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Originally Posted by lksteve
for what reason? there's lotsa neat gadgets and stuff on the modern watches...
of course, you don't need a battery for a GMT Master as long as your heart is still beating...
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I guess that getting the Rolex is a matter of tradition. I know that I saved a long while for mine, and was a long way off from being able to afford one, when I came across an unbeatable deal on a new GMT-Master in the Canal Zone back in...what? 1980? It was a hell of a long time ago, and this watch has aged gracefully, and it just keeps on ticking.
I outgrew the band, at one point....and then I lost the freakin' spare links that I had saved over decades and through several moves....so it languished in a box for a few years. I tried to get it worked on, get some new links....and the snooty lady wanted like $800 for cleaning and I do not know what all.....that was more than I paid for the watch in the first place. I just laughed at her. Rolex stores are very stuffy, and apparently their clientele think nothing of just giving money away for no good reason. I can still remember how the lady looked at me when I laughed at her. Kind of goggle-eyed...and definitely offended.
On a whim, I took it to Baghdad with me when I went the year before last. I guess that I figured that I might be able to get it worked on in Jordan or Dubai or someplace. I do not remember how the topic arose....but after awhile I was working with this great guy....a Sunni Arab.....and he "knew a guy"...a master watch guildsman in a bad neighborhood....and he took my watch to him.
It took awhile to come back...and I admit that there were days where I wrote it off, and I thought that I had been ripped off....but sure enough...one day, my friend returned my watch to me....it was like new. The crystal had been replaced....new sapphire.....it had been cleaned....and it had new links. Genuine Rolex links.
The bill was $45.
The watch has not been off my wrist since.
I think that wearing a Rolex is an old SF tradition. I wanted one because the guys that I idolized when I was young all wore them.
It amazes me to this day.....when I go to a watch shop here in Bangkok....and I see the prices that are charged for new GMT-Masters. In excess of $3k USD.
I paid $600 for mine.
This watch is 25 years old. It just purrs along, loses no time, gains no time....it just does what it does: it tells me the time at a glance, and the date. And for some reason....people covet them. I do not know why, but a Rolex has cachet. The manager at the Foodland on Sirinakarin Road admired it out of the blue one day, when I was consulting him on a matter of professional importance (a whiskey recommendation). Somehow, Thais can tell at a glance whether you are wearing a genuine Rolex or a cheap knock-off. I cannot tell. The knock-offs that are sold in Chinatown here look utterly authentic, to me.
When you consider the price that I paid for it....and its durability and quality....my Rolex is one of the best investments that I ever made.