Watch Icons traces the watches that became part of a public life.
Jack Nicklaus became a Rolex Testimonee in 1967. His choice was a yellow-gold Rolex Day-Date, reference 1803. Rolex records Nicklaus describing the watch as one he had worn “virtually everywhere” since choosing it, a companion to tournaments, honours and decades of travel.
The object’s provenance is unusually well documented. Phillips identified the watch as the Day-Date ref. 1803 that Nicklaus received in 1967 and wore for decades. In 2019, the watch sold at Phillips for US$1.22 million, with proceeds benefiting the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation.
A watch shaped by continuity
Nicklaus’s Day-Date mattered less as a display of novelty than as a record of repetition. The same watch moved from fairways to formal occasions and accumulated meaning through consistent use. That is the quiet power of a personal watch: time becomes visible not only on the dial, but in the life carried alongside it.
Sources: Rolex: Jack Nicklaus; Phillips: Jack Nicklaus’s Rolex Day-Date.
Editorial note: The accompanying image is an AI-generated illustration. SEKUND.STORE has no affiliation with or endorsement from Jack Nicklaus or Rolex, and this Journal feature does not state or imply that the featured watch is stocked by SEKUND.STORE.