Explorers united - incoming!

Up periscope!!

I have been incredibly busy this year so I do apologize if this post is extremely out of date...but I will fill in a few of the gory details in this post (including a brief Olympic interlude)...hopefully not everyone will fall asleep half way through. Please excuse my manners and verbosity, but I am pretty sure I won't have time to do several individual posts...so better to do just ONE HUGE MASSIVE ONE and get it over with😀

Opening chapter:

Before going on a two week holiday to Sydney and Auckland with my wife and young kids during the Rio Olympics, I had been toying with getting one of these two as my next watch. Criteria: sports - casual business, steel bracelet GADA watch.

EITHER IWC Ingenieur


OR the new Rolex Explorer 1 Basel 2016 Mk2 (here next to Mk1 and my Tresor which was enjoying a day trip in Rio)



Unlike some forum members, I really do find it increasingly hard to justify adding new watches to my humble collection. Surely eight watches should be enough?



Why would I need nine, nine for mortal men doomed to die?😀

Olympic interlude...

During my hols down under it was extremely frustrating receiving constant e-mail invites to the Omega House events in Rio, especially the Buzz Aldrin events!!!!


But the kids and wife were having a great time and we were SO lucky with the weather...glorious sunny days in Sydney and Auckland...the kids loved the Hobitton private tour and during the Waitomo Caves tour, my Explorer 216570 Polar 2 lume against constellations of thousands of glow worms was amazing!!! (sorry no pictures allowed during the boat tour - but I have included further down an internet pic for reference from a Mr. Shaun Jeffers - huge kudos to him).

BTW I highly recommend for a family stay the Pullman Quay Grand in Sydney (right next to the Opera House) and the Auckland DeBrett boutique hotel.

Well we returned to Rio, just in time for a visit to the Omega House, where I took a few pics of some new Basel 2016 watches:

...which are not exactly spectacular pics are they? But then again they were taken after drinking too many caipirinhas served by barman Jorge😀...see photo below...Jorge is the gentleman in the middle between some very friendly USA team archers...spent a long time chatting with them....they told me the US archery team had provided consulting for the Brave film, but that the Avengers Hawkeye archery stuff gave them a big laugh😀


The lovely USA women's team archer was called Mckinzie?...can't remember the chaps name, but he had won two silver medals?...very humble bloke...explained to me how the position of the sun affects ray's path into your eye and your targeting...perhaps our forum guru @Archer can help fill in on his name?...my already limited brain power did not manage to register his name😀

Next day I was lucky enough to see Brazil win Olympic Football final with my 10 yr old son (thank you Omega for the super seats and private Omega van transfer to the Maracanã) - wife and daughter were also given tickets to other events by the lovely Omega Rio staff😀

Neymar's first half superb free-kick goal:


Interlude over...

Well after a few more weeks I still felt that my collection was missing a nice simple steel GADA sports/casual watch on a bracelet... and my Explorer 2 was also feeling quite lonely as my only Rolex (hint, hint)...and there are not too many Rollies that I warm to😀...so I could not resist the siren call on this one:


And here united with big brother:


I think the Explorer 1 MK 2 Basel 2016 is THE perfect modern interpretation of a Rolex tool GADA watch...it is so, so comfortable on the wrist, discreet, classy, understated with outstanding pedigree...good enough for this distinguished gentleman (a personal hero of mine, looking very young in this photo), so it would certainly go be good enough for me😀



Here is my personal homage to the great man:


And of course a certain Mr. Fleming was also a fan of the Explorer, which unfortunately led to o some rivalry in my collection...who would go with Mr. Bond on his next martini laced mission😀


Well time to put the two Rolex Explorer brothers to bed:


Explorer 1 would love to visit Waitomo some day, just like his brother:


Cheers!

Great to hear of you again. And really enjoy your pictures.

Great story and thank you for sharing your travels and adventures! Congratulations on the new Explorer as well.

I thought about Explorer 1 too. Tried it, it was so small [emoji18] And no AR coating - it does not disturb you?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nope no issue with AR even in sunny Rio...the bezel is thin...the dial diam. larger than one would imagine...legibility is superb with the filled in lume on the 3 6 9...there are certain angles where the shiny edges on the numbers and indices reflect beautifully. It sits so wonderfully flat on the wrist! Cheers.

Hopefully Luke will not be killed off in episode VIII😀
Looking forward to rogue one😉

Thanks! You are too generous on the pics...the cell phone quality is quite poor...especially with the caipirinha blur effect switched on😀

Thanks! I do feel the "Explorers" share a kindred spirit with me😀

And for how long the lume is shining at night?

Have not timed that exactly..overall Exp 1 not as good as the Exp 2, still the lume king in my collection, but better than the SM300 and AT 15k Gauss. I did expect more from the lume, based on the Exp 1 Basel 2016 preview shots...but it certainly seems to be above average😀

That watch on passport thinghy is a classic @Riviera Paradise touch
Better enjoy the EU passport boss because the next time you post photos , it wont be the same thing [emoji14]

Great post Megan😁

Brexit indeed looms on the horizon - I will keep this UK/EU passport for future reference. I don't think it was a wise move to put the UK in a position of weakness to start a negotiation with the EU😵‍💫