The man behind Tempus Machina, the company building modern tributes to historic Rolex models.
Imagine if the ultra-rare Big Crown Submariner you’ve pined for ever since seeing it in an auction catalog could be had for the price of a modern Rolex at your local jeweler. This is, of course, a fantasy; the most collectible vintage Rolexes come with price tags reaching well into six figures—amounts more in common with real estate than with sports watches. It is quite a lot to pay for a watch that one is far more likely to keep in a safe than ever actually wear.
Enter Jeremy Davis, a graphic designer, web developer, musician, and watch collector whose most recent project, the aptly named Tempus Machina, is dedicated to creating time capsules of the vintage Rolexes one isn’t likely to come across in the real world. Davis’s interest in vintage Rolex stems from his early days as a collector, when he first experienced “that ineffable feeling you get when you strap that perfect watch to your wrist.”Davis, who handles the design, media outreach, and sales for Tempus Machina, works alongside an anonymous Canadian partner who specializes in transforming off-the-shelf stainless steel Rolex Submariners into recreations of classic, mid-twentieth century watches from the Crown.
Davis, who handles the design, media outreach, and sales for Tempus Machina, works alongside an anonymous Canadian partner who specializes in transforming off-the-shelf stainless steel Rolex Submariners into recreations of classic, mid-twentieth century watches from the Crown.So far the company has a collection of just two models, with a third in the works. The watches have the modern construction, solid bracelet links, substantial heft, and adjustable, locking clasps that one associates with a modern Rolex, but the appearance and texture of the grail watches of decades past. The techniques employed to achieve the vintage appeal are the same that Rolex used during a halcyon period for vintage watches, the late 1950s and early 1960s.
So far the company has a collection of just two models, with a third in the works. The watches have the modern construction, solid bracelet links, substantial heft, and adjustable, locking clasps that one associates with a modern Rolex, but the appearance and texture of the grail watches of decades past. The techniques employed to achieve the vintage appeal are the same that Rolex used during a halcyon period for vintage watches, the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The first Tempus Machina creation was the 216A, a tribute to the 6538 Big Crown Submariner with its signature red enamel accent replacing the luminescent marker on its rotating bezel. Its many modifications include a new, thick sapphire crystal to recall the hesalite plastic crystals seen in vintage watches, a redesigned dial, a new “big crown” measuring 8 mm, and a machined case for the removal of the crown guard.
The second Tempus Machina offering, which is just now going into production, is the Ref. 809 H Pointed Crown Guard 369 Submariner, a watch that honors the classic pointed crown guard 5512 Submariner of the early 1960s. In order to create this tribute watch, Davis’s anonymous partner purchases a 114060 modern Submariner and uses it as the base. The most immediately interesting aspect of the watch is the 3, 6, 9 Explorer gilt dial that is crafted using techniques that Rolex itself used that same decade.
Tempus Machina disassembles the watches, shapes the cases, and even files down the crown guards to reveal pointed edges that haven’t been seen in Rolex production models in decades. The process is itself comparable to a watchmaker buying an off-the-shelf ébauche and modifying its components to create a very different final movement.
Coming Next
Davis has a third edition in the works, the next chapter of Tempus Machina. This new watch will also honor a vintage Rolex, but it will present manufacturing challenges so far not encountered by his company.
Of course, there are plenty of other outfits that will sell you a modified Rolex, most notably Bamford Watch Department. But those other companies aren’t in the business of preserving Rolex history and making a tribute to the past. They’ll sell you a watch coated in black PVD, or something else that Rolex has never done and isn’t likely to do any time soon.
I asked Davis if he was afraid that his activities would invoke the ire of the conservative, Geneva-based company, which has a reputation for not taking kindly to seeing its wares tricked out, blacked out, or otherwise modified for resale.
“We’ve been doing it for over a year and we haven’t heard anything from Rolex,” says Davis. “If they had a problem with our honoring vintage timepieces no longer in production, I think we would have heard from them by now. We’re paying tribute to the watches that Rolex used to make in the past.” —Jonathan Bues
