There is a thread on "nice" watches in the wild, and I've seen a number: Breitling Emergency, Tudor Submariner, Rolex Explorer II, Datejusts, etc... I'm in a big city, so while it's neat, they don't exactly stop traffic. But this struck me as especially cool because, like many before me, I started as wanting to be a one watch guy. Well, two, as a beater is essential for work. And work is where this story takes place. I had cause to talk to a City facilities person, mid level kinda guy, late fifties, sixties; quiet mannered and on the short and heavy side. He was wearing a Rolex Submariner that I could see at a glance was an older model. As our professional exchange wound down, I told him he had a nice watch, and may I please look at it. Date window, holes in the lugs... He told me he had gotten it many years ago in Europe, and he certainly wouldn't be able to afford one now. He had grown up in the Caribbean and used to dive a lot. He wanted, needed, the best watch possible, because at the time it was all still tables and charts, and having a good watch was essential. He'd had one...ONE...other watch, but something had happened to it. He went on to talk more about diving, and the watch he only referred to as something you had to have. Never brand name dropping or even holding it up in such a way as to call attention. I always wear a nice watch to work, then change into a different one when it's time to get down to business. As it happens, yesterday I had my Seamaster 300MC in my cubby. I ran back to get it so I could show him and tell him it was my regular diving watch, so much as my recreational diving can be called regular. I showed it to him and he looked at it appreciatively, then said: "I remember Omega used to make good watches." I let the comment pass, because here was a guy who didn't care a rat's patootie about the brand recognition, or what sort of imagined prestige a Submariner would give him. It was simply a tool, and at the time, the best, most reliable, essential tool he could get. I thought that was, well, awesome, really. I have always simply wanted A watch that was definitive. I've ended up with four, not counting the work watch. There is nothing more I'd like to do than wear my Speedy or Seamaster at work, either having been an expensive watch at four or six hundred dollars once upon a time ( and far less ). But not astronomically expensive. Make no mistake, I DO use my watches. The Speedmaster is my dedicated cross country adventure watch, for the times I've been Jeeping in Colorado, Moab, and other places. It's been under the Jeep, on my wrist hooking up the winch in a jam, built ramps and sand ladders and the chores that go along with off road motoring. It's a Speedmaster, doing its thing. And as I've mentioned, I dive in my Seamaster(s). But this guy's one Rolex - it was just a watch. The watch he wanted because it was the watch he needed. Nothing more or less. It's everything I want from the world of good watches, and what, all told, I wish I really had. I wasn't envious of his watch - though I surely wanted one like it - but a was envious of what it was to him. And that was the best "nice" watch I've seen in the wild so far.
A number of years ago (45 or so), I was managing a chain jewellery store where we carried Rolex. One day, a fellow comes into the store with his Rolex Submariner. He wants it serviced. He is a geologist whose hobby is diving off the west coast of Vancouver Island. I recommend that the watch be sent to Rolex for the full meal deal, and give him an idea of price. He took the watch with him. Several months later, he walks into the store carrying his Submariner in sea water, in a plastic bag! Sheepish! He had taken the watch to the other Rolex dealer in the mall, who had a watchmaker on staff. They serviced it. It filled with sea water! He told me what a fool he had been in not listening to me. Long story short, I gave him an allowance on a brand new Submariner, and I ended up owning the rusted one. I acquired what I needed to return the Submariner to health, and owned it for several years. I don’t even wear a watch in the shower or the tub. Eventually, I sold it to someone who wanted it worse than I did. On another occasion, different branch of the firm, but same scenario. I see a guy at the Rolex counter, and I approach him and greet him. He tells me this is the 17th year he has found himself at a Rolex counter, resisting the urge to buy a Rolex. I ask to see what watch he’s wearing. Quite a spiffy, slim, new looking Seiko Lassale. I told him of all the other like watches that he kept in his sock drawer at home, that he didn’t wear any longer. He looked me in the eye, and asked how I knew. I told him it was because he had set out all those times to look at Rolex, but bought something else instead. I told him he didn’t really need yet another watch as a compromise for the one he really wanted. He walked out of the store that very day with a GMT Master on his wrist! He was from out of town, and for years after that, he came back to the store to reflect on the day he became a Rolex owner.
There's a guy at our church, retired railroad engineer, the kind watches over the tracks condition not the kind that runs a locomotive. Years ago he won a Rolex Explorer in a contest, he has this one watch and that is it. He's lived with it for years and he loves it because of its value as a tool and its solid reliability. Its been through years of hard outdoor work surveying rail lines and bouncing around the countryside and is still going strong, now it puts up with hiking and boating, its not getting retired just because he is. I like him and his watch because the name on the face means nothing to him, he values it because its a really good tool. besides.... he's really nice people!