President´s Choice

First day at the office! Mr. President Joe Biden spotted wearing a Rolex. Joe Biden is apparently a man who has good taste in timepieces. He is also seen with brands like Omega and Vulcain Cricket, also known as “The President´s Watch”. On casual occasions, even an Apple watch is a practical companion indeed.

Photo: AP/Evan Vucci

As translated from this Swedish advertisement from 1956: “Men who control the fate of the world wear Rolex watches”

1956 Swedish Rolex advertisement

On photo below we can now identify Joe´s Rolex as a Datejust 41 ref. 126300, a steel model with smooth bezel, a Jubilee bracelet and a blue dial with applied baton markers.

Photo: Getty, Alex Wong
Close up on President´s Rolex Photo: Getty, Alex Wong
Rolex Datejust 41 ref. 126300, a steel model with smooth bezel, a Jubilee bracelet and a blue dial

I would love to have Joe Biden on “People & Time” section here. Well that will probably never happen.

Photo: Reuters. Joe wearing an Apple watch

Jaeger-LeCoultre Futurematic

I got my hands on this beautiful piece of watch history. Jaeger-LeCoultre E501 Futurematic with the calibre 497. The 50s were for sure significant times of the mechanical watch innovation and development. All times before the quartz revolution that overflowed the world.

On the left side the power indicator is seen
Magazine ad from 1957
The automatic rotor requires motion

Calibre 497 automatic system features a rotor that swings bidirectionally through an angle of about 19 degrees and reversed forth and back in a bumper. Therefore the watch requires more kind of sideway motion to be wounded. From inside it sounds like something is loose but fully normal and understandable. Actually I tested it on my watch “carousel” Bergeon 5511 cyclotest but with bad result. So don’t be scared of my shaking of the Futurematic.

A view of the Futurematic 497
The slide setting button

In a very future matic manner, at these days the watch didn’t had a traditional winding- through the crown- system. Also the setting of the hands function was designed by a sliding button on the back.

37 mm comfortable classic

Yes it is easy indeed to get in love with this beautiful Jaeger-LeCoultre Futurematic. Well unfortunately it has to be returned to the owner after a minor adjustment of the setting mechanism.

Giorgia Mondani

Yes! ? More women in the world of watches indeed! Let me present Giorgia Mondani. Giorgia is a very influent businesswoman and she is very active on the social media. As she told the New York Times in her interview, she has always loved watches and she had to fight to enter a male-dominated world. She soon emerged as a key figure in the market, by being a top member at the frequent business meetings around the world – without forgetting the daily management of her publishing house.

Giorgia Mondani wearing Omega Speedmaster

Giorgia Mondani & family are authors and leading publishers in the watch field. Many popular books about Rolex, Omega and Patek Philippe are released through Guido Mondani Editore.

Mondani Family books

Giorgia’s absolute favorite watch is actually the wedding gift watch. A Rolex Day Date that has a very special place in her heart ♥

Rolex Day Date reference 118238

” A Rolex! I opened it to find my own dream wedding watch: a Rolex Day-Date Ref. 118238 in yellow gold that I had seen a few months ago in Parma, and had fallen in love with. I could not believe it! The Day-Date model is one of my favorite Rolex typologies because I find it very comfortable and useful: it is a precious watch that tells you the time, the day of the month and the day of the week. Everything I need to know is on my wrist now.”

The wedding watch surprise

Grazie mille Giorgia for being my very special guest here on People & Time!

A worldwide favorite the Rolex GMT ”Pepsi” reference 126710BLRO

Follow Giorgia Mondani on Instagram and on the website ?⌚?