[adambmi]

Hi folks,

Have been an avid reader of forum threads for a bit now; what a great and enjoyable community!

I was hoping you all could share some words of wisdom... I'm in what could fairly be described as the terminal stages of pre-purchase (a new SS Sub Date) and have decided to go the A-D route for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that this will be my first Rolex. Actually to be 100% forthcoming, this will be my first watch ever, with the semi-notable exception of the Casio G-Shock ET (that's "Elapsed Time", for those of you not familiar with Casio insider lingo, *sniff*) purchased in 1983 at my local drugstore for the princely sum of 24 bucks. Lots of cool buttons on that huge chunk of plastic and rubber, which made it far cooler than any Rolex could ever be in my 8-year-old mind.

At any rate, that was then, this is now, and to say I'm very excited would be an understatement. I would, however, like to go about the purchase armed with as much info as possible, which brings me to the reason for this long-winded post. Before I pull the trigger, I think it would be really useful to get some feedback from the venerable experts on this forum on A-D's in Manhattan. I know of several (Wempe, Tourneau, W. Barthman) and I'm sure there are several more... I've visited the three I've named but have not spent long enough in any of the stores to form any strong impressions one way or the other ... can anyone share experiences, positive or negative, that they've had with any of these places, or make a recommendation of a dealer in the vicinity with which they've had good dealings?

Beyond that, any other nuggets of advice for a newbie purchaser, namely, me?

Cheers,
Adam