Reinhold Messner and his Explorer II 1655

[Prof. Rolex]

Dear Rolex-Fans,
following you will find some scans from Reinhold Messners book about his solo climb to the Nanga Parbat in 1978. Messner wore an Explorer II 1655, which can be seen from the scans. This book was responsible for my decision to buy a 1655 in 1979, which was my very first Rolex.






(Source: Reinhold Messner: Alleingang, BLV Verlagsgesellschaft München, 1979)

And as you can see, my 1655 is still with me:



An interesting detail:
Messner reached the Nanga Parbat on 9th August 1978 and therefore AFTER his first climb to the Everest without additional oxygene together with Peter Habeler on 8th May 1978. Looking to Rolex-advertisements from that time Messner should have worn during the Everest-expedition an Oysterquartz, which he then obviously changed to a 1655 for the solo climb to the Nanga Parbat. Unfortunately Messners book about the Everest-Expedition does not show any photo of him on which his watch can be seen. Only a photo of Peter Habeler wearing his Submariner can be found in Messners Everest-book.

Best Regards
Matthias

[PCS]

Fantastic, Matthias.

Do we know, which Oysterquartz he had for his Everest expedition?
Was it a 17000?

[Prof. Rolex]

As far as I know, he should have worn a 17000 and there is also a picture of Messner wearing a 17000:


(Source: oysterquartz.net)

I´m not sure, whether this picture was made during his everest-expedition 1978, but it definitely does not show Messner on the everest-peak.

What can be taken for sure is, that Messner wore a 1655 on the peak of the Nanga Parbat.

Regards
Matthias

[Martini]

Great Matthias. I met Messner 2 weeks ago in person, unfortunately he did not wear a rolex but a plastic sports watch

[416rimless]

Thanks Matthias for that interesting post!

[ehemaliges mitglied]

Very interesting story - thanx

I will try to find some details as I own quite a few books featuring Messner.

[ehemaliges mitglied]

Wonderful story and nice to know, that he was also wearing a 17000 during his climbing trips.

Gr,
István

[THX_Ultra]

Original von Martini
Great Matthias. I met Messner 2 weeks ago in person, unfortunately he did not wear a rolex but a plastic sports watch

And you did NOT ask him about his Rolex watches???????

[Hannes]

Thanks Matthias

And before those climbers had Explorers and Oyster Quartz they used Oyster Perpetuals:

Klick for a big pic

[Martini]

Original von THX_Ultra

Original von Martini
Great Matthias. I met Messner 2 weeks ago in person, unfortunately he did not wear a rolex but a plastic sports watch

And you did NOT ask him about his Rolex watches???????

I only talked about 2 or 3 minutes with him - but on the way back in my car I had the same thoughts

[Prof. Rolex]

Original von Hannes
And before those climbers had Explorers and Oyster Quartz they used Oyster Perpetuals:

Klick for a big pic

Many thanks Hannes. And there was also another famous mountaineer who wore an Oyster Perpetual:


(Source: oltrelevette.it)

Luis Trenker (*1892, +1990), famous author, actor and director of mountain films. Trenker was a also a phantastic narrator and when he was narrating it was nearly impossible to stop him.

Trenker has worn his Oyster Perpetual from the late 50ies until his dead in 1990. As you can see he wore his Rolex (when I remember it right it was a Zephyr) above the cuff of his shirt, as it was also done by Giovanni Agnelli.

Regards
Matthias

[Norbert]

This book was also the reason to buy my 1655!

[Format]

Louis Trenker was a famous Austrian Mountainclimber - we miss him.
He had worn a ROLEX for whole of his k´life and he loved it on all of of his missions, a great watch, This was one ofe the reasons why I had to take a ROLEX - I just had to feel this mission-spirit.

[JoachimD]

finally I understand:
the Explorer with black dial is made for the Mountains since the black dial is easy to read in the snow.
the EXII with white dial is made for all others.. ;-)

Joachim

[Campsbay]

messner(oysterquartz) and habeler(1016) during the everest-expedition 1978.....first climb without "oxygen".

[Prof. Rolex]

Hi Ralf,
many thanks for your photo. Even if it is a little bit unclear, it seems, that Habelers watch has a date magnifier. Therefore I would guess the watch on the photo is not an Explorer 1016.

What wonders me is, that Messners watch on your photo has a black dial, but on the photo above (from oysterqaurtz.net) he wears an Oysterquartz with a white (or silver) dial. Strange….

Regards
Matthias

[Campsbay]

hi matthias,

you could be right with habeler, but it also could be the hands.....

yesterday i saw a old tv-report (sportspiegel) about the messner/habeler-expedition 1977 to the dhaulagiri. messner worn the 1655.....and to my suprise it looked like to me habeler worn a daytona.

......here is a pic from the expedition-doc with his datejust.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/4695/cimg2292yt8.jpg

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[Edmundo]

fantastic pictures and a great post! Thanks!

[steve73]

Nice Story, great Pics!

[thessus]

thanks for this post