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Old 22 July 2018, 04:30 AM   #1
Chope Man
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Join Date: Apr 2015
Real Name: Jean-Michel
Location: Paris, France
Watch: Blue dial 16618
Posts: 293
Who is "Chope Man", this new comer?

Hello everyone. After being a lurker for months to measure the atmosphere and the level of posts, I quite recently decided to participate. It is time for me to introduce myself after 30 posts.
I am French man, born in 1959. As far as I remember, as a teenager I always dreamed of having a Rolex. I was indeed infused with advertisements in magazines, surrounded by people with Rolex (many members of the Golf Club where the family was, golf competitions with prizes such as Rolex in PM. In addition to this a friend of my father, living in Argentina, made trips to Europe, for business, and for his Chifonelli suits, to buy Rolex for friends in South America and sometimes for himself or his two daughters. During those trips en Europe, he always visited us for é or three days. He had a Day Date. About his daughters, the eldest one, goddaughter of my father, eventually was kidnapped in Argentina. She returned safe after ransom but without her Rolex, and her father bought her a Tudor. More under the radar but for, as the both of father and daughter said, the same quality.
No wonder, for my 18 years, in 1977, I asked (and got) a Rolex. Many young people from middle class or rather favored class, who were in the same golf club, received a Rolex for their 18 years. I asked for one of the least expensive if not the cheapest of the sports range: a submariner without the date. A 5513 therefore, at 1800 francs (I still remember it), the 1680 with the date I dreamed but that I found unreasonable to ask, being 2200 francs ...
I absolutely loved this watch, being myself precise, making the most accurate models possible, so appreciating the precision of manufacture and finish. But I always had a problem measuring how much time passed, never knowing what day it was. A few years later, after my military service, I bought myself a Datejust. I had asked my father, who had always dreamed of a Rolex but tended to favor his family before himself, to come with me at the AD (Aldebert, in Paris). When the seller put the datejust to my measure, my father asked me what I was going to do with the submariner. I then told him that the the reason why I wanted him to come with me was that he finally had a Rolex ... The seller had then to put on the right size a second watch and my father was so pleased... About this trend of doing everything first for his family, he had asked my brother, who had just achieved very early (19 years and a half) good studies (Science-Po Paris), what he wanted as a gift, like a little car for instance. This was one year and a half after I got the 5513. My brother replied: for that price, as I did not have time to pass my driving license, I would prefer a Rolex in yellow gold ... he got it and still have it after 39 years (Oyster date, 34 mm). He has small wrists. His girlfriend, who had also succeeded Science-Po, had also received a Rolex, they realized by finding themselves, surprised, while they had not spoken about this before ...
And then the time has passed, I again had my first submariner to the untimely death of my father, left too early at the age of 59 years. In this regard, I should not advise enough against smoking ...
When I got back the 5513, the rotating bezel of the submariner served me a lot to note the time I spent on this or that file and then bill the client (law firm then IP legal firm, intellectual property being my specialty, two diploma respectively in the IT Laws, mainly copyright for computer programs, and in patent laws).
The time has passed again, a few years later I resold the submariner and the SS datejust for a second hand 31mm gold datejust with president bracelet and for a SS manual winding precision Oyster.
One day, a guy who worked in the same law firm as me, in the library, with less means than me, asked me if I would sell him the Oyster Precision for the low price I had paid, that he had always dreamed of a Rolex, etc. As I am not a money man and I liked this person, I resold him without profit.
Then, years later, after a wedding (where I offered a gold and steel Lady datejust), a divorce, a new girl-friend who found the junior datejust not enough manly, I bought a second hand GMT 16700.
And later came a Day Date in yellow gold on President bracelet, hidden clasp, with diamonds on the dial, which I would have kept well if I had not been obliged to resell it to pay for the repair of the engine of one of my Lotus (my other passion for 20 years, I had and still have an Elise S1 of 1998, prepared for the track, an Elan M100, kept 5 years and sold last year, and am waiting for the completion of the restoration of a rare Lotus seven S3 of 1968). The Jaguar S family type is only the "common" car when I need more seats.
I will not tell you all the details of my 40 years of relationship with Rolex, but the beginning was more significant to explain one of my hobbies. By the way, I followed quite the same way with McIntosh labs audio gears and Leica M. And I'm also known in the little community of vintage slot cars.

Today I still have the Junior Datejust, very much like dress watch, the GMT Master 16700, which comes out of its third maintenance service (one every 5 years), a Tudor 79270 that I love as much as the others (the Big Block I had tried was still a little thick, not easy to wear with a suit of city or a blazer, but I'm not saying that one day ...), and a submariner finally with date ... yellow and blue if you see what I mean (16618, because not having a very big wrist I find the new ceramic model too big for me, and moreover not in the spirit "wristwatch" with an integration of the box which decreases at the level of lugs to join the bracelet).
The next one? Keeping the others of course: I hope in a few years to buy a Day-Date. If it could be platinum ... I would have gone through my adult life from the cheapest Rolex to the Flagship, and having loved them all and continuing to admire a 5513 ...

My name is Jean-Michel, the pseudo “Chope Man” being a joke (reference to Antony Colin Bruce Chapman, to the fact that “Chope” is in French a mug of beer). I work and live close to Paris as director of intellectual property of a simulation software company (I was hired 17 years ago by my best client at the time).

Thanks to the contributors for their beautiful pictures, for the interesting technical details and long life at the Forum, hoping that we will talk less investment and a little more of our common passion for beautiful watches.
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