It was probably around the year 2005 when our friend Mimi Zieman joined us for dinner and I noticed that she was wearing a Rolex GMT-Master II, not exactly standard equipment for a suburban Atlanta OB/GYN, especially one who didn’t seem to be particularly interested in name brands or luxury accessories. But there it was, the Rolex reference 16760, ironically enough, the model nicknamed the “Fat Lady”, with the thick case and stainless steel bracelet dangling from her not-so-fat wrist. I asked Mimi about the watch, and she was nonchalant in responding, “Rolex gave it to me to wear on my Everest expedition in 1988.”

Wait a minute!! I was relatively new to watch collecting back then, but I knew enough to think that there was a lot to unpack in that sentence. You climbed Mount Everest? What was your role and how did you use the watch? What was your connection with Rolex? And then there was the unspoken question – do you realize how much your watch might be worth to a Rolex / Everest collector?

I shared some quick information with Mimi – that Rolexes on Everest were a “thing”, with the brand having a long history on Everest, going back to 1953; that collectors pursue the watches associated with historic Everest expeditions; that the provenance of her wearing the watch on a noteworthy Everest expedition and the “Everest 1988” engraving on the caseback gave the watch some “premium” value; and that the watch collecting community would be very interested in her watch and her story, just as I was.

Over the next couple of decades I saw Mimi and her watch a few times, although the watch was typically on her husband’s wrist.  Mimi seemed mildly interested in sharing her story with the watch community, but I didn’t know the best way to make that happen.  Vintage chronographs are one thing, Rolexes on Everest an entirely different topic.    

Fast forward 20 years, and a lot has changed.  Mimi has shared the story of her Everest expedition in her newly-published memoir, “Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure.” Her Rolex GMT-Master II gets a brief mention on page 157, though not in the detail that watch enthusiasts might have wanted to see.

Mimi’s motivation to write her memoir now was to tell a story not often told, highlighting a character in a supportive role, who was also the only woman on the team. She refers to serving as team doctor while still a medical student as her “Everest,” hoping to inspire others to take on challenges despite self-doubt.

I greatly enjoyed reading this very different kind of Everest story, and I’m not alone.  The book has won numerous awards in the non-fiction, memoir and adventure categories, including Best Memoir of 2024 by the American Writing Awards and most recently naming Mimi Georgia Author of the Year in the memoir category. She has been on the circuit, telling her story at events around the country and in numerous interviews and podcasts.

Read more about Mimi’s book on her website or US readers can order it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

In May 2025, Mimi shared her story with the “watch world” when Hodinkee published a profile of her, “The Accidental Explorer”, in its print magazine (Volume 14), written by Victoria Gomelsky. 

Gomelsky puts the expedition into perspective, quoting mountaineer Reinhold Messner’s description of it as “the best ascent of Everest in terms and style of pure adventure.”  This expedition was one of the few to have climbed the remote Kangshung (or East Face) of Mt. Everest, in Tibet, and the team wasn’t supported by sherpas and didn’t use supplemental oxygen. This is a throwback adventure story from 1988, before climbing Everest became a bucket list item that could be delivered by expedition companies.

In the Hodinkee profile, Mimi describes how she used the Rolex GMT-Master II during the expedition (for example, to check the climbers’ vital signs and to know when it was time to tune in to radio broadcasts).  She also describes what this watch meant to her, on a spiritual level (. . . “it made me feel fierce”), imbuing her with strength as a talisman.  Yes, a little good luck charm, courtesy of Rolex! 

One favorite story is how Rolex, as a sponsor of the expedition, presented six members of the team with watches – GMT-Masters for the five men and “a small, feminine model” for Mimi.  If you have the guts to climb Everest you’re probably not afraid to make a request of a corporate executive. The following day, Mimi called Rolex and managed to trade her “ladies” watch for a GMT-Master.  She wanted to feel just like the guys and imagined that a rugged, legible watch would be important in her work on Everest. Perhaps Rolex also realized that the medical officer on an Everest expedition should have the best available tool.

The profile includes some amazing photos of Mimi and her Rolex on Everest, back in 1988, as well as some current photos of Mimi and her watch. 

The photos from the 1988 expedition were taken by Mimi’s teammates, including Stephen Venables (on Instagram, here). The team leader of the expedition was Robert Mads Anderson (on Instagram, here).

The profile also includes some beautiful current photos of Mimi and her watch by Atlanta photographer Jhalin Knowles. (Read about Jhalin Knowles here and follow him on Instagram here.)

I recommend buying Volume 14 of Hodinkee magazine and reading Victoria’s excellent profile of Mimi, and I won’t spoil any more of the plot in this posting.  I can confirm that through her book and the Hodinkee profile Mimi has answered just about all the questions that we discussed at that dinner, back around 2005.  Yes, she climbed Everest as a young medical student, and this Rolex GMT-Master was a big part of her story, then and now. 

To order your copy of Volume 14 of Hodinkee magazine, click here.

Thanks

Thanks to Hodinkee, as well as its Editor-in-Chief, James Stacey, and its Editorial Director, Hodinkee Magazine, Malaika Crawford, for bringing Mimi’s story to the watch world, and to Victoria Gomelsky, for telling that story so well. Thanks also to Hodinkee for permission to use the images from the magazine, and to Jhalin Knowles for permission to use the current images of Mimi.

Jeff Stein
July 9, 2025