Sir Francis Chichester
The first man circumnavigate the globe from west to east single-handed will forever be a part of the history of yachting. This unassuming man, also an entrepreneur and an aviator, epitomized the spirit of sailing and adventure. He achieved his pioneering feat across the world’s oceans between 1966 and 1967, wearing an Oyster watch on his wrist.
Drenched, scraped and tossed about like its wearer, his Rolex watch valiantly stood up to the stormy seas. “During my voyage around the world in Gipsy Moth IV, my Rolex watch was knocked off my wrist several times without being damaged,” he wrote in a letter to Rolex in 1968. “I cannot imagine a hardier timepiece. When using [it] for sextant work and working the foredeck, it was frequently banged, also doused by waves coming aboard; but it never seemed to mind all this.”
Drenched, scraped and tossed about like its wearer, his Rolex watch valiantly stood up to the stormy seas.
