We love complicated timepieces as much as the next guy—chronographs, perpetual calendars, minute repeaters, even the humble date window. But there’s something about a down-home, honest-to-goodness, time-only tool watch that tugs at our heartstrings—particularly so if it was designed by Rolex in the 1950s. Strap one of these on the wrist of a genuine movie star, and you’ve got yourself a winning formula.
That combination was in full effect at the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards this past week, when none other than Harrison Ford strapped on a Rolex Explorer with his black-tie getup. Not exactly dress-watch fare, the Explorer—which officially debuted as the reference 6350 in 1953—is nonetheless the perfect tool watch to rock with a tux: Measuring 36mm and devoid of crown guards, the black-dialed timepiece doesn’t call attention to itself. Rather, it simply keeps accurate time via a chronometer-certified, automatic movement while boasting 100m of water resistance. (Its Chromalight display does light up like a Christmass tree in the dark, but what else would you expect from a serious instrument designed for exploration?)
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Speaking of exploration: The Rolex Explorer didn’t exist back in the late ’30s when Indiana Jones was battling Nazis for control of the Ark of the Covenant, but we’re pretty sure this is precisely the type of watch Indy would’ve worn if it did. In 1953, the Crown outfitted real-life adventurers Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay with with Oyster Perpetual watches for their expedition to Mt. Everest. Following the pair’s successful summit, Rolex went on a marketing blitz, debuting a new model family which it called “Explorer.” (Smiths, the defunct British watchmaker, also outfitted the expedition, and there’s still debate to this day as to which watches were worn on the summit. Alas, the debate has done nothing to soften the impact of the Explorer on Rolex’s business.)
The ref. 6150 “pre-Explorer” and ref. 6350—the first official Explorer—took Rolex’s larger 36mm Oyster Perpetual models and gave them a black dial with a distinct mix of hour indices: A triangle at 12 o’clock, Arabic indices at the cardinal points, and dashes for the remainder of the numbers assured a highly legible setup that could be read both on a mountaintop or even underwater. (Highly radioactive, glowing radium luminescent material also helped.) But it was the ref. 1016, introduced in 1960, that solidified the aesthetic codes which would make the Explorer a Rolex mainstay. Now bearing the words “Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified” to advertise the chronometric accuracy of the movement ticking away within, the model changed little in the intervening decades—right up until the moment Ford rocked one at the SAG Awards.
A certified fixed-wing and helicopter pilot; an award-winning actor with a career spanning decades; and a no-frills tough guy of a bygone era, Ford is perhaps the poster child for the modern explorer. (And this is to say nothing of his portrayal of the most famous fictional explorer of all time.) If anyone can pull off a Rolex tool watch with a tuxedo, it’s him.
Courtesy of Will Smith
Courtesy of Menta Watches
Will Smith’s Patek Philippe ref. 5971P
Man, someone sure has been on his watch game lately. Will Smith rocked up to the Premios Lo Nuestro awards show this week wearing a late-2000s Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Chronograph ref. 5971P. Sourced from Adam Golden of Menta Watches, it features a platinum case that’s been factory-set with 36 baguette-cut diamonds along the bezel, plus a smattering of diamond-set indices. Its black dial displays a wealth of information: You have the main hours and minutes, of course, but then there are central chronograph seconds; a combination 30-minute totalizer and leap-year indicator at 3 o’clock; a combination date indicator and moon phase display above 6 o’clock; and a combination running-seconds register and 24-hour indicator at 9 o’clock. Most impressive? Patek has been making this complication since 1941.
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Orlando Bloom’s Porsche Design Chronograph 1
We gotta hand it to Porsche Design’s latest brand ambassador Orlando Bloom—the guy makes the brand’s iconic Chronograph 1 look good. Appearing at Burberry’show London Fashion Week show decked out in, duh, full Burbery, he wore the All Black Numbered Edition, a callback to the original PVD-coated Chronograph 1 of the 1970s. Porsche Design, founded by Ferdinand “Butzi” Porsche, was the first brand to produce and popularize an all-black watch. Still produced in various iterations today, the Chronograph 1 also comes in a cool new white-dialed “F.A.T.” Edition.
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Dave Chappelle’s Rolex Explorer II
Scratch what we said earlier about Rolex Explorer models not being standard dress-watch fare. Clearly there’s a trend taking shape here! Dave Chappelle paired an Explorer II ref. 216570 with a black dial to his tux while accepting the President’s Award at the 56th NAACP Image Awards. The Explorer II, born as the reference 1655 in 1971, was designed for spelunkers: A fourth hand and a fixed 24-hour bezel make for a handy day/night indicator, allowing a cave explorer to know whether it was, say, 3 AM or 3 PM. These days, an independently adjustable local hour hand allows the watch to serve a dual-time function as well, making it an alternative to the travel-ready GMT-Master II.
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Jeff Goldblum’s Tiffany & Co. Cocktail 2-Hand
The great Jeff Goldblum horological train keeps on a-chuggin’. At the SAG Awards, everyone’s favorite dinosaur-escaping chaos theorist sported a dainty, rose-gold, diamond-studded cocktail watch from Tiffany & Co. , With its decorative white dial, satin black leather strap, and printed Roman indices and guilloché, the piece actually hails from the storied jeweler’s ladies collection. As he does with most everything, though, Goldblum pulled it off with serious aplomb.
