(Photo credit: Jake’s Rolex World)
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell's Rolex, the first Rolex to go to the moon, is coming up for auction 15 years after another Rolex moonwatch was sold, Ron Evans'. The serial numbers of those watches are 2448767 and 2448718, respectively, just 49 numbers apart.
“It would appear they received them at the same time,” said Nick Gould, a watch researcher, who made the discovery. “Special delivery from Rolex USA back in the day?”
Evidence found in correspondence show Rolex would gift GMT watches to NASA test pilots and astronauts, who then would report to Rolex how the timepieces fared during the flights and thank the company for the gift.
“Sincere appreciation to the Rolex Watch Co. and personal regards to [Rolex director] Mr. René Jeanneret,” William Pete Knight wrote. “With Best of Regards to René & Rolex,” wrote Scott Crossfield. “My GMT 200,000 miles from Geneva,” wrote Stuart Roosa on a black-and-white wrist shot. Roosa flew with Mitchell on Apollo 14.
As for Mitchell, whose GMT-Master is being auctioned this month, he, too, wrote to Rolex to express his appreciation: “I wore a GMT-Master for most of the hours I flew the module, and as always was very satisfied with its performance.”