Professional Diver Nigel Band and the Unusual Rolex Sea-Dweller and Oyster Perpetual Models that Plumbed the Depths and Scaled the Heights – Reprise
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At one other occasion a journalist sought to “troll” Sir Edmund Hillary by asking him to touch upon hypothesis that George Mallory had in truth summited Everest in 1924 earlier than dying on the descent. To which Hillary responded, in sometimes laconic vogue, that he’d had a rattling good run as conqueror of Everest and can be fairly pleased to let another person take over.
George Band continued to play an energetic function within the worldwide mountaineering neighborhood and with Himalayan organizations for the remainder of his life, writing a number of books and being awarded the OBE in 2009 in recognition of his companies to mountaineering.
His achievements are too many to enumerate right here, however embrace his participation on the profitable 1953 Everest expedition and what was his crowning glory, the 1955 conquest of the “Final Nice Mountain,” Kangchenjunga, along with Mancunian builder Joe Brown.
As is effectively documented, Rolex had been equipping mountaineering expeditions with watches for some years, and the Everest crew carried 13 Oyster Perpetual licensed chronometers with them in whole, six offered for the 1952 Cho Oyu expedition and 7 for the brand new members of the 1953 crew. George Band’s Oyster Perpetual Reference 6098 was one of many latter.
George Band’s 1952 Rolex Oyster Perpetual (picture courtesy Nigel Band)
This model of the Oyster Perpetual options the domed “bubble-back” case, required to permit room for the automated winding rotor mounted on what was initially a guide motion. It was not till the slimmer 1030 motion was launched, designed from scratch as a self-winding motion, that the Oyster Perpetual and the Explorer boasted flat case backs.
The again of this explicit watch is engraved “EVEREST 1953” and “G.C. BAND,” with a fainter engraving of the Rolex crown and “H6” indicating that it was quantity six of the second batch of watches offered to the expedition crew by Rolex.
George Band’s 1952 Rolex Oyster Perpetual from the again (picture courtesy Nigel Band)
George Band’s different Rolex: 1953 Rolex Oyster Precision with “Explorer dial”
Kangchenjunga was as soon as believed to be the best mountain on this planet and deemed unclimbable. Even after it was decided that K2 and Everest have been increased, it remained probably the most daunting of the three for mountaineers and continues to be honored by the native inhabitants because the holiest of mountains.
Kangchenjunga and its satellite tv for pc peaks kind an enormous mountain massif of 5 peaks that straddle the border between India and Nepal.
Excessive climate circumstances and excessive avalanche danger because of its proximity to the Bay of Bengal made it what Everest chief Sir John Hunt known as “probably the most tough feat in mountaineering.”
George Band on the western method to Kangchenjunga, 1955 (picture courtesy Royal Geographical Society)
Constructing on a route carved out practically 50 years earlier by satan worshipper and (moderately incongruously) enthusiastic mountaineer Aleister Crowley, aka “the wickedest man in Britain,” George Band and Joe Brown summited Kangchenjunga on Might 26, 1955, normally reported as “stopping simply wanting the height out of deference to native non secular beliefs.”
The expedition had been deliberate as a reconnaissance journey with a view to summiting in 1956, and the crew had solely obtained permission from the Chogyal of Sikkim to discover Kangchenjunga on the final second on the understanding that they might go nowhere close to the highest.
For this expedition Rolex had given George Band a black-dial Oyster Perpetual Precision Reference 6150 with the now-familiar 3-6-9 dial and Mercedes palms.
The success of the Kangchenjunga expedition and the truth that the primary Explorer fashions had syringe palms for the primary 18 months (to not point out the truth that neither Hillary nor Tenzing have been sporting Rolex watches on the height of Everest, as has now been confirmed) absolutely makes it the true non secular ancestor of the Rolex Explorer moderately than the Oyster Perpetuals utilized by the Everest crew. This watch was offered at a Phillips public sale by the Band household in 2017.
The Kangchenjunga Rolex 6150, an Explorer in all however identify (picture courtesy Eszter Faykiss/Loupiosity)
George Band handed away in 2011 on the age of 82, having taken half in a Kangchenjunga reunion expedition within the Himalayas on the tender age of 76 and reconquering the Breithorn with the Alpine Membership aged 78.
His Oyster Perpetual now belongs to Nigel, who wears it sometimes, nonetheless on the Fixoflex bracelet that his father most well-liked for each of his mountaineering watches.
Nigel absolutely understands the significance of holding the Oyster Perpetual in completely authentic situation – simply as his Sea-Dweller, which continues to be a working device watch, has been maintained in working situation for the aim for which he purchased it.
Nigel Band’s 1986 Rolex Sea-Dweller and 1952 Rolex Oyster Perpetual (picture courtesy Nigel Band)
Nigel remembers that his father wore each the Oyster Perpetual and the Precision repeatedly all through his childhood, with a choice for the black-dial Precision because of its higher legibility.
They have been solely retired from energetic service when someone offered him with a newfangled digital timepiece with a built-in altimeter. This proves that you would be able to deliver the mountaineer down from the mountain, however you’ll be able to’t take the mountain away from the mountaineer.
I requested Nigel whether or not his father’s love of mountaineering had rubbed off on him in any approach. “Probably not, I’ve performed some hillwalking within the UK however past that I simply don’t have a head for heights – I’d a lot moderately be underwater!”
It might be a coincidence, however it’s curious that of their completely completely different chosen fields, each father and son ended up sporting respiratory equipment and Rolex watches.
* This text was first revealed on November 25, 2020 at Skilled Diver Nigel Band And The Uncommon Rolex Sea-Dweller And Oyster Perpetual Fashions That Plumbed The Depths And Scaled The Heights.
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