Showing posts with label Tesla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tesla. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Franz von Holzhausen Paul Newman Rolex Daytona


Franz von Holzhausen 

Paul Newman Rolex Daytona

For a while now, I have been trying to get a close look at Tesla Lead Designer, Franz Von Holzhausen's vintage Rolex Daytona, as I can't help but wonder or speculate as to wether or not he is wearing Paul Newman's own black dial Daytona? 

Update on December 21, 2024: Bryan wrote in and said, "Just thought I’d give you a heads up.  The watch Franz is wearing is not a Rolex Daytona but a Breitling 765 AVI / Co-Pilot Panda from the 1963 era.  You can even slightly see the large lime 15 sec timer or right sub dial." I am so embarrassed, but I still love the look of Franz's Breitling, which is a really cool looking watch!!!

The photo above appears courtesy of the Wall Street Journal and it shows Franz Von Holzhausen sitting in the back of a prototype Tesla CyberTruck. The image below shows Franz Von Holzhausen in a recent video where we see a close up of his Daytona—which looks super cool!!!!


The screen grabs above that show Franz Von Holzhausen showing off and discussing the Tesla CyberTaxi were taken from the video below, which is fascinating:

Thursday, August 08, 2024

President Trump Receives A Rolex President...




President Trump

Receives a Rolex President 

+ A Wrapped Tesla CyberTruck

A few weeks ago, I ran a story on Rolex Spotting @ The 2024 Republican Convention, and today we witness yet another potentially inevitable Rolex Presidential historical puzzle piece being unveiled. 

It's been said reality-is-stranger-than-fiction, and President Trump recently appeared on Adin Ross's, Adin Livecast on YouTube, and the interview was filled with MANY YOUUUGE surprises, including Adin gifting President Trump with a new EverRose 40MM Rolex Day-Date which is commonly referred to as a "Rolex President". 


As we see, Adin gifted President Trump with an 18 kt Rolex Day-Date 40, in EverRose Gold, with an Olive Green Dial, featuring raised rose gold Roman numerals. Adin Asked President Trump if he liked Rolex, and Trump responded:

    "That's a beautiful watch. That's a great watch company. They're (Rolex) a good company. They like Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player and Arnold Palmer—all the golf guys, and all the other guys. This is beautiful. Thank You! Don't they have nice boxes? WoW!!!"

 

—President, Donald J. Trump

President Trump is no stranger to rocking a Rolex President, as he has been wearing a Rolex Day-Date for decades.




Golf's Big 3


President Trump mentioned in his solilaquie to Adin, which I quoted above, golf legends, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Arnold Palmer, who are commonly referred to as Golf's Big Three

Trump specially offered his assessment or opinion on Rolex being The International Mark of Success, as he waxed poetic, by apparent way of an unrehearsed, off-hand-remark, that seemed more like a stream of consciousness flow—kind of like a scat singer, or jazz musician who was simply riffing on Rolex: 

"They (Rolex) like Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player and Arnold Palmer—all the golf guys, and all the other guys." —U.S. President, Donald J. Trump 

Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus have all been Rolex brand ambassadors, which Rolex refers to as Testimonies.






Golf's Big Three are featured below in a vintage Rolex Magazine ad.

The screen capture below appeared on Rolex a few decades ago, and featured The Big Three.


Golf legend, Arnold Palmer was the first major Rolex brand ambassador in modern history.


Speaking of firsts, President Eisenhower was the first U.S. President to publicly rock a Rolex, as we see in the photo below, Eisenhower is wearing his trademark yellow gold Rolex Datejust on a Jubilee bracelet back in the 1950s while serving as the President of the United States. This may be what Trump was referring to when he quipped, offering his off-hand-remark, when he said "all the golf guys, and all the other guys." 


In other words, it's safe to assume Adin caught President Trump off-guard, and truly surprised him with gifting him a Rolex President, something that Trump is intimately familiar with the symbolism and power of. It was fascinating watching Adin gift Trump the Rolex, as Trump responded like a small child getting his first Big Wheel, or BB gun, or G.I. Joe—with a Kung Fu grip. 

I mean, what could you possibly give a man who is a billionaire and seemingly already owns everything money could buy!?!! Yet, when you examine Trumps response, his eyes lit up like a Christmas Tree, when he received the Rolex "President" as a gift. You see, for Trump, it's not the gift per se, but recognition of the symbolism of the surprise gift that emotionally charged him so much. 


It's also interesting to note, and yes I am going deep in my psychological evaluation of The Teflon Don, that Trump with his rudimentary prose, offered the world his first and only verbal evaluation of Rolex being The International Mark of Success. 

I mean wearing a Rolex President, as a political tool watch is one thing, but actually expressing or articulating in words, is quite a different thing, and I found "The Donald's" verbiage to be fascinating. As a matter of fact, I believe this might be the first time a President of the United States has actually offered up their specific opinion of the Rolex brands symbolism and what it means in its broader context!?!!


President Nixon
The Summer of 74

Speaking of The Rolex President, and Arnold Palmer, we see him pictured below in the Oval Office hanging out with President Nixon and Palmer is rocking his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date. It's interesting to note today marks precisely the 50th Anniversary of Nixon's resignation of the U.S. Presidency. 


Ironically, when I was a young child, I was 7 years old, and I was at summer camp in Northern California, at a magnificently beautiful summer camp named "Forest Farms", which was located north of Marin County, in Northern California—and I will never forget how the camp counselors quickly rounded us up late on the afternoon of August 8, 1974, and brought us to the owners residence on the camp grounds, and sat us down to watch President Nixon resign the presidency. I remember watching Nixon's resignation speech as seen below.


I specifically remember all the Forest Farm Camp counselors were all freaking out, saying "this is the first time in American history an American President has resigned". I added the photo of me, pictured below, at Forest Farms with my camp counselor, Tom, which was taken when I was 7 years old. I was too young, obviously to be wearing a Rolex, but I was rocking my favorite, gold Hang-Ten T-Shirt with the two feet logo, with my Levi's jeans, and Jack Purcell, low-top Converse All-Star sneakers.


As a very confused 7-year old, I had no idea or interest really of what was going on with President Nixon's resignation. For all intents an purposes, at the time, I was far more interested in The Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy, who might leave some money under my pillow if I devoured enough watermelon, cherry, or grape Jolly Rancher bars.




Presidential CyberTruck

ONE MORE THANG!

Adin also presented President Trump with a Tesla CyberTruck with an over-the top-custom vehicle wrap graphic which is seen below with its American Flag wrap design with a highly symbolic image of Trump fist-pumping the crowd with blood on his face, after he overcame the recent alleged assassination attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.

 

I publish TeslaMagazine.org, so I am quite familiar with the CyberTruck and have written about it extensively on RolexMagazine, as well as on TeslaMagazine. I also published a story about Elon Musk rocking his Rolex Datejust in the past, as well as Tesla's lead designer, Franz von Holzhausen, who wears a Black dial Rolex Paul Neman Daytona [Reference 6263]

Since we are on the subject of Paul Newman's Daytona #2, it strikes me there is a good chance that Franz von Holzhausen may very well be wearing Paul Newman's actual "Big Red" Rolex Daytona #2, which he may have purchased at auction back in 2017.

So what exactly is the symbolism of this fascinatingly bizarre and exotic CyberTruck gift from Adin Ross to President Trump? I almost can't believe what I am seeing when I look at the wrap design of this CyberTruck. Also, it's worth drawing an analogy between the two gifts Adin Ross gave President Trump, being a Rolex President and a CyberTruck. 

Both gifts are hardcore masculine symbols of over-the-top, alpha-male status symbols. Yes, the Rolex President watch model has been around since the mid 1950s, and the CyberTruck is much newer, but they are both extreme symbols of cutting edge, avante-garde, modern technology designed for masculine men.


One could argue, the Rolex President it no longer modern, but complexity classic today, and that the CyberTruck is not classic, but completely modern, to which I would respond: everything today that is considered classic, was once considered to be modern. 


If you really think about it, the 40MM version of the Rolex Day-Date that Adin Ross gifted President Trump, represents Rolex's brilliantly and flawlessly executed attempt to modernize their timeless and classic 36MM version of the Rolex Day-Date.


You can watch the entire Adin Ross, President Trump interview below.



 
Every great story deserves to have it's own soundtrack, and in this case, Trump be like:

Saturday, December 02, 2023

How the CyberTruck design may have been inspired by a Paul Newman "Big Red" Daytona?







CyberTruck Launch 

How the CyberTruck design may have been inspired by 

Paul Newman's "Big Red" Daytona?

Four years after Tesla founder, Elon Musk and lead designer, Franz von Holzhausen originally showed off the Tesla CyberTruck, they finally delivered the first models to customers at a special event held at Tesla's Texas Gigafactory, where they are being exclusively manufactured.



Beginning Friday before last, which was Black Friday, in anticipation of the official product launch which occurred this past Thursday, production Tesla CyberTrucks models began showing up in key Tesla stores around the United States, many of which are located in malls. The image above shows a Tesla CyberTruck being driven through the mall in order to get it to the Tesla Store and notice it went driving by a Rolex authorized dealership.

Over on TeslaMagazine.org I just completed a super-detailed article all about the launch of the Produciton model of the CyberTruck which is pretty fascinating




 Franz von Holzhausen 

Tesla CyberTruck Designer

Rocking a Paul Newman "Big Red"

The lead Tesla designer, Franz von Holzhausen not only designed all the existing Tesla models, including the Model S, 3, X, Y, as well as the CyberTruck is perhaps most famous for having thrown a steel ball, the size of a tennis ball at the CyberTruck at the launch event four years ago, and much to his surprise, cracked the special glass that was supposed to be unbeatable.



A while ago, I could not help but notice Franz von Holzhausen was rocking a Paul Newman 'Big Red' Paul Newman Daytona [Reference 6263] as seen in the photo below on his wrist and I wrote a story about his Daytona as well as Elon Musk's Datejust.



The screenshots of Franz rocking his stainless steel Paul Neman Daytona were taken from the fascinating video interview below:




Franz's 'Big Red' Daytona (pictured above) appears to be identical to Paul Newman's Reference 6263, which begs the question of whether he was the person who bought Paul Newman's second Rolex Daytona that came to auction





So what if anything does Franz's Daytona have in common with the CyberTruck he designed? It's hard to say exactly, but as a fellow designer I could not help but wonder if Franz's CyberTruck design was inspired or informed by the design of his stainless steel Rolex Daytona?



After all, Paul Newman's 6263 Daytona and the CyberTruck have a great deal in common, beginning with the fact that are moth made primary from stainless steel. When Rolex originally debuted the Daytona back in the early to mid 1960s, it was considered to be an unusually large and sporty watch. 


Interior of CyberTruck features user definable multicolor RGB LED accent light strip which is pictured above in red, which matches Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona [Reference 6263] which is pictured below.


Paul Newman's 6263 Daytona was accented with a black dial, and matching black bezel insert, along with white subdials—just like the CyberTruck has black accents. So basically, they were both big, bold, sporty designs that were initially highly polarizing, while offering an unusually rugged build quality, with unbreakable glass. Also both are considered icons of modern design. The more I think about it, the more I realize how remarkably similarly uncanny the color and material vibe is between Paul Newman's 'Big Red' Daytona and the Franz's CyberTruck!!!!


Paul Newman's Holy Grail Rolex "Big Red" Daytona picture above. This model of Daytona was nicknamed by collectors "BIG RED" as the "DAYTONA" dial designation is bigger and bolder red than on any other Rolex Daytona models. It was gifted to Paul Newman by his wife Joanne Woodward in 1983 as a gift to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.




If you are interested, you can learn much more and see all my coverage of Tesla's CyberTruck Launch over on JAKE'S TESLA WORLD.





The One More Thang 


If you made it this far, chances are you are probably totally enjoying the launch of the CyberTruck, and I saved the best for last. The review of the CyberTruck below by Hagerty is by far and away the single best review, and the second video is where he discusses the making of the review and shares some shockingly profound insight on the CyberTruck. 





Monday, May 08, 2023

Elon Musk and Franz von Holzhausen from Tesla wearing Rolex...


...Rolex Super Coolness...

Elon Musk

Tesla & Rolex Connections

    I was talking to a friend of mine who is a serious Rolex expert and we were talking about how we were both in complete awe of Elon Musk's achievements. My pal said, "It's too bad Elon Musk never wore a Rolex, did he?" I agreed, and then he said, "Elon seems like he would be the kind of man who would wear a Rolex." 

I responded by saying "I agree, and I have spent a lot of time studying photos of him, but unfortunately I never discovered evidence that he wore a Rolex :-( Then several weeks ago, much to my surprise, I FINALLY discovered multiple photos of Elon Musk rocking a Rolex.

The reason why it took me so long to discover photos of Elon Musk wearing a Rolex is it appears he wore a Rolex Datejust 30 years ago, back in 1994 when he was attending Queen's University college.

After I wrote this article, I later discovered a photo of Elon at Space X headquarters in California, taken in 2004, standing in front of an early Space X rocket, wearing his Rolex Datejust as seen below.

I have a funny anecdote to share with you. I was talking with our Captain Danny, and I shared my discovery with him that I had found images of Elon Musk wearing a stainless steel Rolex Datjust back in 1994, and I showed him the photos. Captain Danny said "Nice! Elon and you looked alike when you were young" and he included the images below of me, which was interesting as I responded to Captain Danny and said "I noticed that as well."

The photo below of me was taken when I was around 18, back in 1984, and I was rocking my stainless steel Rolex Datejust on a Jubilee bracelet, whereas in the photo above of Elon Musk clearly shows he was wearing his stainless steel Rolex Datejust on an Oyster Bracelet.

Elon is 5 years younger than I am, and I am proud, yet embarrassed to admit it, but I joined Twitter before Elon did... Obviously Elon is probably the most successful man in human history, and if not, he is certainly in that pantheon. Captain Danny included both the image above and below when he said Elon and I looked alike when we were younger. In the photo below taken in San Francisco in 1999 I was rocking my Coke GMT-Master.




Nick Gould discovered a photo of Elon Musk rocking his Rolex where we can finally see the face of his watch, and to my eyes it looks like he is wearing a Rolex Datejust, Thunderbird model as seen below.




Update on May 13, 2023: David is a fan of Jake's Rolex World and he sent in the two photos below along with a nice message:

Gday Jake

David down in Melbourne , Australia here. Thank you for the wonderful reading over many years that you have supplied. I've been on your blog since you started.  You recently had a story on Musk wearing a Rolex . I watched a doco the other day about him and noted an oyster bracelet but cannot determine which model rolex he is wearing. The video is low res unfortunately. Attached is two screenshots. The best I could get I’m afraid. Thanks again for all your work.

Cheers

David




Back on April 8, 2022 I discovered the lead designer at Tesla, Franz von Holhausen rocking a vintage Paul Newman Daytona, so I thought I would add that story here.






 Franz von Holzhausen 

@ Giga-Texas launch April 6, 2022

Rocking a Paul Newman "Big Red"


I was working on a story for TeslaMagazine.org showcasing the Tesla Keynote for Giga-Texas and I think I discovered Tesla lead designer, Franz von Holzhausen rocking what certainly appears to be a vintage Rolex Paul Newman Daytona Big Red!?!! Assuming I made a correct positive ID, I wonder if he owns the Paul Newman's Daytona #2 that Paul Newman actually wore?



The video below is of Elon Musk's keynote for the launch of the brand spanking new Tesla Giga-Factory which is completely mind-boggling!!!!




I might be wrong, but Franz's watch sure seems to have all the telltale characteristics of a vintage Daytona...



For frame of reference I am including a photo discovered by Nick Gould on the cover of The Sunday Times Magazine of Paul Newman rocking his Rolex Daytona Reference 6263.