Rolex. Marking Time vs. Telling Time
By Jack Webster
I am presently at the 2025 edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway for the
beginning of my 54 th year of participation in motorsports. My journey has been an eventful one,
from my beginnings as an aspiring racing photographer to later becoming Team Manager for a
Porsche team and now bookending that career with the honor and pleasure of continuing my
motorsports journey as a photojournalist.
Before heading south from my home in Ohio this year, I reflected on my path in life and how,
from the very beginning of my racing career, Rolex has always seemed to play an integral part.
In 1971, the very first professional sports car race I covered was the CanAm at Mid-Ohio Sport
Car Course. That race was won by none other than World Champion Jackie Stewart, who was
(and still is) a spokesman for Rolex. A year later at the Canadian Grand Prix, I photographed
Jackie and his teammate Francois Cevert having a conversation in the pits before the race. You
can clearly see Cevert wearing his Rolex.

Jack Webster photo
As noted in his book “Faster”, Stewart would always take his Rolex off prior to getting into
the racecar and hand it to his wife, Helen. I would come
to witness this several times over the next couple of years of covering Stewart’s racing career.
I guess I always knew about the connection of Rolex to motorsports and other individuals of
action and adventure, having known of the historic exploits of Land Speed Record holder Sir
Malcom Campbell and the aviation legend and breaker of the sound barrier General Chuck
Yeager.

1958 Chuck Yeager Rolex. Stock photo

Sir Malcom Campbell. Stock photo
When I became the Team Manager for the Porsche Fabcar team back in 1986, my wife gifted
me my own Rolex day date watch, which I wore to every single race we did in 1986 and through
our last race as a team in 1992. I have continued to wear that same watch every year since
then, and have it on my wrist again this week as I begin my 54 th season of racing at Daytona.
In the early 2000’s I followed the exploits of Rolex’s modern ambassador, Tom Kristensen, and I
had the pleasure of documenting his racing successes many times. I was there when he won his
record 7 th 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2005. Just as Tom’s Rolex marked his achievement as Mr. Le
Mans, my personal Rolex accompanied me on that trip as well, as my personal marker of that
historic moment.

Jack Webster. From his private collection
What I have to come to realize, now more than ever, is that a Rolex isn’t just about telling time,
it’s about marking time – my Rolex has become the one constant in an ever-changing world of
“stuff”, something of value far beyond its original cost as a mechanical timepiece.
I wore my Rolex when we won Sebring in 1987, I wore my Rolex while writing my motorsports
photography book, I have continued to wear my Rolex at all of the major and minor events in
my life.

Tom Kristensen. Fabrice Huet photo
In this digital, throwaway society we now live in, where craftmanship is certainly not as
appreciated as in previous generations, I take pleasure in being “old school”, an appreciator of
fine art, fine craftmanship, and mechanical perfection. I am proud to be an analog guy in a
digital world.
I may not be a Sir Malcom Campbell, Chuck Yeager, Sir Jackie Stewart or even a modern hero
like Tom Kristensen, but I am a true ambassador for Rolex. I haven’t worn it just to tell time, but
to help me mark time, to remember the journeys we have been on together and the journeys
yet to come.
This week at Daytona marks the beginning of yet another journey.