Feeling the pure joy of my Sub

I love platforms like this. I read so many great watch stories that only watch enthusiasts would understand and appreciate. Putting my Sub on today, I was thinking of the joy amongst the pain it took to get it.

2020 and 2021 were tough years for many of us. The world was still in pandemic mode. I lost an old friend to Covid, lost a very close friend and mentor of over 25 years to Covid, lost a close aunt, my Dad had a stroke living in another state, and I couldn’t get to him because he was in and out of hospitals, they still wouldn’t allow visitors, and I didn’t want to go through 2 airports and planes while he was vulnerable to possibly infect him with anything.

Struggling with strong grief, I sunk deeper into this hobby to keep my mind occupied on something other than the constant agonizing pain from the losses. I ramped up my video reviews, and decided to conclude a fun project I had been working for over 10 years.

Around 2010 I had acquired 2 highly collectible Frogman G-Shocks. I made a decision I was going to turn those 2 simple digital watches into my grail Rolex Submariner that I had wanted since I first discovered it in the 90’s. From the second I first saw it, it truly was what I felt to be the perfect watch, but way out of my reach financially at the time.

Over 11 years, starting with significant profit from the G-Shocks, I bought sold and traded a LOT of watches. It was so much fun. It gave me an opportunity to experience a lot of different brands and styles along the way. At some points, the Sub was in striking distance, and then huge increases by Rolex moved the goal post. I could had cheated and used funds or credit I shouldn’t have, but that would had taken away from the whole fun and point of the project.

Along the way between marriage, step kids, career, life, my focus diverted for awhile. The project was put on the backburner here and there until 2020. There were some people selling watches at huge hits right before prices soared. I bought and sold my final few pieces and I was ready to make the move only to find out the condition of the Rolex market, and the high demand with low inventory.

This was now a mission. I have a talent for getting very hard to get items with perseverance, relationship building, and a strong will. I worked 5 different AD’s with an expectation that I’d likely be looking at a few months from getting it. I even documented it on Watchuseek. Somehow with a lot of luck and multiple visits to 1 of the AD’s from a jewelry repair, I built great rapport with them and got the call 11 days later. When I visit that AD now, the manager has a laugh, he said he has never seen someone as happy as I was to purchase a watch. He said it made it so worth it. He had no idea how much I had needed that win.

My Dad passed a couple months after, and with the amount of work I had ahead of me to settle everything, the project would had been backburnered.

This morning was beautiful. Sun shining through the window, birds chirping in the background. Slid the Sub over my hand onto my wrist closing the clasp with the 2 distinct clicks, and looked at it for a bit. I thought about the wonderful distraction it provided in a deeply sad time of my life. I thought about the much needed win it provided me. This watch has lacked absolutely nothing, it has been precisely everything I had hoped it would be when the project began. Perfect size, 100% my taste in the look and design, the movement is a consistent +2 seconds accurate per day. It’s got the story, and it gives me a smile and pure joy everytime I wear it.