I have spent the past year oscillating between two extreme ways of living: wanting to give up on conventional life in favor of building a yurt in the mountains or getting a job that pays the most amount of money possible, regardless of the cost to my soul. Could I renounce possessions and live off the land? Would it be better to embrace a materialistic life, live it to the fullest, and buy everything I could ever want? I do like Lamborghinis, and I don’t really like not showering for months…
Everyone I asked for advice from had an answer. That is the great thing about people; most are never shy in sharing their views, but these views never seem to answer my questions. I look towards the giants whose shoulders I can stand on, but which pair should I choose? Henry David Thoreau? He was the man, and Walden is still the best exercise in active reading I can imagine. How about John D. Rockefeller? He came from nothing and did something. Jean-Paul Sartre? Maybe. And I do believe, at times at least, that hell indeed can be other people, as said in his play No Exit. Steve Jobs? I can’t get over the New Balance shoes. Ben Clymer, you know, the HODINKEE guy? He is pretty cool, and I respect him. New York City most likely is not for me, nor are double-breasted jackets. Henry Miller. Hell yes. Now here was a guy trying to live life. “To make living itself an art, that is the goal,” he said. What more could one want?
I find, though, that I am always attracted to Ernest Hemingway, even though I know what will happen if I follow that path too closely. It’s probably due to his love of the outdoors and his attraction to “manly” activities like shooting; a passion for the water, mountains, and warm weather (I am not sold on the androgyny he displayed in his intimate pursuits with women, although I will try anything twice. I mean once…).
I only bring this up because I feel the same fundamental struggle regarding watches. Should I sell every watch I have and never partake in such ludicrous luxury again? I could renounce money and move into a cave to focus solely on studying philosophy and eating sunlight and moonbeams while wearing handmade grass sandals. Or should I do everything I can to enjoy life and watches, knowing I only have this one life (at least that is all I can prove I actually have)? Or perhaps is it the fabled middle-ground between the two?
Well, with a Rolex, it’s tough to occupy anything but the realm of luxury. It seems the days of middle ground with this brand are long gone. In the 1960s, they were tools; in 2021, they are tools with a lot of hype surrounding them. This has not changed the quality of the Rolex product itself, but it has changed the experience of buying and owning one. Most of us are familiar with the waitlists. There are waitlists for specific models that get smaller, not because people can purchase the watch they want; instead, it happens because they die and no longer need it. While this used to be for watches like the Daytona and GMT Master II, I hear the OP is in the same boat now, along with every other steel watch they make. There doesn’t seem to be a steel Rolex that hasn’t suffered from the hype.
It is disappointing that the OP has fallen victim to the hype, too, especially the black dial model. The colorful ones will be popular, but the black dial now has a waiting list at my AD of years. I feel bad for people who want to dip their toes into the Rolex world now. The OP was the gateway watch for many who were just getting into collecting, but not anymore. When I picked this one up last year, it had arrived at my local AD, Hal Davis Jewelers in Boise, that morning, and we were the first people in the door to see it. I didn’t realize they were challenging to get at the time. It was the first of any of the new OP models they had received, and I figured it was best to jump on it since it was the first steel Rolex I had seen in a while. I walked out of the store with it that morning. It felt small on my wrist, and I was concerned about whether it was substantial enough to survive outside and if it would look out of place on me. I was traveling, and I tried to get used to the watch as I drove all day.
The problem was, I felt as if I had settled for something less than what I could have got. Something not as functional as an Explorer or Submariner. It was something made for people who wear suits to work, not dirty hiking pants. The case was shiny, the hands slender. The hour markers are elegant. The clasp is dressy. It doesn’t have the extra security latch like the Explorer or Submariner has. The Easy-Link is excellent, but the Glidelock would have been better. The lume seemed too minimal to be effective, and there isn’t any lume on the second hand. What was I actually going to do with this thing?
As I wore it, I felt the watch was too diminutive. It looked like I was wearing a child’s watch. It was wonderfully thin, though, and slid easily under my jacket and gloves, unlike my Black Bay 41, which was nice. The bracelet is damn comfortable. Although it gets a little tight when I hike a lot, the Easy-Link alleviates any uncomfort. It never pulls the hair on my wrist or feels heavy. It does not flop around like a hockey puck strapped to my wrist with bailing twine like many other watches do. Nevertheless, I returned from my trip unconvinced as to its merits.
Last winter was mild (although not as gentle as this tropical December has been.), and I was fortunate enough to wear the OP out on many hikes and explorations. In January, we moved from Sun Valley to Challis, and Challis had even less snow to inhibit hiking. After we settled in, I took all my watches out to get some outdoor time. It was bitterly cold by the end of January, even without the snow, so it was impossible to go outside without wearing three or four layers of clothing. This is the real test for any watch worn in cold areas: is it comfortable enough to be worn with many layers of clothing? The OP worked well. I never noticed that I had it on, even when I had on many long sleeve garments.
I received a Tudor GMT to review and tried to put the Rolex away near the end of January. The GMT was what I really had been looking for. I thought it fit my uses much better than the OP. It looked excellent with its red and blue bezel. It was manly and substantial. In the end, it ended up not being what I had hoped it would be. The thickness, and most importantly, weight, of the GMT made it difficult to wear under layers of clothing and with gloves. It was heavy and flopped around when walking, even on an Everest rubber strap.
Each day I would put the GMT on and try to convince myself that this would be the day I moved past the uncomfort and accepted it as the most remarkable watch on earth. I wouldn’t make it out the front door before switching it out for the Rolex. There was no way, I told myself, that this would be the case once it warmed up. Once I didn’t have to wear forty layers of clothes, the Rolex would be sold, and the Tudor would be my everyday watch.
I hiked most days of the week during the winter. The Rolex went with me to explore the Salmon River and the Pahsimeroi Mountains. When I woke in the morning and contemplated what watch to wear that day, I almost always grabbed the Rolex. The Tudor GMT sat unused. Unfortunately, I had to decide which watch to sell earlier than I planned to pay some loan money back. I struggled to make a decision, but the Tudor was gone in the end. Why? I do not have an answer, even now. The Black Bay GMT is everything I wanted and may still like in a watch. I miss it sometimes.
After selling the GMT, I had one watch left, the Rolex. I wore it every day, on every hike and adventure for five months. I beat it up. I fell down a hill while hiking and scratched the hell out of the case. I dropped it on some rocks when I accidentally flipped the clasp open on the strap of my backpack. I smashed it when the oil pan protector on the underside of my car fell on my hand while I was trying to fix a broken bolt.
I got it caught on a nail sticking out of the wall of a mine shaft I was exploring. It nearly ripped the watch off my wrist and took a noticeable chunk out of the bezel. I fell in a stream and went up to my arm in thick black mud. It worked consistently regardless, and it kept time to the stated spec of +2 seconds a day, every day.
There was one problem I couldn’t talk myself out of. How people perceived the watch in the small, rural area, I was living in. People noticed it. They did not say anything, but I watched them stare at it in line at the grocery store or while I was sitting in the hot springs. Eventually, I found it was time to move to something else for daily wear. Fortunately, I had the chance to get the IWC Top Gun, and I handed the OP off to my fiancé, who wore it to work.
She was in a different environment, a professional one, and it wasn’t out of place. She babies nothing, and the watch shows some signs of wear from the bracelets she wears and scraping on her computer. I had no interest in wearing it anymore; it was too small and shiny. The IWC was/is nearly perfect.
I recently started to wear it because it is jacket season again. I find I can’t help but like it, even if I dislike it for that very reason. It is easy to read in any light. I never struggle to know what time it is, unlike the Omega. It is slim and comfortable to wear under any jacket or gloves, unlike the IWC. It is still accurate to +2 seconds a day, every day. The timekeeping does not vary, ever. It looks good when it is dirty; it looks even better now that it is scratched up. It is comfortable to wear. I want to dislike it because it doesn’t have Mercedes’ hands, but I can’t. I want to dislike it because it doesn’t say “Explorer” on the dial, but I can’t. I want to be irritated that it doesn’t have a GlideLock clasp, but I can’t. I want to hate it because it is a Rolex, but that is precisely the reason why it is so great. It just works; it is made so well.
So, I will keep this watch for as long as I can. I want to sell it because it isn’t an Explorer, but I won’t. I will want to sell it to get something else, but I doubt I will. I will put it away or give it to my fiancé, but I won’t be rid of it. I will wear it again, and I will love it. I will try to remind myself how underwhelmed I was with it, in the beginning at least, to move past it, but that won’t work. When the time comes to grab a watch to take to Namibia or Tanzania, I will want to grab something else, but I will have to fight hard to not grab this Rolex.
I still do not know who’s shoulders to stand on and what life should be. Perhaps if Henry Miller and Ernest Hemingway could be molded together, trading the alcohol addiction for fine watches, with the principles of Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience sprinkled in to keep things contrarian, I would have something worth emulating. As of now, I feel the same way about watches. The desire to go to either extreme is often overwhelming and easy to fall into. However, I think the middle way is possible to find, but I will have to do that on my own, away from the hype and the pressure of others.
This watch is too good, though. And after a year, I really do love it. Here I am, fueling the hype…
Quick Specs
Rolex 36mm Oyster Perpetual
36mm Stainless Steel Case, Stainless Steel Oyster Bracelt, Black Dial, Chromalight lume.
11.62mm thick (According to my measurements).
43.34mm lug-to-lug (According to my measurements).
20mm lug spacing.
Retail Price-$5,600.00 (I hope you can find one).
Secondary Market-Starting at $8,100.00 (It’s worth waiting. That’s a lot of change for this watch).
EscapementSV 