39: Wearing a gold watch to fight fires?

see the ad we are referencing at thiswatchlife.com

In 1969 Rolex put out an ad that stated "If taming oil well fires was your job, you'd wear a Rolex". And the Rolex they were advertising was the yellow gold Day Date. These days many people don't feel they can put even their stainless steel watches, let alone their precious metal watches, through much rough use at all. But price aside, should that be the case?