The ‘Rolex on the Wall’ That Kissinger, Reagan and Sinatra Loved, but You’ve Never Heard Of

For decades, it was the only way to visualize global time and daylight before the internet. Despite the company changing hands and moving from California to Oregon, then to Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Geochron has remained a niche product with a passionate fan base. Only a handful of skilled technicians can craft these complex timepieces, and its limited production has kept it an exclusive item rather than a mass-market success.

Today, Bolan’s passion for the Geochron still shines: He has expanded to digital offerings in the hope of ensuring this anachronistic timepiece stays relevant in a world driven by data and convenience. During the pandemic, Bolan took the show on the road, riding his BMW RT motorcycle around the lower 48 to visit a Geochron owner in every state. That trek let him put faces to purchase orders, giving Bolan better insight into clock’s small but fervent fanbase.

Though the timing didn’t align, one of the potential visits was with the owner of Long Island Watch, Marc Frankel, whose Geochron will look familiar to anyone who views his YouTube videos. Frankel, who trained as an aerospace engineer, is quick to point out not just that he has a Geochron but also the intricacies of a device that accurately captures the sun’s analemma, its figure-eight path in the sky.

Frankel first encountered the clock in a Sharper Image catalog, which was very much in line with the clientele Geochron had targeted for decades. “Then I saw it in Hunt for Red October, and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’—and I know Reagan had one as well,” Frankel says. “I love the map of the sunlight curve and how, over time, through the orbit of the planet, the sun hits it. It just changes, and that’s amazing to me. I looked into getting something that could mimic it, but a screensaver for 99 cents wasn’t mechanical enough for me. So, I ponied up the few grand, and it’s been with me ever since.”

Frankel draws parallels between the Geochron and an automatic watch: While a 99-cent screensaver, or an Apple Watch, can show you all the same information and so much more, the mechanical nature of a Geochron and a self-winding watch tickles some nerdy fiber. To Frankel, that mechanical nervous system keeps the Geochron relevant.