Your Rolex story

[Islander505]

I received my Rolex 16800 as a commissioning present when I became a Marine officer. In the nearly twenty years I have had it, it has deployed with me around the globe and been on many foreign shores, been on every military dive, every military parachute jump, and served three bona fide combat tours of duty in Iraq on my wrist. It saved my wrist from being broken in a serious fall (though I had to replace the bezel and bracelet).

I always have to smile when people ask if it is real and then display shock as though I am crazy for wearing it while doing the things I do. It was made for this purpose! I have spent at least half its value in keeping it serviced (not to mention the cost for the new bracelet and bezel), but it is more a favorite of mine than even my Omega Ploprof - I will never part with this watch. I can't seem to bring myself to even consider the purchase of a new Rolex. Perhaps upon my retirement? Suggestions, anyone?

[vitaccop]

I received my Rolex 16800 as a commissioning present when I became a Marine officer. In the nearly twenty years I have had it, it has deployed with me around the globe and been on many foreign shores, been on every military dive, every military parachute jump, and served three bona fide combat tours of duty in Iraq on my wrist. It saved my wrist from being broken in a serious fall (though I had to replace the bezel and bracelet).

I always have to smile when people ask if it is real and then display shock as though I am crazy for wearing it while doing the things I do. It was made for this purpose! I have spent at least half its value in keeping it serviced (not to mention the cost for the new bracelet and bezel), but it is more a favorite of mine than even my Omega Ploprof - I will never part with this watch. I can't seem to bring myself to even consider the purchase of a new Rolex. Perhaps upon my retirement? Suggestions, anyone?

An easy way to justify another Rolex is to have one as a spare for when you send your first one in for service!! Go get one tomorrow!!

[Dennis Smith]

Hi all,
My story is simple. I bought a GMT when I first realized I had "Made it" in a career as a helicopter pilot. I'm still doing it today, almost twenty years later, so I guess I was right.
My favorite Rolex story, though, is as follows. It took place in the 1994 season and I first wrote it down and posted it almost eight years ago on the old, non-commercialized TZ, so some of you may remember it)...

A Story to Tell

Twenty-five helicopter pilots sat in a stuffy room nervously awaiting the arrival of our instructor. It was
our first season flying glacier tours in Alaska, a great step in the career of a civilian pilot, and
although most of us were flight instructors, we had much to learn about ice fields, Alaska, our new
aircraft, tours, and glaciers. It was our instructor's job to weed out the weaklings and send them
home. In Ketchikan, one must ride a ferry boat across the inlet to get to the airport (to ride the
Alaska Airlines flight back to your flight instrucor job in the lower 48). When the instructor took the
podium, he scanned the room slowly and flipped through his stack of "free" one-way ferry boat
tickets. This became his standard way of dealing with improper attitudes or wrong answers...head
down, eyes gazing at the student-victim over his glasses, hands audibly shuffling ferry passes.
His name was Jeff, and I immediately noticed his watch. It was a Rolex GMT Master with blue/red
bezel on a colorful velcro strap. This Rolex was differet; it did not look like all the other bright new
Rolexes I had seen. The bezel colors had faded to an attractive, very pale color, more like
robin's-egg blue and pink. This watch had been places; it probably had more flight time than I did.
Humbled, I noticed that my GMT Master II still looked new, and I suddenly felt like a novice. Those of
us that survived training soon found ourselves in Juneau hauling tourists. Jeff occasionally flew with
us, but usually did real Alaska work....slinging firewood, transporting scientists, hauling stock fish,
assembling drills, tagging brown bear, heli-skiing, medical flights...all the stuff I wanted to be doing.
I began watching Jeff carefully. He was a survivor, and very meticulous and demanding about his
work. Whenever possible, I would help him prepare for his varied missions. He noticed my desire to
learn and encouraged questions. Jeff became my mentor.
Jeff had to learn his lessons the hard way, in VietNam. He graduated from Army flight school wearing
his new Rolex and proceeded to fly low-level over the jungles in a loach, looking for the enemy and
trying to draw their fire.
"Five buddies and I went over there to fly scouts", he confided in me. "After the tour only one of us
was left....I came home."
He had been shot down a number of times, once whispering for help in his transceiver, hoping the
searching enemy would not hear him speak. He discovered that the Hughes 500 is a good-crashing
helicopter; its egg-shaped fuselage protecting the pilot like a roll-cage. When he got home his
beloved Rolex was a mess. The crystal was beat up, the movement was erratic, and "there was some
kind of green stuff growing inside it." He sent the watch to be repaired in Switzerland.
"We will make it good as new," they told him upon receipt.
"Fix it up...Fine...But do not replace the bezel," he replied.
The Rolex official was taken aback and confused by this. The bezel is faded and ugly, surely the
client would like a new one, or at least a new insert.
"No, I would not," Jeff replied.
The conversation proceeded in this vein for a few minutes, the Rolex official waiting for the punchline
of the joke. Jeff said he'd be willing to pay extra, if necessary, for them NOT to touch the bezel.
Two weeks later, Jeff received another phone call from Rolex and a similar conversation ensued.
"The Swiss mind wants perfection, and they just could not reconcile themselves to this crazy
American's preference for sentimentality," he told me with a smirk.
After a few more weeks Jeff got his Rolex back, good as new except for a faded bezel with a story to
tell.

Here's my modern "Z"...

[Pocket watch guy]

Lots of great story to read here i love it. Well i got my First Rolex 10 years ago. When i was 16 from my mom and dad it was a b-day gift. I was into watches befor that for years. But at that time that Rolex was the high light of my collection. And still is one of if not my favrite watch i own. I think it is funny that when ever you wear a Rolex that every one looks and ask's about it. Yet Rolex is not the most exspensive watches. But most people can recognize a Rolex looking watch.

[heb]

Started back in 1969 when I got my first real nice watch (Helbros diver) as a graduation present and shortly thereafter read "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"--my first exposure to "Rolex".

Fast forward to 25 May 1976, Emporer Watch Shop on Nathan Street, Kowloon (Hong Kong). Purchased a GMT-Master for actual inflight use.

That was a good day.

heb

PS. Naturally, the watch stopped 3 months later but a short stay at Rolex-Tokyo fixed it up fine.

[Darkangel]

Lots of great story to read here i love it. Well i got my First Rolex 10 years ago. When i was 16 from my mom and dad it was a b-day gift. I was into watches befor that for years. But at that time that Rolex was the high light of my collection. And still is one of if not my favrite watch i own. I think it is funny that when ever you wear a Rolex that every one looks and ask's about it. Yet Rolex is not the most exspensive watches. But most people can recognize a Rolex looking watch.

Hmm..I should start wishing for a Rolex for my 16th birthday at the end of the yr.

Yeah...it's a very popular watch,though it is not the most expensive. There are many many more watches out there which are more expensive but just no one knows...

[Pocket watch guy]

Hmm..I should start wishing for a Rolex for my 16th birthday at the end of the yr.

Yeah...it's a very popular watch,though it is not the most expensive. There are many many more watches out there which are more expensive but just no one knows...

lol You got a couple don't be greedy, Wish for me to get one more

[Darkangel]

lol You got a couple don't be greedy, Wish for me to get one more

Hahha..quite true. I shall wish for something else then! LOL

Good luck! Hope you will get another one soon!

[TKite]

My Rolex story started as in around 1982 as a teenager. My dad taught me how to scuba dive when I was 10 years old, and so I already had a couple of basic dive watches. Then in '82 I was at a mall and mom bought me a new Bulova Caravelle dive watch (It said 666 ft on the dial) and while cruising the mall I saw some very cool looking dive watches in a jewelry store. I went in and was utterly FASCINATED by what I was looking at. The Rolex Submariner, and the Rolex Sea Dweller. My total attention was more or less given to the Sea Dweller, which at the time was the 1665 model (2000ft/610m). The salesman even let me handle the watches. I guess he could see I was just taken by them and I had a dive watch on as well. Back then, the Sub was $950.00 and the Sea Dweller was $1,100.00........ WOW. That was what literally fired me up on Rolex. The quality was very obvious to even me, a teenager at the time. The salesman said my "watch case was made of normal stainless steel, and probably poured into a mold. Not so with the Rolex he said, these are milled out of a solid block of marine grade stainless steel, which is much stronger and more resistant against corrosion."

All my life I have been a diver. Recreationally, and then went to school to be a professional. Once I became a professional I had several high end dive watches, including 2 Sea Dwellers, a model 1665, and a model 16600. I eventually sold all of them, and recently got a new model 16600. I'll have a Rolex Sea Dweller til they put me in the casket. For me, it's the ultimate dive watch.

[TMW]

My first rolex was an engagement present from my wife. Always wanted a Submariner, and took a couple of years of "hinting"

So after - became the tradition amongst my friends when they got engaged from their soon-to-be's.

And they still make out ahead of the game.

Todd