Favourite Watch Story?

I'll kick it off with a photo of the Certina Chronolympic that was on Yuichiro Miura's wrist as he skied down Mt. Everest - reaching speeds of up to 100mph / 160kph.

Google 'The Man Who Skied Down Everest' - or better still, watch the (Oscar winning) documentary that tells the story.

⛷️🏔️

My favorite story is the Rolex that did not actually submit the Everest. Hillary wore his Smiths and Norgay wore a watch of unrecorded make, while the supplied Rolex OP remained at base camp and never made the ascent.

Yet Rolex still worked its marketing magic (lying) and immediately claimed in the Times that their watch made it first to the top. They were only later forced to apologize for the false claim in the niche Journal of the British Horological Institute (1953 equivalent of Watch Crunch).

The whole Everest/Explorer thing is fabricated yet most people still believe it thanks to the power of marketing. 🪄

These watch myths are a lot of fun!

This French guy Dylan Trekking walked 3000 kilometres in winter across Canada winter. One of his main watch was a Gshock and in other YouTube videos he explains alot about watches and their importance in exploration. He is passionate about watches and he have put alot of them in harsh environment.

For those who don't speak French he made a few English interviews also.

https://youtu.be/NJ1UPWE26DA

There are other threads on here that set out the text of the apology - it was a real grovel, and to this day if you read the Rolex advertising copy they do not expressly repeat the claim to have summitted. That doesn't stop them saying that they were an expedition watch, which is true, and showing all the pictures of Hillary etc, so you could be forgiven for drawing an incorrect conclusion!

Major Bonde took one in the chest and another in the arm. After he got bandaged up and had a smoke break, he jumped back into the fight wearing his (presumed) Lemania TG195.

Link to picture (NSFW for some) and story: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/swedish-major-eric-bonde-1961/

Funny, I'm reading a book published by Omega in 1968, space barely gets a mention - the biggest deal they make is their newly developed quartz based tech was used to communicate & locate satellites and help with astronomy 🤣

Little did they know what lay around the corner for them !! 🌔🚀🤯

*Edit - that quartz tech was actually developed for timing events in the Olympic Games, it just found much, much wider applications than Omega initially imagined.

You beat me to this…by 7 minutes

I like the Speedmaster that timed the burn on Apollo 13.

The Hamilton Murph who's entire story is the plot of Interstellar. That's pretty rad.

Louis Winthorpe III was a Philadelphia commodities broker who found himself imprisoned due to a wager made by his employers, the Randolph and Mortimer Duke. Unbeknownst to him, they had made a nature vs. nurture bet, having him represent the nature side due to his impeccable breeding. The Dukes replaced him with a street beggar and con artist named Billy Ray Valentine, literally giving him Winthorpe's job and house. To accomplish this, they had planted drug on the innocent Winthorpe and had him arrested.

After being bailed out by a hooker with a heart of gold, he returned home to discover that he had been replaced. Having nothing but some personal effects to his name, he went to a pawn shop, where he sought to sell his expensive sport watch.

The watch was a "Rouchefoucauld. The finest water-resistant watch in the world. Singularly unique, sculptured in design, hand-crafted in Switzerland and water resistant to three atmospheres. This is the sports watch of the '80s. Six thousand, nine hundred and fifty five dollars retail!"

Because the watch was assumed to be stolen by the shop owner, a mere $50 was offered. This left enough for him to purchase a used semiautomatic pistol. Instead of shooting Valentine, he tried to fight fire with fire by planting the gun and some drugs in Valentine's desk during the office Christmas party. He may have dressed as Santa in order to do so.

Valentine became wise to the plot and his temporary privilege nearing an end. He conspired with Winthorpe to corner the market on frozen orange juice concentrate futures, which enriched him and Valentine while also ruining the Dukes. Also benefiting from the fortune was butler Coleman and the prostitute Ophelia. They were last seen aboard a personal sailing vessel in a tropical locale.

This was a great story 🤣😂

How about nims purja and his bremont s30? Recently i watch this amazing record on netflix 14 peaks

I'm surprised nobody here owns that watch, or maybe they do wear it the proper way

I am pretty sure it wad a lancet 1918 trench watch but the rolex version is pretty cool

My favourite watch story is how the OMEGA Seamaster Professional became the Bond watch in 1995's GoldenEye. The rest they say is history

Yeah, that's a good'un - one where the watch is integral to the story, as opposed to, you know ... let's give this guy a watch and market the shit out of the outcome!

Heard that on About Effing Time and it’s a great story

Yeah, I like that one too.

No matter the story I sorta see it as a failure to capitalise on Smiths part as much as I see it as Rolex being Rolex.

Marketing. It's part of this thing whether we like it or no. And - whether we admit it to ourselves or not - it effects what we buy. 🤷🏻

the Daniel Wellington marketing story....or how to become a millionaire within a few years selling garbage watches.

This is my favorite watch story:

Awesome topic. These are my favourite aspect of watch collecting. I also like the certina DS examples , but probably my favourite is the “worlds most vertical watch” - https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/space-exploration/sts-41-g-and-sts-31-kathy-sullivans-twice-flown

I've just watched this documentary. Nims is an incredible mountaineer and a genuinely nice guy to boot. I had tears in my eyes as he tried to save the stranded climber by giving him his own oxygen tank, and putting his own life at risk as he helped carry him down the mountain

Everyone knows of James Bond's preference for Omega in the movies, but in the Ian Fleming novels it is presumed he wore another famous brand. In 1953 when Casino Royale was published, The Submariner had not yet been manufactured. Instead there was hints in the novel that Bond wore a Rolex Explorer which made sense as this was the watch that Ian Fleming wore.

My favourite watch story comes from the novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service in which Bond is involved in a fight and uses his Rolex as a weapon.

“Bond surveyed his weapons. They were only his hands and his feet, his Gillette razor and his wristwatch, a heavy Rolex Oyster Perpetual on an expanding metal bracelet. Used properly, these could be turned into most effective knuckle dusters,”...

Having smashed the crystal on the jaw of the protagonist, he makes a mental note to replace it... “as soon as the shops opened after Boxing Day. Another Rolex? Probably. They were on the heavy side but they worked. And at least you could see the time in the dark with those big phosphorus numerals.”

Lol... it might not be so easy to replace a Rolex nowadays

Ian Fleming with his Explorer 1016

nims and his team was doing crazy challenge for sure. i remember he goes to the club and climb the mountain in the next morning, crazy stuff lol.

One of the few 'affordable' mid-century Age of Exploration watches with well documented usage on Antarctic expeditions.

After succumbing to the quartz crisis Nivada was revived in 2018. Shortly thereafter someone tagged Nivada on Instagram with an unknown to them vintage Super Antarctic which in turn spurred enthusiasts to convince Nivada into recreating the line.