Recommended Reading: Remembering 9/11 Through The Rolex That Is ‘Frozen In Time’
At the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City there sits a Rolex frozen in time. Its melted case sits next to a crumpled business card of Todd Beamer, an account manager at Oracle. Its second hand hasn’t ticked forward in 23 years and its date window simply reads “11.”
On September 11, 2001, four terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, eventually crashing it near Shanksville, PA, killing all on board. The terrorists had intended to redirect the flight from San Francisco to an intended target in Washington D.C. that many believe was the U.S. Capitol, with the goal of inflicting damage and death just as they had by crashing planes into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. But Todd Beamer and others on board fought back, causing the crash landing in Pennsylvania. While the passengers’ heroic efforts thwarted al-Qaeda’s efforts, everyone on United flight 93 died.
After the hijackers took control of the plane, Beamer attempted to call his wife from the plane, but was instead routed to a phone operator. This is who heard Beamer and others organizing a plan to jump the hijackers.
“Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll.” These were Beamer’s now-famous last recorded words heard through the phone.
More than a decade after September 11th, Beamer’s watch came into the possession of the Museum. It’s among hundreds of other objects and recovered relics from that day. Some of these are watches or relate to telling time. For example, we’ve told the story of Thomas Canavan and the watch he wore as he walked into the Twin Towers that same day.
Beamer’s watch is a two-tone Rolex Turn-O-Graph with tapestry dial, the brand’s first model with a rotating bezel, introduced before the Submariner in the early 1950s. A marker of his success as a young professional, Beamer was a 32-year-old account manager at Oracle and had just returned from a vacation through Italy the day before he boarded Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco.
Now, the Turn-O-Graph sits at the National September 11 Memorial Museum, smashed, burnt, without its crystal, and frozen in time to the moment when he helped lead a charge that made him and the others on board heroes.
Beamer’s story is well-known, first told by The New York Times in 2014. It’s been further memorialized by Watches of Espionage on its new YouTube channel (a recommended subscribe). On this 23rd anniversary of September 11, we recommend both:
Watches of Espionage: Let’s Roll – A Hero’s Rolex Frozen in Time on 9/11
New York Times: A Moment In Time Captured In Pieces
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