B-58 Hustler: Rolex GMT-Master 1675

The Complete History Of The Rolex GMT-Master Series

Rolex X-Files

The Right Stuff

I FEEL THE NEED, THE NEED...

3 Rolex GMT-Masters at Mach 2

on a Nuclear Bomber

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Newly Discovered History 

Rolex and the Right Stuff 

"Peace is our Profession" 

(Motto of the Strategic Air Command)

When the delta-winged supersonic bomber flared over France, it had flown from New York to Paris in just three hours and 19 minutes—setting a remarkable world aviation record!

It was 1961, Kennedy was President, the Beatles were playing in Liverpool, and a wall was being built in Berlin. A month earlier, a human had entered space for the first time. He was Russian. The Cold War was in full swing. 

In the U.S., Rolex GMT-Masters were strapped onto the wrists of jet pilots both in the military and at Pan Am. It took a B-707 airliner almost twice the time to cross the Atlantic than it did this sleek B-58 bomber powered by four jet engines with afterburners. 

The USAF Bomber B-58 "Hustler"

The B-58 flight to Paris not only commemorated the 34th anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing, which took ten times longer; it also marked the opening of the 24th Paris International Air Show. 

The B-58 crew inspects the Lindbergh plaque at Le Bourget

The trans-Atlantic record breakers, still wearing their flight suits, patched jackets, black boots and Pepsi-bezeled Rolex watches, would kneel next to the Lindbergh plaque at Le Bourget airport in Paris, in a moment of relaxation and recognition of historic flight history nostalgia. 

The press was there, a few pictures were taken; they would make the front page of The New York Times, above the fold. 

Maj. William R. Payne, pilot, with Capt. William L. Polhemus, navigator, and Capt. Raymond R. Wagener, defense systems operator, earned both the Mackay and Harmon Trophies for the first supersonic Atlantic crossing, the time set by the bomber having almost halved the previous record. 

Including refueling periods that day, the B-58, nicknamed "The Hustler," averaged about 1,050 miles an hour inflight. 

This B-58 broke the speed record; seen refueling by a KC-135

Introduced by Convair only 12 years after the sound barrier was first broken, the Hustler became the first large long-range supersonic bomber to take to the skies, capable of Mach 2 at 63,000 feet. 

Faster than its contemporaries and agile enough to escape most interceptors, the B-58 was a remarkable feat of engineering, setting 19 world speed records and epitomizing the Cold War power of USAF Strategic Air Command. 

...Rolex Super Coolness... 

Precision Navigation over the Atlantic

Maj. William Payne, Capt. William Polhemus, Capt. Raymond Wagener flight-planning...

The Rolex 1675 GMT-Master on the pilots' wrists could track two time zones. The watch had exceptional visibility, and its bi-directional blue-and-red bezel made it the ideal watch for criss-crossing the globe. 

...with a Rolex GMT-Master on their wrists

The B-58 crew jumped six time zones in three hours—and they had done it 15 years before the first Concorde entered service. "If you were flying a Concorde tomorrow..." 

Each B-58 crew member had a separate cockpit.

A Crash

The story of the B-58 that set a speed record from New York to Paris ended tragically. On June 3rd, 1961, the Hustler took off from Le Bourget for its return trip to the U.S. The pilot performed a low-altitude roll as the aircraft entered a low cloud base and disappeared from view. The Hustler crashed into a potato field near Louvres and exploded in a huge fireball, killing all three crew members. 

In a bizarre twist of fate, the speed-record breakers were not onboard. Three different Air Force officers had crewed the B-58 for its flight back to the U.S. 

As for the original crew, they continued their careers in the U.S. Air Force, a Rolex on their wrists—keeping the time of their lives. The pilot, William R. Payne, would later be the first to break the 1,000 hours flying a supersonic jet. 

I found the local news reel marking the event, which can be seen below. As far as I know this is the only video available of him. There is no sound, but I've added the transcript in the description. 

This video has no sound. Here's the transcript from the local TV station:

    "The white puff of smoke boiling up from the wheels of this B-58 Hustler signifies the ticking off of 1,000 hours of supersonic jet time for the sleek jet's pilot, Lieutenant Colonel William R. Payne of 41-01 Tara Lane in Fort Worth. He is the first pilot in the United States Air Force to log a thousand hour of supersonic flight. Brigadier General Brick Holstrom, 43rd Bomb wing commander, is on hand as Col. Payne extricate himself from the pilot's seat. A B-58 weapons system operator and navigator are the only officers in the Air Force to have logged 1,000 supersonic hours. Col. 

    Payne's family is on hand as he leaves the plane, named "Wild Child Two," and is greeted by B. G. Reed, vice-president of operations at Fort Worth's General Dynamics plant. Reed presents the 39-year-old jet pilot with a certificate honoring his achievement and a thousand-hour pin. Col. Payne's B-58 career has been a string of firsts ... he is a member of the first crew in the Air Force to become combat ready in the B-58. With Col. Payne at the controls in 1961, a B-58 set two international speed records during a Fort Worth-to-Paris run, winning the coveted Mackay trophy, also for the first time."

Sincere thanks to my friend Phil from Moon Watch Universe for helping me with this story.

Captain Danny's Espresso GMT-Master

...Rolex Pilot Shot of The Day...

Captain Danny's Espresso GMT-Master

Captain Danny has been writing for Jake's Rolex World since 2017.  Danny took this amazing wrist shot photo of his all black dial Rolex 'Green Hand' GMT-Master...

75 Years After Hiroshima : The Paul Tibbets Story

 By DANNY CRIVELLO

[Note from the author: this story was first published in Aug. 2020 hence the reference to the 75th anniversary.]

My phone lit up with the word "Nuke" on it. I had U.S. Air Force Brigadier General (ret.) Paul W. Tibbets IV in my phone contact under just his pilot callsign. "Time to chat?" Nuke texted. I replied, "For sure."

It's not every day you come across a Rolex GMT-Master that has logged over 1,000 hours in the B-2 Stealth Bomber, including combat missions. This was my most sensitive Rolex article to date and Nuke was calling to tell me what I could show in pictures. 

"We can't show anything that is part of the B-2's defensive management system," he said. "The fuel display is a big no-no," he added. How about the kneeboard? "I see joker and bingo numbers written on it," he replied. "We don't want to show that."

General Paul "Nuke" Tibbets is a former B-2 pilot, instructor and examiner, and the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross award. He has since traded his stealth bomber for a civilian Boeing 747. 

But back in 1999, as a young U.S. Air Force captain with a GMT-Master on his wrist, he had already made aviation history. He lead the world's first B-2 combat sortie, penetrating Yugoslavia's airspace and going undetected against its advanced air defense system. During that stealth night mission, he targeted 16 impact points and blew up military production facilities, including the Smederevo Petroleum Product Storage near Belgrade. A day at the office wearing his trusty Rolex.

 

But it is during some of those long 30-hour missions at high altitude in the B-2 that Nuke had plenty of time to glance at his wrist and remember his grandfather, Paul Tibbets Jr. 

"It was an emotional time when my grandfather gave me the watch," Paul told me. "It's the one thing in life that he valued, that he treasured, that he passed on to me. I felt honestly that he was passing on the torch."

Paul Tibbets' grandfather had also retired as a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force. And if that name sounds familiar, it's because Paul's grandpa made history as well. Paul Tibbets Jr. had one of the most important missions of World War II as the pilot in command of the B-29 Enola Gay on Aug. 6, 1945. He flew to Hiroshima 75 years ago this week to help put an end to World War II.

Obviously, Tibbets Jr. wasn't wearing a GMT-Master at the time, as the model hadn't been invented. But when the World War II veteran went on to become the CEO of the first fractional business jet company in the world, he was among a handful of pilots in the company to be handed a GMT-Master 1675 by a new corporate client: Rolex USA itself. Rolex had gifted the watch as part of an advertising campaign for the GMT-Master.

The watch of the bomber-pilot-turned-CEO was manufactured in 1966. And it stayed on his wrist until his grandson graduated from U.S. Air Force pilot training in 1990. 

"He knew I was fascinated with the watch," Paul told me. "I had commented several times on it." 

Paul spent four years at the U.S. Air Force Academy. On the morning of Paul's pilot training graduation in 1990, the famous Enola Gay pilot attended the ceremony and took off his Rolex GMT-Master.

"He literally slid the watch over to me on the table and said, 'I want you to have it,'" Paul told me. When Paul inquired to have the GMT-Master serviced in 2004, he contacted Rolex SA in Geneva. Rolex, knowing its provenance, restored the watch to specs pro-bono. 

"I don't have a uniform of his," Paul told me. "I don't have his wings. I don't have any of his Air Force memorabilia. The only thing I have is that watch."

The timepiece is as old as Paul. With a 1,259,261 serial, it was manufactured the year of Paul's birth, 1966.

There is a tradition in the military where a pilot takes his first set of wings, snap them in half and give half to someone really important to the pilot while keeping the other half. 

Paul Tibbets IV snapped his first set of pilot wings and gave his grandfather that half. "He is a hero of mine," he told me. And Paul's grandfather gave him the Rolex. Paul described it as a "pretty emotional time." 

"And my grandpa knew that," he said. "My grandpa wasn't really known to be an emotional guy. But I think that's a pretty significant event when he handed me that watch."

"It's the most special relationship between the two of us," he said. "Because when I wear that watch, I think about my grandpa."

I finally asked Paul whether he will give the Rolex GMT-Master to his son, Paul Tibbets V, who is now 18. "That's my plan," he said. Then he added, laughing: "Probably when he gets a little older, and I know that he'll take care of it!"

Special thanks to Dwayne Stich and Nick Gould for their invaluable contribution to this story. Read more Rolex pilot stories by Capt. Danny Crivello here.

.

Spy Pilot: Gary Powers' Datejust 1601

"So, how are you doing?" I was on the phone with Gary Powers Jr., the son of the famous U-2 pilot shot down at 70,000 feet over the Soviet Union during the Cold War. We were just a couple of hours before his dad's Rolex was being auctioned in Geneva. "I'm a nervous wreck," he tells me. I laughed, then I told him I'd call back and check on him after the auction.

I have known a few former U-2 pilots. The Dragon Lady, the nickname for the spy plane, is still in service, one of the few military jets that has been in service for more than half a century. 

My friends, who now fly for the same major airline as I do, tell me about the long missions in the small cockpit, but especially how hard it is to land the U-2. "You have to stall the wings just a few feet above the runway or you'll overshoot the runway," one told me. "You are literally falling out of the skies every time you come back from a mission."

Above, U-2 designer Kelly Johnson with Gary Powers. The jet was born under secrecy in what would become Area 51, when Eisenhower was growing nervous over Soviet technological advances. For me, Gary Powers is a true hero. He resigned his commission from the U.S. Air Force to join the CIA program and fly deep into the USSR. He was immortalized in the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film, “Bridge of Spies.” He was also portrayed by actor Lee Majors. 

Gary Powers was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the National Defense Service Medal, the CIA's coveted Director's Medal for extreme fidelity and extraordinary courage in the line of duty. He was also awarded the Silver Star medal for "demonstrating exceptional loyalty while enduring harsh interrogation in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow for almost two years." 

Most of his medals were awarded posthumously, unfortunately. Few know that he accomplished one last heroic act before he died in a helicopter crash in California in 1977, when he worked for a TV station.

When power is lost to an engine, helicopter pilots are trained to autorotate, meaning to use upward flow of air through the rotor to land without crashing the helo. As Gary Powers used aerodynamic forces to slow the fall, he noticed children playing in the area, and he directed the helo elsewhere to avoid landing on them. Experts believe he might have landed safely if not for the last-second deviation, which compromised his autorotative descent.

The world didn't know about his Rolex, pictured above, until his son decided to put it up for auction, six decades after he was shot down over the Soviet skies. 

After two years in prison camp in the Soviet Union, Gary Powers, who had been sentenced for 10 years, is traded on a foggy morning on a bridge in Germany. A few months after he comes back to the U.S., in 1962, he uses the money the CIA paid him and buys himself a Rolex Datejust. Powers had found a new appreciation for life and freedom. 

"He owned other watches but the Rolex is the one he preferred and wore as daily use," Gary Powers Jr. tells me. 

The Datejust is a reference 1601, 14-kt gold in 36mm, with jubilee bracelet. "My wrist is a little bit bigger than my dad's, so it was too tight," he said. "So for me, it was an easy decision to let it go after all these years." The Rolex comes with original box and papers.

Gary Powers Jr. co-founded in 1996 the Cold War Museum in Warrenton, Virginia, which spans the end of World War II to the disbandment of the Soviet Union, including the time his dad was taking photos of military installations from the sky. The Americans believed that the U-2 was nearly invincible against the Soviets, since it traveled at high altitudes. What they didn’t know is that the USSR had developed a new surface-to-air missile capable of reaching the U-2's heights. 

Above, Aurel Bacs of Phillips is about to award Powers' Rolex to a British bidder. When I call Gary back, after the auction, he said he is happy for the person who will own the watch. "It's been sitting in a closet for the last 40 years, gathering dust," he tells me. "I was very comfortable putting it up for auctions and letting the new owner enjoy it."

The auction closed at 38,000 CHF, or $40,000—not bad for a 36-mm Datejust. When I finally asked Gary Powers Jr. if he owned a Rolex, he responded no. He has owned some pilot watches, he said. But only Russian ones. He is pictured as a kid sitting with his dad below.