Interesting Jeff, wouldn't surprise me if it's true - ie. To time phone calls. At the time, it may have seemed cutting edge.
Or, the cynic in me might suggest that this was Rolexs famous marketing dept at work!?!

Earlier watches had rotating markers. In WWii, there were pilots watches that had bezels with a single marker, some had the marker on the crystal that rotated with the bezel.
These wouldn't be great in water, so maybe the only way forward was a sealed watch with an independent bezel.

I'll do sone digging around tomorrow, it's an interesting subject. Part of me thinks that there must have been timing bezels on aircraft/submarines/ships etc before 1954.

Stewart