Five vintage Rolex ads turn a watch into a story about presidential authority, submarine service, leisure, achievement and glamour. From a 1966 Day-Date beside a red telephone to a Lady-Datejust ad featuring future Bond girl Jill St John, each uses a compact visual hook to make the watch mean more than timekeeping.
What makes these vintage Rolex ads remarkable?
Rolex’s advertising often ties its watches to people, places and tests that suggest reliability or status. The company’s official history traces that approach to the Oyster, introduced in 1926 as a waterproof and dustproof wristwatch, and the Perpetual self-winding rotor, introduced in 1931. A 1927 Daily Mail ad called the Rolex wristwatch “the world’s best by every test”; Hans Wilsdorf later described Oysters as having endured conditions from deserts to the Arctic. Rolex’s history also records 1964 demonstrations that put Oyster watches in fish tanks and an ad promoting the Datejust’s self-winding feature. Rolex’s Oyster history and its historical archive provide useful context for the ads that followed: the product is presented as a character in a story of achievement, not merely as an object on a page.
1. The 1966 Rolex Day-Date “President” and the red phone
A hand, a red telephone and a gold Day-Date do nearly all the work in this spare 1966 ad. The phone supplies the implied setting—high-level authority—while the watch becomes shorthand for the person expected to be on the other end. Fratello connects the image to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, known for wearing a gold Day-Date “President.”
The famous Moscow–Washington “red phone” is part of the ad’s cultural shorthand, not a literal direct telephone line. The visual is effective precisely because it trades on the image of presidential power without needing to show a president. Fratello’s account of Rolex ads of the past discusses the ad and its symbolism.
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2. The 1967 Submariner ad that hides the officer’s identity
In this naval-themed advertisement, a periscope obscures much of an officer’s face while a Submariner reference 5513 remains visible. The viewer is invited to wonder who the commander is; the copy then draws attention to the watch and invokes the USS Skate, USS Shark and USS Nautilus.
The Nautilus gives the military references a specific historical anchor: it was the first nuclear-powered submarine and reached the North Pole in 1958. The ad’s ingenuity lies in withholding the person’s identity while using submarine history to create an atmosphere of service and danger. See Fratello’s Rolex Days Gone By feature for the ad and its context.
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3. Dick Bertram’s 1966 “dry martini” Submariner ad
This ad features powerboat champion and boat builder Richard “Dick” Bertram—not Gordon Ingate. Its joke moves the Submariner from rough water to a setting where the only “wettest thing around is a dry martini.” It ends with the punchline: “The Rolex Submariner: a salty watch.”
The contrast is the point. A watch associated with diving is made to look at home in glamorous leisure, with the dry martini turning toughness into a wink rather than a technical claim. Fratello reproduces the ad and identifies Bertram in its Days Gone By feature.
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4. The late-1960s “We can’t make them any cheaper” ad
This multi-model ad displays five Rolex watches and answers a familiar objection—the price—by arguing for exclusivity and engineering. One of its sharpest lines points from the watch to its audience: “You will notice the Rolex crown on the clasp. So will other people.”
Fratello dates the ad approximately to 1969 or 1970, based on references to Jackie Stewart’s world championship, Wally Herbert’s British Trans-Arctic Expedition and Sir Francis Chichester’s circumnavigation. That approximate date matters: the ad belongs to a late-1960s/early-1970s moment, rather than a precisely established single year. Its pitch also makes the social dimension explicit: the clasp’s crown is both a design detail and a sign others may recognize. Fratello’s feature reproduces the line and explains the dating clues.
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5. Jill St John’s 1970 Lady-Datejust ad
A woman rises from the water behind a rose and a Lady-Datejust in this 1970 advertisement. Fratello identifies her as Jill St John, who later appeared as a Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). The image borrows the visual language of cinematic glamour, using water, flower and watch to stage an entrance rather than a product demonstration.
Rolex revisited the concept in a two-page color version in 1974, with expanded copy. The later iteration shows how an ad idea could be refreshed after its model became more famous, while retaining its original association between the watch and glamour. Fratello covers both versions in its history of Rolex ads.
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What these ads reveal about Rolex’s advertising
The five ads use different kinds of shorthand: a red phone for authority, a periscope for naval identity, a martini for unexpected leisure, a visible crown for status and a cinematic image for glamour. In each case, the watch appears inside a scene that gives it a role. That approach extends Rolex’s older emphasis on testing and achievement, but it also shows the brand selling identity and cultural association—not only technical function.
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