Rolex and Pan Am

[springer]

For those new to vintage Rolex, and unfamiliar with the collaboration between Rolex and Pan Am ( an airline company that went out of business in 1991 for those to young to remember) in the development of the original GMT model 6542, I would encourage you to browse the internet for reading material regarding the development and history of the early Rolex GMT-MASTER 6542 from the 1950s. There is plenty of information out there, some of which is rather accurate and some which is pure speculation.

With that said, while cleaning out some drawers in my garage shop the other day, I found some long ago placed items that I probably haven't seen for decades. Among those items was an old Pan Am key chain that I picked up somewhere, sometime during my travels when I was flying quite regularly. The key chain was still in excellent condition and after cleaning it a little, I thought it would be nice to share a photo of it with one of my favorite GMTs - a 1968 model 1675 with a Mark I dial and Swiss 7206 rivet bracelet.

Enjoy the photo and consider the possibilities of where the GMTs would be today without the collaboration between Rolex and Pan Am seven decades ago.

[The Argonaut]

Brilliant Springer. Pan Am were around when I was growing up. My dad flew them quite a bit, and had one of those square Pan Am bags.

Beautiful watch.

Best,
TA


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[henrylee]

Beautiful watch and cool keychain Springer!

[Jinson]

Thanks, jP. Love the rich history of Pan Am and the Rolex GMT!

[thomaspp]

That’s nice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[superstarmar]

i wonder if the pilot that flew the Pan Am flight i was on in May 1976
when i came to the USA was wearing a 1675....

That's right , i came here off a Pan Am Airline not the boat...

Excellent JP... Love it !!!!

[Tom1675]

Love this!

[incontrol]

That is a beauty! I remember Pan Am when I was a kid. What a great collaboration.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[themaninblack]

A DC 10 key chain! They only operated a small number of them for a relatively short time. They briefly had Tristars too. I flew Pan Am a few times as a kid. My dad was on their inaugural 747SP direct SYD-LAX flight. They also briefly flew the SP direct into MEL before UA took over that route.

[Glyph]

Springer, Great Write Up. Let’s get together for lunch soon.

[springer]

Originally Posted by themaninblack

A DC 10 key chain! They only operated a small number of them for a relatively short time. They briefly had Tristars too. I flew Pan Am a few times as a kid. My dad was on their inaugural 747SP direct SYD-LAX flight. They also briefly flew the SP direct into MEL before UA took over that route.

I loved flying the DC 10s. Seems like they were never full when flying stateside and there was always plenty of room to stretch out.

[sensui]

I've always been onboard with the Panam tie in with the GMT despite some non believers. Great shot JP and as usual bringing the GMT fire!

[lee fowler]

Some more Pan Am bits here, the magazine is from 1963.

[lhanddds]

Very cool John


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[brandrea]

I absolutely love stuff like this

Thanks for sharing John and Lee

[Wiener48]

Originally Posted by springer

For those new to vintage Rolex, and unfamiliar with the collaboration between Rolex and Pan Am ( an airline company that went out of business in 1991 for those to young to remember) in the development of the original GMT model 6542, I would encourage you to browse the internet for reading material regarding the development and history of the early Rolex GMT-MASTER 6542 from the 1950s. There is plenty of information out there, some of which is rather accurate and some which is pure speculation.

With that said, while cleaning out some drawers in my garage shop the other day, I found some long ago placed items that I probably haven't seen for decades. Among those items was an old Pan Am key chain that I picked up somewhere, sometime during my travels when I was flying quite regularly. The key chain was still in excellent condition and after cleaning it a little, I thought it would be nice to share a photo of it with one of my favorite GMTs - a 1968 model 1675 with a Mark I dial and Swiss 7206 rivet bracelet.

Enjoy the photo and consider the possibilities of where the GMTs would be today without the collaboration between Rolex and Pan Am seven decades ago.

Cool pice, would fit here also :-)

https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=615906

[padi56]

The GMT was made in conjunction with Rolex and Pan-Am the vast majority of the early watches produced went to the Pan-Am company a great sales boost for Rolex.Now each plane had a pilot, a first officer and a navigator all of whom were issued with GMT Masters. And Pan-Am had several hundred crews,and all were issued with a company GMT Master. These watches had no company logo markings and no special dials.Later a strange bunch of 100+ watches were made in 1958 especially to solve a problem inside the airline's old Building head office.(they moved early 1960s). The problem was simply that as the watches arrived in the head office before being sent off to the for issue to the flight crew.Now some of these were requisitioned by senior management, who felt that they, rather than the flight crews, were the ones who deserved a new company Rolex.Now one day Juan Trippe, the head of Pan-Am saw one of the watches on the wrist of an executive. And wanted to know why it was not on the wrist of a pilot. The situation was explained to him; the pilots had everything, the gold caps, the titles, and the brand new Boeing jets, and now they even got great watches. The executives felt shunned, they saw themselves as the basis of the company's success but were fed up of being treated as second class citizens.Now Trippe did not like the situation with the executives and ordered that all the GMT Masters in the building should be returned to the operation department for subsequent issue to flight crews. However to modify the new executives watches he had Rolex manufacture a batch of 100+ GMT Masters solely for the Desk Pilots. These differed from the flight crew that they had white dials. And are believed to be the only GMTs made with this colour dial,these watches made 1959 with the last of the old model 6542 cases,after that the new model was introduced.

Some believe than the Panam model never existed but that's simply down to not many ever made and its not a watch that you would wear every day and myself believe they do exist.Now when James Dowling wrote and stated he met John Dear from the special watch department of Rolex Switzerland, I believe him cannot see any point in telling a lie. I also believe him when he says that he met people directly involved with the PanAm watch project and believe the white dial did exist,but with Rolex today and past history nothing is written in stone

[gasparantonio]

In the Guido Mondani GMT book you can have a clear view and analysis of this famous rare version of an albino GMT PanAm watch. Hope this can support the fact that they really exist.

[jimdon5822]

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scooba]

brilliant , thx John and Lee

[Torque Time]

Pretty cool pic!

[rootbeer7]

John, Peter and Lee, great posts. I love this forum for the reasons above.

[toneafficianado]

Brilliantly informative post!
Love the GMT.
Thanks for posting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ignace Worang]

Nice info....thanks for sharing. Actually Albino Pan Am inspired me to modify my 16570 with 16710 bezel.

[Boaters]

First I have seen of this post great post J/P. Reeves Air was kind of the same way flying around Dutch Harbor in the Lockheed Electra's so much room flights never full those were the good ole days!

[Johny]

A very interesting thread.

[CFR]

Originally Posted by Johny

A very interesting thread.

Agreed -- love when those with greater knowledge broaden the historical context of our watches with threads like these.

[utc66]

My mother had one of those magnet Pan Am planes on her fridge. She flew for Pan Am when they were still using propellers, late fifties, early sixties. She said it used to take 12 hours to cross the Atlantic.

Here is a photo of her with the crew.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[themaninblack]

The lounge area in the 707. I remember walking through it when boarding. Imagine airlines utilising space like that in a narrow body today!

[jimdon5822]

When people used to dress to the nines to take s trip!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk