Rolex launched the Explorer on a letter from Everest

A letter, a drawing, a price

The advertisement was headed "Everest Leader's Tribute to Rolex". Beneath it ran three columns of a letter, dated "15th June, 1953" and datelined Khatmandu, with a signature reproduced at the end and the single word "Leader" under it. The writer was Brigadier Sir John Hunt, who had led the British expedition on which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953.¹

Underneath the letter sat an illustration of two climbers on a snow face, signed by Eric Fraser. And in the bottom left corner, in small italic copy at the foot of the page, Rolex introduced a watch that had not existed when the expedition set out.¹

What the letter was asked to carry

Hunt's letter is a product report. It runs through three claims in order, each attached to a named feature. On accuracy: "The Rolex Oyster Perpetual watches, with which members of the British team were equipped, again proved their dependability on Everest. We were delighted that they kept such accurate time. This ensured that synchronisation of time between the members of the team was maintained throughout."¹

On the case: "the Oyster case lived up to its reputation, gained on many previous expeditions, for protecting the movement. Our Rolex Oysters were completely waterproof, unharmed by immersion in snow, and withstood the extreme change of temperature from the warm humidity of the foothills to the great cold at high camps."¹ On the rotor: "Last, but not least, the Perpetual self-winding mechanism relieved the team from the trouble of winding their watches. At heights of over twenty-five thousand feet this is really necessary, because the mind slows up and such details as winding watches can be forgotten. There was no need either to slip off warm gloves to attend to this detail."¹

The closing sentence is the one Rolex was buying. "They performed splendidly, and we have indeed come to look upon Rolex Oysters as an important part of high climbing equipment."¹ An expedition leader classified the watch as equipment, in writing, over his own signature, seventeen days after the summit.

The proof becomes a product

The small copy at the foot of the page does the commercial work. It introduces the Rolex Explorer as "a new watch built specially for scientists and explorers to withstand every conceivable hazard", states that the Oyster case "has been strengthened to stand up to tremendous pressures", and gives figures: the watch "functions perfectly to a depth of 300 feet under water and at a height of 12 miles". It is anti-magnetic, has luminous figures on a jet-black dial, and costs £49 19s 6d including the steel bracelet.¹

Rolex's own history confirms the sequence and the intent: the expedition was equipped with Oyster Perpetual watches, and the Explorer was "launched in 1953 to celebrate the historic ascent of Everest".² The advertisement is where the two halves meet. The testimonial validates the Oyster, which the expedition actually carried. The product copy sells the Explorer, which it did not. The reader is invited to complete the transfer without being asked to.

That transfer is the whole design of the page. Everything above the fold is evidence about a watch already in the catalogue; everything the buyer can act on is a watch that inherits the evidence by family resemblance. The Explorer arrived with a heritage on the day it went on sale.

The schedule is printed on the page

The surviving sheet is a final proof, and it carries its own media plan along the bottom edge: Birmingham Mail 21 June, Manchester Guardian 28 June, Edinburgh Scotsman 14 June, Belfast Telegraph 14 June, at a size given as eleven by six.¹ Four regional and national titles, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, within weeks of the summit. A national news event reached the press as a product launch in the same month it happened, which is a speed of response most advertisers of the period had no mechanism for.

The page is signed off by "THE ROLEX WATCH COMPANY LIMITED (H. WILSDORF, GOVERNING DIRECTOR)" at 1 Green Street, Mayfair, and closes with the line "A landmark in the history of Time measurement".¹ Wilsdorf had been gathering proof from other people's undertakings since 1927, when he invited Mercedes Gleitze to wear an Oyster during her crossing of the English Channel and afterwards named her the first Rolex Testimonee.³ The difference here was that the proof arrived attached to a product launch rather than ahead of one.

The record is not uncontested. English Wikipedia's account of Smiths states that one of that company's De Luxe wristwatches was worn by Hillary on the ascent, adding that Rolex also supplied watches but that the only watch worn to the summit was a Smiths.⁴ The Rolex advertisement makes no claim about the summit itself. It quotes a leader on what the team used.