The Rolex that went to Mount Everest: The Story of the Rolex Explorer

The Rolex that went to Mount Everest

The Rolex Explorer is one of the most sought-after and well-received Rolex

watches on the vintage and gray market, as well as at retail locations All and

all it’s a badass watch with a lot of weight in the name. From appearing in the

hit TV show Mad Men to being flooded in the photos of Instagram, and on the

wrist of celebrities, the Explorer has become a part of our culture in a way

perhaps only surpassed by the Submariner and Datejust. A lot of watch geeks

know the Explorer, but why is it called the Explorer? What is the story behind

this iconic timepiece?

To answer this question we need to go way back to 1953, when (not yet Sir)

Edmund Hillary became the first man to summit Mount Everest along with his

Sherpa partner Tenzing Norgay. This was a great feat of mankind and a

historic moment that would live on forever, with Hillary and Norgay braving the

harsh conditions and elements of mother nature and only using simple

equipment that would seem rudimentary today One important equipment that

was said to be strapped to both Hillary and Norgay’s wrist were Rolex Oyster

Perpetuals, a series which eventually grew to include the venerated Explorer.

Lord Hunt, the Leader of the Expedition wrote afterward (according to an article written by The Hour Glass) “We have indeed come to look upon Rolex Oysters as an essential part of our high-climbing equipment.”

The watch was not sold commercially

So as you can imagine a watch of this caliber and importance was a bit of a

unique piece. The watches used by Hillary and Norgay were actually

prototypes produced in 1950 being similar to and often mistaken for the Rolex

Oyster Everest, which was built between the 1930s and 1940s during the time

Rolex began sponsoring expedition parties to the Himalayas to test the

durability of the Oyster Perpetual as a climbing instrument.

They had to give the watches back!

After the climb, the climbers eventually had to give the watches back to Rolex

as they were prototypes and not gifts! I don’t know about you, but I would be

pretty upset to have trekked a watch to the tallest part of the world and not

even get to keep it! Even still, the watches went back to Rolex for even more

extensive testing. Don’t fear though: after Rolex tested the watches, they were

presented back to Norgay and Hillary as gifts.

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Explorer

As we know, the watch eventually became the Rolex Oyster Perpetual

Explorer was the result of real-world testing, risk, and historic success. Today

it still remains, an amalgamation of 65 years of innovation and technology

showing Rolex’s ever-present commitment to exploration and innovation.