My Winding Road to Rolex

[khazard]

Hi TRF, I’ve been lurking for a little while, and I love the discussion. I figured now is as good a time as any to say, “Hello,” and share the long and winding road I took to my first Rolex.

I grew up with a few knockaround watches of limited value and horological significance, and once I got my first “real job” out of college, I found myself running through San Diego and glancing into a pre-owed watch shop where I saw a blue and orange IWC Aquatimer Chrono with its box and papers winking at me through the window. I didn’t know anything about watches, but I knew I liked that one, and I took the plunge.

A year or so later, I picked up a Panerai 219 which was a fitting choice for me as a left-handed wearing my watch on my right. I worked with a handful of watch geeks, and I saw them pick up a lot of interesting pieces, and I loved mine.

One day, I looked at my student loan bill and realized that my two watches could pay off the last of my student loans, and I did the “responsible” thing and sold both (for what I paid for them!) and zeroed out that debt.

Over the next few years, I either wore a trusty Citizen ChronoTime AT or a smart watch (starting with the Pebble, moving to the first Apple Watch, and upgrading to the Series 3 Apple Watch after a couple of years), but I knew that I wanted to get a nice watch again eventually.

I went back to school for my MBA, and when I walked into a course on Negotiations, I caught the bug again. Over the next six months or so, I found myself in and out of several great watches as I worked my way toward a Rolex. I bought and sold three different Speedmaster models (a coax 44.25mm Moonwatch, an older model hesalite Pro, and a .005 Pro) an IWC Portuguese Yacht Club, an IWC Big Pilot, and a Tudor Black Bay GMT before finally bringing home a black dial Rolex Explorer II (216570).

I also ended up lobbying about 1/3 of my business school class to purchase a “class watch” instead of a “class ring,” so 20+ of us have the same Hamilton watch to commemorate the program.


In the next week or so, I’m going to be finding new homes for a Schumacher AP Royal Oak Offshore in Titanium and a Patek 5990. And while they’re for sale, I get to give them a little wrist time! Given the fact that there’s a good market for both of those models, I may not get much time with them, but it’s as close as I’ll get any time soon to having that level of watch in my watch box.

See you around the forums!

[khazard]

And a quick glimpse of that "first Rolex" on one of the oldest "winding roads": The Great Wall.

[oydh4]

Awesome story! Thanks for sharing!

[khazard]

Thanks!

It may have taken a while to get my first Rolex, but it didn’t take long to get a Datejust II after the Explorer.

F3286AEE-B596-4DD1-B680-ACF0143C0E4B.jpg

[khazard]

But I have to admit that I was only able to own the DJII for about a week before selling it to my brother-in-law (for the great price I paid for it) so that I could take advantage of the chance to get a Hulk through a friend’s relationship with an AD.