The First Watch Worn Up Mt. Everest: A Rolex Just Like Edmund Hillary's, and It's Not An Explorer
Welcome to the first Hodinkee post of 2010! To start off the new year, we thought we'd feature a watch that you may not recognize as anything special, but in fact is a watch that
should be a modern-day legend.
Second only to landing on the moon, the greatest accomplishment of mankind in the 20th century was the ascent of Mt. Everest. While many people think they know the full story of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's climb to the summit in horological terms, they are strongly encouraged to keep reading.
It is widely held that
the Rolex Explorer as we know it today was the watch worn by the team who would conquer Everest, hell,
even Rolex themselves would have us believe that. However, the truth of the matter is that the watch worn up Everest did not have the infamous "3,6,9" configuration, nor did it have the word "Explorer" written anywhere on the dial.
What is now a simple fact is that the watch worn by Sir Edmund Hillary (prior to the requisite "Sir", of course) was a simple Rolex Oyster Perpetual, very similar to the watch you see above. In fact, an early Rolex ad (right) features a picture of the actual watch worn on Everest and it does not feature the famous black Explorer dial at all.
The watch worn up Everest was a white Oyster Perpetual, much like the one we've found for sale today. In fact, the only noticeable difference between the white Oyster Perpetual we've tracked down and the one worn by Hillary was that his was COSC certified, and the one for sale is not. The markers are ever so slightly different, but this is really a true "Everest watch". Even the serial number on the watch we've found today puts it between 1952 and 1953, which means this watch likely came from the same batch as Hillary's own.
For details of this real Everest watch, which as you now know is not an Explorer, click here.
