Jake's Rolex Watch Blog: Tenzing Norgay & Sir Edmund Hillary...On Top of the World...

Tenzing Norgay & Sir Edmund Hillary Conquer Mount Everest

With Rolex Watches On Their Wrist

We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time. – T. S. Elliot

Preface

I must admit when I set out to write this story, I had no idea how complicated and time consuming it would be. There was so much fascinating detail to capture in this story and in the months and years to come I am certain I will update and add to the story many times.

As a historian and writer, I wanted to do more than give you a list of dated bullet points with photos. I wanted to actually take you to Nepal and take you up Mount Everest, which I feel I have achieved. I also wanted to let you stand in Tenzing Norgay's shoes and Sir Edmund Hillary's shoes to see things from their unique perspective. Enjoy the trip!!!

On Top of The World

Many of us have seen the classic National Geographic photo below of Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay near the top of Everest.

There are many unanswered questions surrounding their epic conquest of Everest, like whether they were wearing Rolex watches under their jackets in this photo. In this article I will do my best to shed as much light as I can on this amazing story of human ingenuity, achievment and perseverance, as well as two men reaching the highest highs and the lowest lows.

It Was A Very Good Year

Let's go back in time to 1953 and take a look around. The world was starting to bounce back from World War II and Queen Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England at Buckingham Palace as seen from the Life photo below from the coronation.

Ironically news of the successful conquering of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached Britain on the very day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.

1953 was a time of optimism where anything seemed possible.

In 1953 Dwight Eisenhower was the President of The United States and of course he was wearing his beloved yellow gold Rolex that had been given to him as a gift from Rene-Paul Jeanneret who was the director of Rolex. This Rolex was no ordinary Rolex, it was the 150,000th Officially Certified Swiss Chronometer that Rolex made.

1953 was a very interesting and promising year. Elvis was still in high school and the Space age had arrived–and with it America's love for the automobile culminated in the 1953 Corvette which had beautiful lines like nothing that had ever come before it.

Speaking of beautiful lines, 1953 was the year that Hugh Hefner launched Playboy magazine which in its debut issue featured this stunningly gorgeous photo of the young Marilyn Monroe–The sexual revolution was also underway.

The Roof Of The World

Half way around the world another revolution was about to take place in a desolate, remote and most unusual place.

Let's examine Mount Everest which is the highest peak on Earth. Mount Everest is 29,029 feet (8,848) meters above sea level. Mount Everest was officially named by the Royal Geographical Society by the British Surveyor General of India in 1865.

Mount Everest is part of the Himalayan mountain range in High Asia and it is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal, and Tibet, China.

Mount Everest is located at the exact tip of the red arrow on the map below, and it is nestled on border between Nepal and Tibet.

Everest From Above

The two photos below were taken from the International Space Station (pictured above) by the crew onboard Expedition 8 in January of 2004 of the Himalayan mountain range. The photos were taken from the south so the brown mountains are part of Nepal and the white flat area behind Mount Everest is the Tibetan Plateau which is the highest region in the world.

The two images below are identical except the first image is zoomed way out and the second image is zoomed way in. On both images, Mount Everest is located in the center of the image toward the rear of the photo.

As with most images in this story, click for much greater detail

Because of the relatively low orbit position of the International Space Station at 200 nautical miles (360km) you benefit from a view you could never see from a commercial airplane or satellite.

Onward & Upward

Throughout history mankind has had a preoccupation with trying to conquer the unexplored. In 1924, George Mallory, an Englishman from Cheshire tried to climb Everest with his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine. Both Mallory and Irvine are pictured below.

The climbers were last seen just a few hundred meters from the summit and then they disappeared. Nobody knows if they made it to the top. The photo below is the last time Mallory or Irvine were ever seen. If you look closely, you can see them about one third of the way over from the left edge of the photo. In 1999 Mallory's body was discovered.

When somebody asked Mallory why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he famously replied, "because it is there!"

Many other men attempted to climb Everest in 1924 including the group below who posed for the portrait.

Many men have lost their lives attempting to conquer Mount Everest. In the early expeditions, the gentlemen climbers were ill equipped with their tweed suits that did not do a very good job of protecting them from the elements.

The Beekeeper & The Yak Herder

Sir Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand on July 21, 1919. During World War II, Hillary served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) as seen in the photo below. As a teen, Edmund Hillary developed a passion for mountain climbing. He took a job as a beekeeper so that in the winter he could climb.

Tenzing Norgay

Tenzing Norgay's early life has conflicting accounts. In his first autobiography he said he was born and brought up in Khumbu, Nepal, but recent research claims he was born in Tibet in Khara Valley. Apparently his family became destitute when their yaks died from disease, and he was sold as a slave to a Sherpa family in Thamey, Nepal.

Tenzing Norgay wrote about the significance of Yak's where he grew up near Everest. Tenzing wrote:

"The land there is harsh and stony; the weather is bitter; but still we have both agriculture and pasturage. But most important are the yaks. From them we get wool for clothing, leather for shoes, dung for fuel, milk, butter and cheese for food. For the Sherpa, as for all high Himalayan people, the yak is the great staple of life. From it a man can get almost everything he needs to nourish him and keep him warm."

I included this photo of a Tibetian Yak for frame of reference. I think Tenzing forgot to mention that Yak's are also used for transportation, for plowing land and perhaps their skin would be used for making bags and gloves.

In this next photo taken with Mount Everest in the background you see a local farmer plowing land with Yaks.

This next photo is of Tenzing as a young man.

This next photo of Tenzing was taken with his first of three wives and two of his daughters.

Tezning tried to climb Mount Everest 7 times before finally making it. In 1952, Tenzing joined two different Swiss Expedition's and in the second expedition, he climbed to within 800 feet of the summit with Swiss climber Raymond Lambert. Lambert and Tenzing made it up to 28,215 feet (8,599 Meters) and had to turn back.

The reason they had to turn back was because when the got very close to the top, they had a tent, but no sleeping bags, so they almost froze to death at night. This was a powerful lesson learned so in the next attempt, Tenzing and Hillary brought sleeping bags.

Man Versus Mountain

In 1952 while Tenzing had been climbing Everest with the Swiss Expedition, Edmund Hillary had been surveying Everest for the upcoming British expedition. In the photo below, we see Edmund Hillary standing at the base of Mount Everest staring at the monster he would soon try to conquer.

The First Meeting

When Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary first met, as seen in the series of three photos below, they had no idea their lives would be inextricably linked forever. From all accounts, they were both very humble, unassuming, unpretentious men; both with a quiet, but burning desire to reach the top of the world.

Tenzing and Hillary were an odd couple. They came from completely different cultures and did not speak the same language. Hillary was 6 foot 3 inches tall and Tenzing was 5 foot 6 inches tall.

Tenzing Norgay was 39 years old and Edmund Hillary was 34 years old when they both finally climbed to the top of the world on May 29, 1953.

Tensing Norgay was part of three official British attempts to climb Everest from the Tibetian side from the north in the 1930s. In 1947 Tensing also took part in another unsuccessful attempt to climb Mount Everest that failed because the weather pounded them. In 1952, Tensing took part in two Swiss expeditions led by Raymond Lambert which were the first serious attempts to climb Mount Everest from the southern (Nepalese) side.

In the photo below you notice Tenzing is wearing an oxygen tank like a scuba diver. This is because the higher you get on Everest the thinner the air gets. At the top of Mount Everest you enter a section aptly named "The Death Zone" because there is less than 1/3 of the amount of oxygen a human needs to live.

The further the climbers get to the top the slower they move due to the lack of oxygen. A very fit 30 year old man is suddenly rendered into an 90 year old man with the lack of oxygen.

After the Chinese government took over Tibet in 1950 they closed off any routes to Everest and Nepal only allowed one expedition per year.

Edmund Hillary was a member of a 1951 British reconnaissance expedition to Mount Everest. Again in 1952, Hillary with George Lowe were part of another British attempt led by Eric Shipton which failed due to a lack of a route from the Nepal side.

Eric Shipton was named as the leader for the 1953 British expedition, but was replaced by British Brigadier, Sir John Hunt. The Hunt expedition was a giant team effort that consisted of over 400 people of which there were 362 porters and 20 Sherpa guides along with 10,000 pounds of baggage.

British Expedition leader, Hunt appointed two climbing teams for the attempted conquest of Mount Everest. The first team consisted of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, and the other team consisted of Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon. In the photo above you see Tenzing below with Hillary leading the way above.

Ironically, on May 26, 1953 the team of Tom Bourdillon and Chalres Evans attempted to climb the last stretch of Everest but had to turn back when Charles Evans' oxygen system experienced a failure. The Evans and Bourdillon team came within 300 vertical feet (91 meters) of the summit.

Hunt then directed Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to ascend to the summit.

The Ultimate Wisdom

The famous mountaineer and writer, James Ullman who was the ghost writer for Tenzing Norgay's autobiography, Man of Everest (originally published as Tiger of the Snows), once wrote: "It is the ultimate wisdom of the mountains that a man is never more of a man than when he is striving for that which is beyond his grasp" and that was clearly the case with Tenzing and Hillary as they strove toward the top of Everest.

As a matter of fact, Sir Edmund Hillary said "we didn't know if it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mount Everest" but that clearly did not stop them from trying.

At 11:30 a.m. on May, 29, 1953 Hillary and Tenzing reached Mount Everest's Summit at 29,028 feet (8,848 Meters) which is the highest point on earth. When they reached the top they spent 15 minutes looking for evidence of the 1924 Mallory expedition but came up empty handed. When they returned down the mountain the first team member they ran into was Hillary's lifelong pal, George Lowe to which Hillary famously said "Well, George, we knocked the bastard off."

I always thought the photo above was of Hillary and Tenzing on top of the summit but apparently it is not. The only photo of either one of them on the summit is of Tenzing (pictured below) and it was taken by Hillary. Tenzing did not take a photo of Hillary because he did not know how to use a camera.

There was a parade through Nepal that welcomed the expedition team that conquered Mount Everest.

There were many well wishers who were excited to celebrate the expedition teams outstanding achievement. In the photo below the parade passes Dubar Square in downtown Katmandu, Nepal.

After the parade through Nepal, the climbing party got on an airplane and headed for India.

The photo below is of the reception that was held in the honor of the Mount Everest expedition team and that is Jawaharlal Nehru standing on the podium with his hands behind his back.

The photo below is of Nehru awarding Edmund Hillary with a medal of honor.

In the photo below, Jawaharlal Nehru is talking with Sir Edmund Hillary after his successful conquering of Mount Everest, with other members of the expedition team looking on.

Jawaharlal Nehru was crazy about Tenzing Norgay and pronounced that Tenzing was of Indian descent. Tenzing is pictured below being awarded by Nehru.

Tenzing is pictured below with Nehru in a reception after the award ceremony.

While in India a huge controversy broke out. According to Edmund Hillary, Tenzing signed a document saying he made it to the summit first, ahead of Hillary. It was then learned that Tenzing did not understand what he signed and Tenzing and Hillary signed a statement saying they both made it to the summit next to each other.

Years later, in his his book, View From The Summit, first published in 1999, many years after Tenzing died, Hillary broke his silence and said that he made it to the top first, not Tenzing.

Sir Edmund Hillary

Edmund Hillary and John Hunt traveled to England where they were knighted by young Queen Elizabeth II.

Retirement

After climbing Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary was considered to be one of the top explorer's on earth. in 1954, Hillary was on another Himalayan expedition, high on a peak neighboring Everest where he broke three of his ribs while rescuing one of his fellow climbers. He then caught pneumonia, and had to be removed from the mountain on a stretcher as seen below.

Ironically, this is the only photo taken during Hillary's climbing career where I believe I can positively identify a climber wearing a Rolex. In the photo above of Hillary being put on a stretcher, the climber taking off Hillary's goggles appears to be wearing a stainless steel Rolex Explorer. A few years later, Hillary suffered three high altitude strokes which would forever preclude him from high altitude climbing.

Tragedy Strikes

Four months after conquering Mount Everest, Edmund Hillary got married to Louise Mary Rose, who was a daughter of a mountain climber. Louise was 11 years younger than Edmund. They had three children together, a daughter and two sons. One of their sons, Peter would follow in his father's footstep by reaching the summit of Everest many years later.

Louise and Edmund are seen in the picture below. In 1975, tragedy struck Edmund Hillary when his wife Louise and daughter Belinda died in an airplane accident over the Himalayas while they were coming to visit him.

Edmund suffered for years over the tragedy, and blamed it on himself, because his wife never felt comfortable traveling aboard small airplanes all over the world to visit him and he realized he had pushed her against her will to do so. He was so upset that he contemplated suicide, but over the years he was able to move on.

Edmund Hillary was a man who experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

Sir Edmund Hillary is considered to be one of the most beloved and trusted New Zealanders. His portrait is commemorated on the New Zealand Five Dollar bill as seen below.

The Tiger of the Snow

After their successful climb, Tezing Norgay became an internationally famous figure. As with most fame, it was a blessing and a curse. Tenzing wrote an autobiography named The Tiger of the Snows which was a big hit.

Tenzing Norgay appeared on the Cover of the April 25, 1955 Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated was so enamored with Tezing's success that it ran a four installment article covering his book, The Tiger of the Snows. In the photo below Tenzing's shoulders are covered with vermilion powder that was sprinkled on him as a sign of adulation by Nepalese villagers.

Tenzing is pictured below in a photo that appeared in Sports Illustrated in 1955. In 1955 Tenzing must have felt like he was still on top of the world.

In the photo below, Tenzing had a rare family reunion in Darjeeling with three generations of his family. Pictured from left to right on the top row: first wife, Ang Lahinu, daughter Nima, aged 16, Tenzing's mother, Tenzing. Bottom Row, Older daughter Pem-Pem (18) is sitting with her Tibetian lap-dog. Others in photo are Tenzing's cousins.

The Rolex Explorer

It has always been a huge mystery as to when Rolex made the first Rolex Explorer. The common belief was that it was fist made in 1953, but Christie' auction house recently had an auction on November 17, 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland where they sold the Rolex Explorer (pictured below). According to Christie's, this white dial Rolex Explorer has a reference number of 6098, and was made in 1950. [Lot 344]

The photo above is unusual because Rolex did not make many Rolex Explorer models with the white dial. The black dial variants as seen below is by far and away the more popular version.

In the third edition of James Dowling and Jeff Hess' book, The Best of Time, on page 243 the photo of the watch below appears. The description reads:

"The earliest known Explorer, although, in fact, it does not have the word Explorer on the dial. This is one of the watches worn on the John Hunt Expedition which succeeded in conquering Everest at the end of May, 1953."

On page 241 of the same book it says:

"One of the watches worn on that expedition was auctioned by Sotheby's London on July 19, 1988 as lot 117 (see photograph on page 243). As you can see the watch was a classic early Explorer down to the Mercedes hands, except for the absence of the word Explorer on the dial. The shape of the watch (and the description by Sotheby's as a Bubble-Back Explorer) leads us to believe the watch is in fact a model 6350."

When most people think of a Rolex Explorer, they think of a watch that looks like the one below.

Photo Credit: Tom Vox

The next two images show a Rolex Explorer brochure from 1966 and include quotes from Sir John Hunt, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

Pictured below is a more recent Rolex Explorer Ad that features Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay near the summit of Mount Everest.

The Rolex Explorer II

The photo below is of a Rolex Explorer Mark II which added a 24 hour bezel and an orange hand for tracking 24 hour time.

Photo Credit: Eric Ku

The advertisement below is for the Rolex Explorer Mark II pictured above. The "Mark II" designation comes from the Rolex ad below. Notice at the bottom of the ad the text under the photo of the watch that reads "Pictured: the Rolex Explorer Mark II in stainless steel."

The Explorer II

Years later Rolex replaced the Rolex Explorer Mark II orange hand with an all new version with a red hand.

Photo Credit: Morten

The next photo shows the Rolex Explorer II with a white dial. The white dial variation is unique in the sense that its indices and hands are black. This is the same watch that is seen on Peter Hillary's wrist on top of Mount Everest on the 50th anniversary of the his father conquering Mount Everest.

The Everest Watches

There is a very interesting history behind the lagacy of Mount Everest and wrist watches. Rolex seemed to be historically pre-occupied with Everest because they made watch models that were named Everest. If I understand it correctly, they primarily made the Everest model watches for the Canadian market.

In order to understand where the Rolex Explorer watches came from let's take a look at the older Rolex Everest watches and Rolex Explorer watches. I believe these first Rolex Everest watches are from the 1930s and 1940s:

Above Photo Credit for Rolex Reference 6098: Meffi

This next Rolex is a Rolex Explorer Date:

Above Photo Credit for Rolex Reference 5505: Canadian Oyster Watcher

The Real Mount Everest Watch Mystery

There is a very strange mystery surrounding what watches were worn by whom on Everest. In 1953 there was a British watch company named Smiths Watches (Smiths watch pictured above) that went out of business many years ago, that ran the ad seen below. The strange thing is that it does not say Sir Edmund Hillary wore the watch up to the summit, but that he "carried" it to the summit. If he wore it, he would have said he wore it...I think!?

Update: CDA sent in the two following images that were taken at the Clockmaker's Museum in London. The first image shows Sir Edmund Hillary's Smiths watch that he donated to the Clockmakers's Museum and the second image is a close-up of the description. Thank you very much for sharing CDA!!!

Next we have the following Rolex ads that seem to suggest somebody from the Mount Everest expedition wore Rolex watches. It is difficult to separate the fact from the fiction, but I will give it my best shot. I have heard many rumors over the years. I heard that Hillary wore a Rolex. I heard that Tenzing wore a Rolex that Rolex has in their private collection.

This next Rolex Explorer magazine advertisement could have only run between late 1953 and late 1958. It is interesting to note in the ad there is no photo of a the Rolex Explorer watch that is being advertised, either by itself, or on the wrist of either Hillary, Hunt or Norgay:

This Next ad is from the Horological Journal from September of 1953 and sheds substantial light on Rolex Everest Expedition History.

Tenzing Norgay's Watches

This next photo is from Life magazine was taken during the descent from the top of Mount Everest in a low camp. Tenzing is wearing a watch that does not have a leather strap, but a metal bracelet, and looks nothing like a Rolex Explorer.

I think I may have discovered the type of Rolex watch Tenzing was wearing in the photo above. It is called a Rolex Royalite and it is from the 1940s. I found the watch pictured below on www.Oysterwatch.com and they say it has an "Original bamboo style bonklip bracelet."

Just for the record, I am not saying I think Tenzing's model is a Rolex Royalite, per se, I think the watch could be some kind of Rolex Oyster from that era. If you study the vintage Rolex Oyster's from that era, you notice Rolex made a zillion different models with all kinds of interesting and disparate nomenclature.

The photo below of Tenzing was taken high on the mountain and I am relatively certain he is wearing the same watch as pictured above. I have also seen two other photos of him that are not in this article where he is wearing the same stainless steel watch with a stainless steel bracelet.

This next photo of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay was taken in a press conference in London, after they completed their successful climb.

Notice in the photo that Tenzing is wearing a different watch on a leather strap. According to James Dowling and Jeff Hess' book, The Best of Time, Rolex has, in its possession, Tenzing's Rolex that he wore up to the top of Everest.

In this next photo, taken on the same day as the photo above we see Tenzing wearing two different watches–one on each wrist. I don't know why he would be wearing two watches at the same time when he is not climbing? It could be that one watch was keeping local time in England and one was keeping time in Nepal?

In the photo below, again you see Tenzing holding up the Union Jack while Sir John Hunt looks on. This photo confirms Tenzing was wearing two watches.

Edmund Hillary's Watches

If you examine the evidence, it appears that Edmund Hillary wore a Rolex and a Smiths' watch. This next image substantiates that claim. It was taken just after he came down from the peak. He is posing with a group of Sherpa's and he is wearing two watches–one on each wrist–at the same time. Both watches appear to be on black leather straps.

Why would Hillary be wearing two watches at the same time? Probably for the same reason the NASA astronauts typically do. Because they are timing different things at the same time.

This next photo of Hillary (pictured on the left) shows him in the foothills with just one watch on a black leather strap.

Same with this next photo. One watch on his left wrist.

Watches Worn On Everest Conclusion

I must say I have really enjoyed researching and writing this amazing story, but I must also tell you that I am a bit frustrated. I shared my findings with you and I am not able to find anything conclusive that proves that Hillary, Tenzing or Hunt wore Rolex watches on the successful Mount Everest Expedition.

I wish I could show you a photo of Hillary, Tenzing or Hillary unequivocally wearing a Rolex but I can't find one. I don't pay much attention to the myths that have been handed down, because in my experience, most of them have proven to be just that–myths. As far as I am concerned, I don't believe until I can see with my own eyes.

I believe Rolex of Geneva would be in the best position to separate the fact from the fiction on this issue.

We clearly see Rolex was all over the Everest bandwagon long before Tenzing and Hillary conquered Everest. I say this because we see Rolex "Everest" Models going back to the 1930s and 1940s.

In the Rolex document from the Horological Journal dated September 1953 (pictured above in this watch section) Rolex enumerates the 15 historic Himalayan expeditions in which Rolex Oyster watches were worn.

In the Rolex brochure from 1966 (pictured above in this watch section) Rolex published direct quotes from Sir John Hunt, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay that suggest all three wore Rolex watches up to the top of Everest.

Once again, I wish I could offer you more concrete proof and hopefully in the future I will dig it up, or Rolex or somebody else will step forward with the few missing pieces of the Rolex Everest watch puzzle and solve the mystery once and for all. Until then it will remain a mystery.

In the recent photo of Sir Edmund Hillary before he passed away you can see he was wearing his two-tone Rolex Oyster Quartz...That means he wore Rolex for at least 55 Years.

Sir Edmund Hillary also served as a judge on Rolex' panel of judges for their Enterprise awards.

Update: On Friday July 10, 2009 I wrote the following on Jake's Rolex Watch Blog:

Sir Edmund Hillary's Everest Expedition Rolex Discovered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle Has Been Found

This is one of the most exciting moments of my life with Jake's Rolex Watch Blog!!!!!!!!!!

I wrote a super detailed article about Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's conquest of Mount Everest which you can read by clicking here. The challenge is that I was able to put together all the pieces of the puzzle except one? and that was whether Sir Edmund Hillary was wearing a Rolex on his wrist when he conquered Everest and if he did where was the actual watch today?

After many months and many international emails and phone calls I can report with confidence that Sir Edmunds Hillary's Rolex has been found and properly documented. The watch is in possession of the Beyer Clock and Watch Museum in Zürich, Switzerland. I have been working with folks at the Beyer Clock And Watch Museum on this story and they just confirmed with me that Rolex in Geneva confirmed the watch indeed belonged to Sir Edmund Hillary and was given to the Hunt Expedition.

This first photo is of the the actual watch Sir Edmund Hillary wore when he conquered Everest. The watch is an Officially Certified Chronometer Rolex Oyster Perpetual with a white dial and it is pictured below on top of a Rolex magazine ad which I believe is from between 1953 and late 1958. The irony, of course is Edmund Hillary's Rolex watch was NOT a (as widely believed and reported) a Rolex Explorer model, but a Rolex Oyster Perpetual COSC.

This next Rolex magazine advertisement is from 1953 and it appears to show the exact Rolex Oyster Perpetual that Sir Edmund Hillary wore. It does not show a Rolex Explorer, but the actual model as seen above but on an early Rolex Oyster bracelet. To the best of my recollection this model is very similar to the one Chuck Yeager wore when he broke the speed of sound barrier in 1947.

Also, notice that next to the photo of the watch in the ad below it says:

"The ROLEX OYSTER PERPETUAL that accompanied the victorious British Everest Expedition. Waterproof, self-winding, and a miracle of accuracy, this watch is the 'highest achievement' of the watchmaking industry."

It is interesting to note the use of language in the ad below as well–where Rolex uses the term "Highest Achievement." This is interesting to me because in my mind that is what Rolex has always been about. I think there is something about wearing a Rolex on your wrist that makes people strive higher to achieve. Perhaps, I and Rolex are romanticizing things, but it makes perfect sense to me.

Please Click Image To Make Larger

The ad has a letter from Sir Edmund Hillary to Rolex written upon his return from the 1952 British Himalayan Expedition and it reads:

"I received the watch (Rolex) on March 29th an Jaynagar on the Nepalese border, and throughout the whole of the British Cho Oyu Expedition, until we finally reached India again some 14 weeks later, I wore the watch (Rolex) continuously, night and day, and on no occasion did it stop or require winding. In the course of the expedition it experienced considerable extremes of temperature, from the great heat of India to the cold temperature at over 22,000 feet, and seemed unaffected by the knocks it received on rock climbs or the continual jarring on long spells of stop cutting in ice."

"To me an accurate watch is a novelty. I am one of those unfortunate people whose watches, for some some strange reason, always seem to go slow. No adjustment seems to counteract. However this Rolex has been different a different matter altogether. Its accuracy is all one could desire and it has run continuously without winding ever since I put it on some nine months ago...I count your watch amongst my most treasured possessions."

These next two photos are of Sir Edmund Hillary's actual Rolex Watch he was wearing when he conquered Mount Everest. This first photo which gets us up close was taken by Andrew and it shows all the detail on the dial. When I was doing research for the original story, I watched a tremendous amount of film footage and I kept looking for a Rolex Explorer on an Oyster band with a black dial, but I saw nothing that even resembled one. Instead, I kept seeing members of the Everest expedition including Hillary wearing watches on leather straps with white dial and this confused me terribly.

Welcome Home Baby!!!

The obvious reason I did not see any Rolex Explorer models is because the members of the Hunt expedition were not wearing them. In the photo below of Sir Edmund Hillary's watch we see that it has an extra long leather strap which enabled it to be worn over clothing or gloves.

It Was A Very Good Year

1953 was a good year for Rolex. In 1953 Jacques Piccard set a depth record when he took a Rolex Deep Sea Special down off the coast of Italy in the Bathyscaphe, Trieste. It is profound in my mind that in 1953 both Hillary and Piccard broke world records with Rolex and they both passed away in 2008.

Son's of Everest Return

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest, National Geographic filmed a documentary that featured Sir Edmund Hillary's son, Peter Hillary, and Tenzing Norgay's son, Jamling Norgay.

Jamling, Norgay is pictured above lighting incense as a tribute to his father Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on the 50th anniversary of their famous climb. Jamling is wearing a Rolex Pepsi GMT Master.

Jamling Norgay (pictured above) and Peter Hillary (pictured below) were interviewed on the Charlie Rose show about their return to Everest. Jamling and Peter had both already climbed to the summit of Mount Everest before the National Geographic special.

For the 50th Anniversary special, Peter Hillary climbed to the top of Everest for the second time in his life and using a satellite photo, called his father, Sir Edmund Hillary in New Zealand to tell him he had safely made it to the top.

Rolex was an official sponsor for the 50th anniversary climb and Peter Hillary can be seen in the photo above and below wearing his white dial Rolex Explorer II, which I am officially dubbing today as "The Peter Hillary Explorer."

The DVD from National Geographic

You may purchase the fascinating DVD that chronicles the son's return to Mount Everest 50 Years later by clicking on the link below.

Legacy

Sir Edmund Hillary returned to Nepal, and he asked a Sherpa what he could do to help them. The Sherpa responded by saying, "Our children have eyes, but they cannot see."

From that point forward, Hillary dedicated his life to raising money to build schools and hospitals for the people of Nepal. He built a total of 20 schools and 4 hospitals. Hillary also got remarried years after his first wife died.

The photo below is of the Sir Edmund Hillary monument located at the base of one of his favorite peaks to climb named Aoraki / Mount Cook located in the South Island of New Zealand..

The image below is of the Tenzing Norgay monument, which is located at the base of Mount Everest.

Tenzing and Hillary remained lifelong friends. In Tenzing's later life he suffered from depression because he was extremely famous, but he had very little financial wealth. Tenzing passed away in 1986 at the age of 71.

Together, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay looked down upon the earth from a view nobody had ever seen before. Together they changed the world and will always be remembered as pioneering explorer's who conquered the unconquerable.