My first Rolex was a GMT Master 16750 purchased in November 1981, and after 35 years (and a lot of pestering) I've got it back.
I had sold it to a friend in 1984 so as to buy a Submariner, and it's been with him the whole time. It's been looked after, but not "babied", had four services although in need of another, but apart from the bezel it's mostly original. There's a little more detail about when I bought it in my original post as below - with a correction - its an 1981 model not a 1980 (typo) as stated in the post.
I'm happy!
https://www.rolexforums.com/showthre...73#post2128373