As some of you already know, I am the proud owner of a Rolex Explorer II, black face, 1996 vintage.

I bought the watch, brand new, in December of 1996 for $2950. Yea, a shit load for a watch... oh, well. Gotta have fun, right?

I have worn that piece just about every day since. I don't work on cars with it, but have accidently worn it to the local u-pick-it lot.

And yes, it's insured.

Well, every couple of years I get the insurance upped because of the values floating around.

It seems to be holding its value rather nicely. It does need serviced, tho, but that's more of preventitive thing. However, the retail of a new Explorer II is now $5750.00. Shit. My watch is an investment! For the most part, they are selling for anywhere between $2500 for a similar aged white face to $12k for a "rare" cream faced. The majority are in the $4k to $5k range.

Damn.

I think I will go lock it in my gun safe... naa...

Many years ago, my mother bought my dad a GMT Master II with a Jubilee band for an anniversary gift. When they divorced, my dad returned it to her, and invited her to ingest it, hoping it would become lodged in her throat.

So she gave it to me. It is one of the few nice things she's done for me. But I'm reasonably certain that her generosity was mostly to spite my dad, who had to watch his teenage son wear the watch he had lusted after for over a decade.

I wore it proudly for many years. Nothing can compare to the workmanship. It ended up needing servicing after many years, and I had no hope of being able to afford the repairs. I was also becoming rather self-conscious about wearing so much money on my wrist. So I stopped wearing it.

It sat in a drawer for many years, and about five years ago, during hard financial times, I pawned it for half it's value and bought an '83 Toyota Celica GT Liftback with the funds.

Sometimes I miss that watch. Sometimes I miss that Toyota too...

Maybe someday I'll replace that watch. Or buy a motorcycle...

You guys are going to kill our C4 owner's trailer park image discussing these high-end trinkets!

Just trying to class up the joint a little.

Sheesh...

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Haven't you heard?
You can't polish a turd....

Wait... You DO own a C4, don't you? :tongue:

That watch is worth more than most C4s nowadays lol!

Knock offs will work. I'm just a Seiko kind of guy. They hold up well and I don't have to break out the plastic to get one. My wife wanted to buy me a Rolex once. I just told her forgetaboutit! I don't like tempting the natives.

By the way ........ What does the subject body have to do with the subject? You just as well could have titled the topic Ham Sandwich.

With time on every cell phone, who needs a five thousand $ watch?

If it was mine, I'd trade it in for C3 on eBay.

There.....we went full circle

My free cell phone tells me what time it is, and it makes calls, plays minesweeper, checks the weather, etc...

Your watch better give blow jobs for that price.

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If it doesn't, it should keep time for one handed operation

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The one-handed operation is what keeps the self-winding ones going.

No, this is the one-handed watch...



Because you never know when you'll have to calculate your consecutive days of loneliness.

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That thought crossed my mind as well since he has dumped alot of $$$ into his LT1. Hmm...

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WOOO WEEE. LOL

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I've got more in the engine than the POS C4 it's in is worth.

Wow, this went OT quick, huh?

Anyway, Andy, I know what you mean - I have a very nice Raymond Weil wristwatch that I'm almost afraid to wear. I only break it out for special occasions or when I get dressed up. I wear a velcro timex daily, lol....

Matthew

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You can still own guns in Kalifornia?

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Can an off topic topic go off topic?

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yea... surprisingly enough, you can... it's certian things you can't get... That new Barret .50 I want is seriously frowned upon here...

The key to being comfortable with my Rolex is having it insured.

Here in California, with State Farm, I have a personal property policy. It protects the Rolex, my new Nikon D200 and both of our laptops. The total? $150.00 a year. And it's protecting about $10k against any damage, loss or theft. Period.

The policy starts at $100 a year... no matter what, after that, it's about $1.00 per $100 insured.

So don't worry about that expensive piece - wear it, enjoy it!