MY FOURTH OF JULY ROLEX DAY DATE GRAIL WATCH LESSON

I have always enjoyed an awkward relationship with banks and authorized watch dealers, I tend to avoid interactions as much as possible with the former but over the years have visited with predictably unhappy results to the dollars in my whimsical bank account the latter on too many occasions. Inconveniently for me, after I started earning a grown up person’s salary in the late 1980s a small watch and jewelry boutique appeared in one of the retail spaces connected to a newly erected mix use professional building in the Chinatown that sprung up west of the shabby original, it was a dynamic study in urban renewal. A narrow public access lane separated that experimental building project and the generic building where I did my personal banking. It was still a period in retail history that if you walked into a half decent shop selling watches, the usual suspects, Omega, Rolex and Cartier would be the glamour brands but dealers paid the rent retailing quartz Seikos and any number of well made Swiss manufactured watches except during the quartz crisis years. Inevitably I would develop an almost unhealthy financial relationship with the new shop since I passed by the front doors if not daily certainly weekly. The tiny boutique was owned and managed by first cousins from a wealthy family from either Kowloon or Hong Kong. A was older presentable in appearance for a fella who had the personality of a speck of dust while his younger cousin, J. was facially unattractive, a chain smoker, sociable extremely knowledgeable about timepieces having spent his entire life learning about the family business which a mutual friend said involved the buying of high grade watches mostly Rolex and Omega from desperate gents who experienced bad luck in the gambling halls in Macao when the family business was established by a grandfather.

It was a Monday early afternoon following the American 4th of July holiday weekend which I casually note since that is also my birthday; J was standing outside his shop smoking a cigarette when he spotted me on my way to my bank. I signalled that I would stop by since he gestured for me to visit. We had chatted on numerous occasions in the past after I made my predictable first serious watch purchases including a few Rollies, a two tone Cartier Santos, I did express a definite desire to one day add a solid gold Day Date perhaps with the less flashy “bark” finish. I added that I was in no great hurry due only in part to the relatively high price but also an anticipated lack of opportunities to wear a watch which had become an item of first choice for a great many wealthy bottom feeders in my life most notable was a younger colleague whose family owned a pawn shop. Upon entering J’s shop he produced from his always opened store safe a brand new D/D inviting me to try on my dream Rolex, I did not need further encouragement it was just a bit snug, I understood without questioning why the watch was being offered to me with a relatively affordable selling price on that day. J explained that he had just sold a gold Rolex to a large wristed American visiting our city during the US holiday weekend, he was driving home without further delay needed an extra link for his new watch or it would be no deal. J by necessity lifted one link from the model that I was trying on it would also be too tight for me on hot humid summer days but the generous discount was compelling. I said that I would arrange payment in cash which was generally the understood method when courtesy discounts exceeded 10-15% for any watch.

My original feelings about owning a flashy gold watch were prophetic at least for a guy just earning a middle class salary, not too many months afterwards I sold the watch to a gemologist acquaintance who quickly shipped the watch to a happy buyer living in Vancouver. I did not lose any money since I bought the Rolex at a discounted price. My wife was not working again with the anticipated birth of our second daughter, I used some of my reclaimed dollars to buy a new Maytag washer and dryer which we still use today.

That Rolex Day Date was a watch that was a great deal more compelling when it was something that I fantasized, truly wanted but I admit did not exactly appreciate the ownership of it. During recent years enthusiasts have popularized the term GRAIL to identify something that is so intensely sought after that the attainment of that object, often mass produced for sale is equivalent to the quest for the Holy Grail. I find that analogy both interesting also curious, has the biblical Grail ever been found? I am not religious have always struggled with religious metaphors but I do understand the idea, will not need to be lectured that some target not easily arrived at or attained is a goal, the pursuit worthy! It has been my own humble experience that the physical watches that I have owned and there have been so many that they are almost unimportant, it really has been the journey with all the unpredictable connected events experienced that makes the hobby fascinating. And yet I would really love to own a Silver Snoopy Speedmaster which a friend who has returned from his assignment assisting refugees of war ravaged Ukraine in some European country near the war zone tells me has a 10 year waiting list when he sought distraction from his daily work at some ad to check out some watches for sale. I have never seen one, my regular ad sells a lot of Omega watches at their suburban location has also never seen one. It is not a grail could almost be mythical but I know a reputable grey market gent who knows where a few are hidden in his uptown condo. It is a simple question of my enthusiasm or many boring dollars I am willing to pay to unlock his secret stash!