Watch Review : Wifes Birthday………..Bought Myself A Rolex

I’m pretty sure this is going to haunt me for the rest of our marriage, you know how it will go, ‘Remember when it was MY birthday and you bought yourself ANOTHER Rolex’. Well, she’ll have me every time with that and there’s not much I can do to justify my selfish watch purchase. But for what it’s worth, let me try…

We are all well versed in the shortage of Stainless Steel Gents Rolex watches. It’s also clear this shortage is no longer limited to just professional models, Date Justs in steel are getting few and far between and god forbid you to request one with your preferred dial configuration. You may receive that same sympathetic/smug (sometimes it’s hard to tell) look from the salesperson in your AD who will rehearse the same speech over and over to one customer after another as they enter the shop. If you spend long enough in the AD’s you see the staff alternating customers, rotating the delivery of disappointing news. But we all know about this, so no need to dwell on a well-publicised situation.

A little about me then. I got married this year at the end of June, so it’s been just over 3 months. My wife and I decided to delay our honeymoon as we had a lot of friends and family who had traveled from abroad, so after agonisingly waiting 11 weeks we got back from a fantastic trip to Singapore and Bali at the end of September. A completely unplanned plug here, I caught up on several weeks’ worth of Scottish Watches podcasts whilst burning in the Indonesian sun, and it was great. But, the problem I always have whilst on holiday and not focussed on work or other daily routine distractions is my mind wanders, and if you are listening for hours on end to the dulcet tones of Rick and Rikki discussing watches, well, guess where the mind is going. This constant watch exposure only fuelled the fire that had been ignited in Singapore. The watches in Singapore. Wow.

I had decided to take my trusty F91 on honeymoon as it would allow me the luxury of not having to even think about it whilst in Indonesia and to be honest it was great for that. There is something nice about barely noticing it on your wrist, remembering just in time before you leap into the pool and launching it onto your sunbed from meters away without a single thought, not because you don’t care about the watch but because you know it will be fine.

Scottish Watches and Fears Watch Company

Singapore, however, was different. As an individual who very much appreciates a good watch and like a magpie spots them whilst out and about, I felt very ‘exposed’ with the F91. In lifts, in the pool, restaurants, everywhere Rolex, with a few AP’s and Patek’s in-between. It didn’t help that Patek was setting up for their exhibition whilst we were there, with posters of the grandmaster chime everywhere! And then there are the AD’s. We were lucky enough to spend one night in the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which has a Richard Mille boutique in the lobby! Needless to say, I didn’t feel like browsing in there. The mall at the Marina Bay has all the boutiques you can imagine but I chose to wander into the Rolex one first. They had a SS Pepsi, 50th anniversary SD and James Cameron DSSD sitting alongside one another. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, these unicorns are real! My stomach fluttered for a second and then I noticed the tiny sign in the corner of the cabinet, ‘Display only, not for sale’. Why would they do this?! I asked the salesperson who advised me it was to allow customers to try on these watches before they go on the waiting list to buy them… we shared a joke over this.

But back to the Explorer. I’ve had my eye on an Explorer since March this year. Yes, in the current climate that hasn’t really been very long, but I passed on an even rarer opportunity to pick one up in March and it has bugged me ever since. I was traveling to Zambia to visit my folks and Skyscanner had routed me from Glasgow to Lusaka via Heathrow and Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Specifically, Heathrow T3. For a while, I worked in London and so would fly from T5 to Glasgow every week and never once saw any Rolex of interest. So you can understand my surprise when I walked into the Rolex boutique in T3 and sitting there in the window was an Explorer, with a price tag of £4166.67, the difference to UK RRP obviously as a result of duty free privileges. And I let it pass. Was I mad?! No, I don’t think so. In this hobby we all love, there are watches that you are hunting for at certain times, not necessarily grail watches but pieces you are seeking out using the various forums, sales platforms and optimistically the AD’s.  At the time, the Explorer was not a piece I was seeking out. That spot was being occupied by a Polar Explorer 2.

Fast forward to last week. I was browsing the Scottish Watches FB page and an Explorer had been spotted in Glasgow! I can’t seem to find the original post but if I remember correctly it was added by somebody called David and I think it was a Wednesday, could be wrong. I screenshotted the post and set it to a fellow watch geek who agreed that wasn’t something you see very often and a rare ‘opportunity’. I didn’t think much more about it really as I assumed it would be snapped up very quickly. I did, however, think it was odd that nobody had followed up with a shot of the same cabinet without said Explorer.

Anyway, as per the title it was my wife’s birthday on Wednesday this week and between being away for honeymoon and away for work the week we got back, I was pretty unorganised. Shame on me. I suggested however we go into Glasgow on Saturday and do some birthday shopping, credit card in hand. We got into town, grabbed some food in the Galleries then made our way down Buchanan Street, Zara was the destination. We passed the Arcade on our way down and I remembered the Explorer and I wondered… but the day wasn’t about me. We continued to Zara and let’s just say we were there for some time. The place was mad, ladies frantically grabbing various garments in differing sizes, general manners out the window, this was a free for all. My wife didn’t hesitate, she grabbed what she desired, more than she alone could carry, and we headed to the fitting rooms. I found a fairly quiet corner just outside the fitting rooms to wait while she tried on her choices. What seemed like ages and a micro nap later she returned with some winners. We joined the queue for the tills and made ourselves comfortable, this wouldn’t be a quick wait. This allowed me the time to work up the courage to suggest a wander into the Arcade on our way back up Buchanan St. My wife supports my ‘addiction’ as she too enjoys a nice watch so happily agreed. I left out that there may be a watch I want available.

We passed the first few boutiques and where I would usually scour every piece in every window, I had tunnel vision. Straight to Laings. And there it was, still in the window with a Grape 34mm OP beside it. I looked at my wife, she saw the excitement in my face, and we went in. The buying experience was great, the salesperson lovely and informative – I learned a lot about contracts, stickers and retaining cards, but maybe that’s for another review?

The burning question, what did I get my wife for her birthday? We’re off to Copenhagen in November, the Explorer then wasn’t quite RRP.

 

@george_banda_radford

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