Aviator Watch

A great pilot wrote to Rolex Watch Company subsequent to a trip. The pilot had just completed a dangerous flight that set the world record...

One of the early aviators, Pete Knight, sent this letter to Rolex. "I finally flew on October 3, 1967 to a speed of 4,534 mph and all systems functioned properly with the exception of some local heating damage on the lower ventral. I have been wearing my Rolex GMT-Master for a period of months now and have calibrated it to within a few seconds a day". He was able to fly his plane to a speed record that still lasts and he was able to land the plane safely after high heat had damaged it severely. Hot air was blowing into the bottom of the plane and ruined the fuel dumping mechanism making it necessary to land the plane much heavier than anticipated. If the heat had damaged the craft's hydraulics, Knight might have had to abandon the plane. Happily circumstances worked out for the pilot and plane.

Knight landed at Edwards Air Force Base with the plane resembling burnt firewood. This was truly an amazing feat and as great an achievement as this was it was just as great that his Rolex was still in working condition as well. The other X-15 pilots also wrote to Rolex about their watches but the story of Pete Knight's final flight is perhaps the most interesting.

As most know the pilots all wore the Rolex GMT because they had accomplished great things from that desert outpost because from that location the great feat of breaking the sound barrier was accomplished by Chuck Yeager and did so wearing a Rolex Oyster; the same one he had worn all through World War II.