An Aviation World Record, a Waltham Depollier Watch and a Lie
104 years ago today, Roland Rohlfs, Chief Test Pilot for the Curtis Airplane Company, set a new flight altitude world record of 34,610 feet in the Curtis "Wasp" Tri-Plane. Flying higher than Mt. Everest in 1919, while in a open air cockpit plane! Roland Rohlfs was in fact wearing a Waltham Depollier "Field & Marine" Waterproof Watch on this historic day in the skies above New York. A watch that had already been independently tested for waterproof ability by the U.S. Army Engineering & Research Division and by the United States National Bureau of Standards in 1918. Depollier's watch passed the 500 hour water submersion tests with flying colors! After the successful tests the United States War Department purchased 10,000 of Depollier's waterproof wristwatches, War Department contract number 160615. This is well documented in at least two high level United States government reports. A stack of U.S. Army documents corroborate these events that took place in 1918. And then there is the full transcript from a federal lawsuit with all of the juicy details about how Charles Depollier's waterproof watch came to be. But, still to this day Rolex falsely claims they "created the world's first waterproof wristwatch" in 1926. I guess some have too much pride to admit that they've made a terrible mistake, stealing horological history from another with a false claim.
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Multiple Watch Book Author, Vintage American Military Watch Dealer, Watchmaker. Recipient of the 2023 NAWCC Roberts-Taylor Award for Excellence in the Field of Horological Research.
That’s why they stick ‘dustproof’ on 😆
Rolex is like Apple. It isn’t the first. It’s more often than not not really the best. But they are damn good at advertising, and leveraging existing market capture to create a legend around the band.
Yes, Rolex are liars. Somebody has bought the name and has a modern take on this.
https://watchangels.ch/en/watches/waltham-field-marine/
Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to share
Yes, Rolex are liars. Somebody has bought the name and has a modern take on this.
https://watchangels.ch/en/watches/waltham-field-marine/
I serve as Project Historian for the new Waltham Field & Marine Watches, the Thermo Watch and the A-17 Pilot's Watch.
More to come from Waltham, now made in Mendrisio Switzerland.
Yes, Rolex are liars. Somebody has bought the name and has a modern take on this.
https://watchangels.ch/en/watches/waltham-field-marine/
I found the term "recordmen" in the link kind of fascinating. It speaks to an era when being first, fastest, furthest etc was pushing technology and risking death might result in an achievement that could be eclipsed just a few days later by another "recordman" and subsequently lost to history.
Naturally not a lot seems to have been written about the watches that failed spectacularly along the way and the many others that were never recovered from one type of wreckage or another.
Watch failures with disastrous consequences, now that would be a fascinating read.
"Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan."JFK
Rolex leans in on a lot of fables. Everest, the EnglishChannel, Vietnam Era SEALs (Tudor gets little credit here) etc. @JaimeMadeira is spot on. Rolex is not the best watch. Rolex is the best marketed watch. I'm happy to see a resurrection of a cool watch that has a lot of great legacy. The one thing I give Rolex is that there products and marketing have pushed the watch industry for decades to build better products. All that marketing has made many watches better that don't wear the Coronet. That I am grateful for
I serve as Project Historian for the new Waltham Field & Marine Watches, the Thermo Watch and the A-17 Pilot's Watch.
More to come from Waltham, now made in Mendrisio Switzerland.
I knew it…
I knew it…
Knew what?
I found the term "recordmen" in the link kind of fascinating. It speaks to an era when being first, fastest, furthest etc was pushing technology and risking death might result in an achievement that could be eclipsed just a few days later by another "recordman" and subsequently lost to history.
Naturally not a lot seems to have been written about the watches that failed spectacularly along the way and the many others that were never recovered from one type of wreckage or another.
Watch failures with disastrous consequences, now that would be a fascinating read.
"Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan."JFK
Awesome - I use that quote all the time...never realized JFK used it, I believe it was Tacitus who first stated it back in Roman times.
Just read that JFK popularized the quote in our modern times after the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Nevertheless, it is certainly true.
Awesome - I use that quote all the time...never realized JFK used it, I believe it was Tacitus who first stated it back in Roman times.
Just read that JFK popularized the quote in our modern times after the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Nevertheless, it is certainly true.
Yes Tacitus used a variant referring to loss and victory in war and other variants in other languages also exist. 👍