As I have mentioned previously, Time Spec is easily the world's
best watch magazine. The best of the English language ones are International
Wristwatch and Watch Time. I have been collecting the
U.K. edition of International Wristwatch for a decade or so.
The first English edition came out in 1989 and it is styled on the Italian
magazine,Orologi da Polso. It is issued in various
languages including German and Chinese, and the U.S. edition is usually
completely different to the U.K. issue. There have only been a few
articles about Rolex over the years. Issues that have feature articles
on Rolex are: 1, 17, 23, 30, 36, 54 & 59. Early in 2002, the
U.K. edition ceased being issued and merged with the U.S. edition.
The last issue of the U.K. edition was No. 66.
Watch
Time is far superior to International Wristwatch. It is
a great watch magazine and comes from the German watch magazine family
of Chronos, Uhren Magazin and Klassik
Uhren. The articles are more detailed and in depth.
Click each magazine for its corresponding web site.
Of the magazines and books shown below, I have
Rolex
Master Note 1999 (third from the left). It features the Submariner,
but in my opinion, I would get The Begin Super Item Book No. 4. The
Mono Magazine and Rolex Master Note '98 are no longer in print.
The last two magazines are 2001 issues. Both are worth getting just
for the photos alone. The Watchfan issue speculates which Rolexes
are more desirable than other. It also has a step by step photo guide
on what happens to your Rolex when it gets serviced by them. The
GetNavi issue features the new Daytona plus the new calibre watches from
Rolex. It also compares current models to older ones.
Finally, the last source for Rolex reading material
is Rolex themselves. In the mid 1950s, Rolex Watch Co. put
out a book titled, "The Anatomy of Time". This was a 53 page
hardback which dealt with the general history of timekeeping. It
was reprinted several times. Another early Rolex publication was
a four volume set of books titled, "Rolex Jubilee Vade Mecum".
It was published in 1946 to celebrate the Company's Jubilee Anniversary.
The four volumes were titled Step by Step - written by Hans Wilsdorf,
The
Evolution of the Wrist-Watch Chronometer, How The Waterproof Watch
Came Into Being and The Story of the Self-Winding Watch.
To my knowledge, this edition came in four languages, English, French,
German and Italian.
Rolex catalogues, especially the vintage ones,
can be a good source of information. Vintage owner's manuals can
also be good reading.
