the final steps and they stood triumphant on Everest’s summit at 11.30 a.m. on 29 May"

https://www.rolex.org/environment/a-long-standing-passion-for-adventure?cmpid=rolexcom_rolexorg

I mean, what are you supposed to think?

11:30am?

I believe the so-called "Everest" Rolex in the Beyer museum has its hands set to 11:30, despite there being zero proof or provenance that it was ever Hillary's watch. Even if it was, he didn't wear to the summit in '53.

Rolex-1953-Oyster-Perpetual-Everest.jpg
That actually says "this watch was worn by Sir Ed. Hillary on the first climb". That could mean he wore on his first climb on Everest, he obviously was there a long time and climbing up and down the mountain before he made it to the top, but it's obviously meant to mean that he wore it on the first climb to the top, which the Rolex UK MD admitted he did not. It all seems a bit desperate and sad.
 
52 More Posts...
Sign up or log in to reply...