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Showing posts from October, 2024

Hands On With A Rolex That Landed on the Moon

Screenshot from a video of the Apollo 14 crew during their luner transit in space. Astronaut Mitchell smiles at the camera, his Rolex GMT Master "Pepsi" on his right wrist. The crew was "hamming it up" over shaving their beards. Question: if you're a) really into watches and you b) learn about a watch that is older than you that has travelled more than 400,000 miles through the vastness of space to the surface of the moon and back and c) discover the watch is within easy driving distance, what do you do? Answer: you get in the car, drive to the watch, and you check it out. So that's what I did. The watch in question is a Rolex GMT Master reference 1675 "Pepsi." This particular GMT Master has out-of-this world provenance. Literally. And I thank the team at RR Auctions for granting me some time to check it out, they were gracious and generous hosts. Here's the deal: on January 31, 1971, NASA astronaut CAPT Ed Mitchell, PhD USN launched