What's your 'how I got into Rolex' story?

[ras47]

I am not a collector. This is my only Rolex and I wear it almost daily. It shares time with my Omega Speedmaster. The original dial and hands had very little lume left - it's a P-serial watch from 2000. I sent it in to the Dallas RSC for service because the service history of this particular GMT was unknown and I wanted to be sure of the integrity of the seals since I plan to wear it all around and for all activities. I decided to have the original hands replaced and Rolex said I needed a new dial, which was ok with me because the lume of the new hands would match. I sacrificed collectibility for usability gladly.

[Brny11]

I have always loved watches (never paid attention to brands, just aesthetics). Many years back walked into Mayors Mellenia Mall and a rep literally put every watch on my wrist (back when they were all on display) and gave me history of each one on a busy day when it was clear I was NOT ready to buy. He was awesome and sparked my interest. I was obsessed that day. Researched, learned and when the time was right, picked up my first a couple of years later.

[A.I.]

Sean Connery had a LOT to do with it.

'My name is Pussy Galore'....Bond 'of course you are'.

[toxicavenger]

I had a Grand Seiko about 10 years ago and all the forums I was on kept telling me how great the SD was. I sold GS to get the SD and was underwhelmed. I then got a Sub that RSC just worked on. That turd went back to the RCS 3 times and they never made it right.

I have owned others since then. Now I own a roadkill 2016 Airking.

[911NBK]

Originally Posted by toxicavenger

I had a Grand Seiko about 10 years ago and all the forums I was on kept telling me how great the SD was. I sold GS to get the SD and was underwhelmed. I then got a Sub that RSC just worked on. That turd went back to the RCS 3 times and they never made it right.



I have owned others since then. Now I own a roadkill 2016 Airking.

Did that thing fly in here on comet? What happened to it? Im curious.

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[911NBK]

As for my story it's simple. I wanted to mark an important milestone with a time piece. And one time piece turned into 5 in a really short time.

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[Rolexoman]

My story is pretty simple, over the years we have travelled to Mexico several times and each time we have gone I always make an effort to get a Rolex knockoff, not trying to fool anybody as I even tell anybody that asks it’s a knockoff but it’s lot a tradition thing to get my ROLEXO...

Well over the years I always have teased my wife and told her if she loved me she would get me a real Rolex ..... well you guessed it and I would have never guessed it, this past Christmas I opened up my NIB DJII

[marselluswallace]

Originally Posted by Equity

Seeing Glen Garry Glen Ross opened my eyes that there were watches that cost more than cars.

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AB was referring to his watch costing more than the salesman’s ‘Hun-Dee’

Personally James Bonds Rolex in Live And Let Die started my love of Rolex-I would have been about 8 years old when I first saw it.Loved Magnum in the 80’s too-Ferrari 308 also.

[Aplover5]

I opened a little golf shop in South Ft Myers and worked the register for years. So many nice watches! Especially my European customers, and that Sub/Date always stood out, couldn’t afford the APs that so many of them wore! Started with a Explorer but prefer the ceramic variety I’m hard on em.

[toxicavenger]

Originally Posted by 911NBK

Did that thing fly in here on comet? What happened to it? Im curious.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/com..._bw_road_rash/

[911NBK]

Originally Posted by toxicavenger

https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/com..._bw_road_rash/

So some dude messed up a friends Rolex? It's hard to read. I understood that you bought it for 6 bills though.

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[toxicavenger]

Originally Posted by 911NBK

So some dude messed up a friends Rolex? It's hard to read. I understood that you bought it for 6 bills though.

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[solesman]

My father used to get National Geographic magazines delivered every month and more often than not it featured an advert for the Submariner. I grew up in Cornwall by the sea and the two things fused in my mind. Aged 32 I finally got round to buying a Sub in 2013. I sold it last year in a moment of madness. The hunt for another will start again very soon.

[mmmmp]

Originally Posted by gleiden

The first time I ever heard of Rolex was in 1992. I was a recent uni graduate at the height of a recession and the only job I could get was a commission-only life insurance selling gig for a small company in Bond Street in London. Both the MD and the GM - flashy yuppie types - had Rolexes. IIRC both had two-tone Datejusts with jubilee bracelets, fluted bezels. And they’d say to us guys ‘if you go out there and sell then you can get one of these!’. I remember him saying that his watch cost him 3000 pounds. I didn’t particularly like those watches (and still am not really keen on that style) and didn’t like that job and made next to no money from it, so I left before a year had elapsed. Me and my mates just went to the pub most days because nobody we talked to had any money to buy pensions and savings plans.

A few months later I saw what I suppose would have been the ‘Bluesy’ of the time on the back of a glossy magazine - it was a blue two-tone sub - (maybe a 11613 -were those out then? Did people call them ‘Bluesies’?) and I thought it was the most beautiful watch; just the colour combination and that iridescent blue that just seems an impossible shade (and of course I was hypnotized by the slick Rolex photography), and a bit more rugged-looking in design than the ones I’d seen before. I blu-tacked that back page on my wall in my bedsit and stared at it from time to time thinking ‘one day…’

After moving out from that apartment, I never thought about Rolex again for many years; in fact, I didn’t even wear a watch until I bought my first Rolex which was in 2013. Between 1992 and 2013, my life changed a lot of course: I eventually ended up with a career in IT (one that is still going… [touches wood]). I work hard, I’m responsible financially and my wife and I support a small family.

One day I was walking along, passed by a Rolex store and the display caught my eye. There in the window was a blue sub (I didn’t know anything about reference numbers then, but I now know it was a 116613LB - the current Bluesy). I suddenly got a flashback to my small studio apartment; the one that didn’t even have a proper bed, or enough room for a desk, and that back page of the magazine with the 11613 on it stuck on my wall. It all came back to me what my life was like at that time - penniless, clueless and directionless, with an out-of-work actress for a girlfriend, a neighbour who wanted to be an artist like Marcel Duchamp… picking the lock on the gas meter for 50 pence pieces with him and then us spending it on McDonalds and beer… and me dreaming of having sufficient money (or at least a positive net worth with no student loans) to have some sort of comfortable lifestyle, that after I'd taken care of everything else might even allow me to buy a nice-looking timepiece...

I went into the shop to look at the watch.

I didn’t buy it there and then, but my interest was sparked in Rolex sufficiently that I was seriously considering buying one, and after some rumination, I decided a) I wanted to get one b) that I deserved and could afford it and c) that I should earnestly start to do some proper research given how much they cost.

I had never wanted to be like those flashy insurance salesmen guys. Not that there’s anything wrong with them - they were mostly very nice guys - energetic, motivating and fun to be around, but I think my character is a tiny bit more reserved. For them, I think it was part and parcel to look successful which helped with selling to their clients. After doing a fair bit of Googling, I decided I was going to get a Submariner, and that there was a green one that looked quite nice as well. After doing a few rounds, I choose a store I was going to get it from (since disappeared) and went in and ordered a Hulk.

Two weeks later, the sales lady called me to come down to the store. I actually went down there wearing a green Hulk t-shirt, and with a 2-year old kid in tow! When I arrived, she sat me down, gave me a bottle of Evian, called to another assistant and said ‘green sub!’. While I looked in the glass display, the guy went behind and emerged with two coffins and put them down on the tray in front of me upon his return. I was allowed to choose from between two Hulks that had just come in and there was no difference so I picked one, but before I committed myself I asked if I could try on a Bluesy and look at it on my wrist in the natural light outside which she said I could. It was sooo beautiful, but I decided it was just too blingy for me and I couldn't carry it off (it being about 30% more expensive also had something to do with it) and I asked her to return it to the case. Incidentally that case had several black subs in it, a Smurf, all the models of GMT you could think of - steel, TT, PM, you name it, pre-ceramic Daytonas… everything.

Anyway, I went home with a Hulk that day. The following year I bought my second - a Batman. I wear them as dailies, alternating when I can be bothered to change, which used to be every day, but now might be a week or month till I feel in the mood. 6 years after buying my first Rolex, I still can't stop admiring them.

When I think about how different things are now, for instance - of course I want a Daytona - but there’s no way I can get one without being (what I feel) fleeced. In a way I’m kicking myself because they were still in the shops right up until 2016 but I felt satiated with my pair at the time, so I have to repeatedly tell myself - ‘bro you are already REALLY lucky.’ … and leave it at that.

I do still think the Bluesy is one of the most beautiful watches. Who knows.. I’ll be 50 next year..

I've read many of these "How old were you", "What made you buy", etc. and while it's interesting enough to hear people's experiences, the topic can get a little repetitive. It's usually a James Bond, paternalistic or heard by reputation influence which motivates a lot of people. That's fine, we all started somewhere. (Mine was a combo-platter of all three.)

Your post was terrific! I particularly liked the flash back / forward style which makes for good reading. The 'patriotic Canadian/Commonwealth' spirit in me appreciated the UK touches.(After all, how many TRF posts use "bedsit" to describe one's living quarters?) Almost felt like I was teleported to old Blighty! And, the ending resulting in the purchase of the HULK was a fun twist. A smashing read old horse!

Thanks for sharing,
Mark



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[dadonn2]

Never wore a watch my whole life. About 4 years ago I had finished a project and had some time off. Knew a couple of guys who were heavy gamblers that had taken residence at a casino. I visited for a few stretches and they were using casino points (1% of whatever they gambled was given back in casino dollars which could be spent anywhere) to buy Rolex's primarily. I had remembered liking the bluesy years back and wore one for a day or two. Then tried a sub, then a day date and most impressively tried on the white gold sub. When I stopped hanging out with them, watches went off the radar for me. A few months later, in an unrelated incident, a buddy from my past came out of nowhere and wanted to buy me a Rolex as a gift for helping him out many years before. Unconvinced still, we both knew that surprising my wife would make me happiest so he said let's get her something. I chose a hulk as I thought "boyfriend" style watches can look good on women. She loved it and a few months later I decided to get one. The recollection of wearing the white gold sub lingered and seeing how much my wife loved hers was contagious. I started with a BLNR, then YM II two-tone, then a 116613 then a sub and a few others over the last couple of years.

[911NBK]

Originally Posted by toxicavenger

Man I don't know whats wrong with me but I couldnt stop laughing during this clip. But great story to your watch.

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[Headshrinker]

Working in a jewelry store in high school, I gained a bit of knowledge about watches. Rolex stood out for there style and quality.

[skhan007]

Simple story:

My father has two Rolex's and got his first when I was a kid. He talked about how it was a life goal to own one, thus I grew up having a very high regard for Rolex watches.

Fast forward several decades to right now, and I just got my first Rolex about a week ago. Went to go visit my father this past weekend and we took a father/son photo of our two watches...

[strafer_kid]

Started off with Omega Speedmasters courtesy of a friend who was (and still is) an Omega AD. He then got to be a Rolex AD and continued as one until the AD 'cull' a few years back. That opened the Rolex 'door' for me and during that time, I think I got to try just about every Rolex SS sports from new apart from the Daytona which I was never keen on, and the Deepsea which was just too big for me. I still have quite few SS sports, although my only recent ones are the SubC and SD43. I have also swung more towards GMTs in recent times as daily wearers. Unfortunately however given the way Rolex are moving forward, I cannot see me adding much in the foreseeable future.

[Chester01]

I have always been into watches since the early 1980’s. Started out with some plastic watches, moved onto Casio calculator watches, and later in the 8”’s the citizen dive watches, the ones they advertised in the case with a mini diver tank. Always loved them for
What ever reason. My brother and I even went in half each for a Seiko sport 100, the one that kind of looks like a speedy pro. At that time is was expensive and we saved for a long time.

My parents wore Rolex, but at that time really had no idea the value. What I saw is that they wore them everywhere. Both had solid gold presidents and date justs and beat the living hell out of them and never got them serviced. My dad worked in the construction field and wore it doing that kind of work. My mother wore them gardening, in the pool, cleaning the floors, you name it. So when they would go into jewelry stores as a kid I would go too. I would see Rolex in the case and just gravitated to the designs. When I got older and more into watches, my parents made me a deal. If I graduate college, then they would get me a Rolex.

I remember babying the watch, and my mother said, listen it’s just a watch and it is a Rolex so will last. So I took her advice and the watch has never let me down. Over time I became interested in other brands and have owned panerai, tag’s, chopard, iwc, omega, as well as my other citizen and some Seiko’s. My collection has become trimmed down over they years but still have the one my parents got me way back.

[shapiroeric]

Not into watches at all. Getting my wife’s diamond reset at my local jeweler. And is an AD. Watches are right there so always glancing. He told me I have a watch for you. Nope, not a watch guy. Kept hounding me I’ll make you one. I have one in the safe for you he says. After about 2 months of fittings etc for the ring I bought a Sub. Love it. Now fun to think about what’s next.


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[toxicavenger]

Originally Posted by 911NBK

Man I don't know whats wrong with me but I couldnt stop laughing during this clip. But great story to your watch.

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I laughed also. The fake crying got to me.