Is Rolex patina like the emperor's clothes?

Mouse_at_Large · May 31, 2016

Archer
Patina is only relevant to me if I like it...it has no status to me unless I give it status. If other sheeple give it status because some small and possibly influential group says it's good, well that's their problem.

Couldn't have put it better.

👍

Nobel Prize · May 31, 2016

CajunTiger
yep really. This is a watch that spent its last 30+ years forgoten in a jar full of coins in a dark storage room. The environment altered the color.
The sun simply bleaches it out, so a watch worn outside its entire life will have white lume.

How the hell does one forget a Rolex Sub red line in a jar full of coins in a basement for 30 years. And who found it!?

chriselkjar · May 31, 2016

The patina premium recently strikes me as very similar to the fad of "relic" high-end guitars. Everybody loves the look of an original 60s strat with the paint all worn off, so like any good capitalists, Fender as well as a bunch of guitar builders all start recreating that look on new guitars.

I think the Tudor Black Bay is a good example of a watch manufacturer doing something similar, the coloring on the dial is definitely trying to bring a worn vintage watch to mind. (Full disclosure, I own a BB and love it) I think theres a line between doing it as a homage to older watches vs. actually damaging / artificially aging a watch.

People relic "new" guitars all the time so I'd have to imagine people will do the same for watches.

CajunTiger · May 31, 2016

Nobel Prize
How the hell does one forget a Rolex Sub red line in a jar fool of coins in a basement for 30 years. And who found it!?

LOL...I guess its all relative. I think it was stored in his garage if I recall...
its a long interesting story- short version; The owner was an actor. He bumped the watch one day and the bezel popped off so he stuck it in a glass jar full of coins on his dresser and never wore it again...several years later he passed away and it was all put in storage. Fast forward many years later and his brother is going thru the garage to clean out his younger brothers remaining belongings and finds the glass jar with the watch inside (no bezel).

I have the full story somewhere in a letter from the owner...if I recall the watch was worn in a few films and a TV series.
I collect stories as much as watches...I try to get a hand written letter along with the watch when I find a piece from the original owner like this. There was more to this story including something about his more famous cousin and a little film featuring two young reporters and a guy named Deep Throat 😉

Nobel Prize · May 31, 2016

CajunTiger
LOL...I guess its all relative. I think it was stored in his garage if I recall...
its a long interesting story- short version; The owner was an actor. He bumped the watch one day and the bezel popped off so he stuck it in a glass jar full of coins on his dresser and never wore it again...several years later he passed away and it was all put in storage. Fast forward many years later and his brother is going thru the garage to clean out his younger brothers remaining belongings and finds the glass jar with the watch inside (no bezel).

I have the full story somewhere in a letter from the owner...if I recall the watch was worn in a few films and a TV series.
I collect stories as much as watches...I try to get a hand written letter along with the watch when I find a piece from the original owner like this. There was more to this story including something about his more famous cousin and a little film featuring two young reporters and a guy named Deep Throat 😉

Well, that's cool.

trackpad · May 31, 2016

Like all things, a watch is worth what someone will pay for it. But the phenomena makes sense to me when viewed as a trend.

The primary buying power in the watch market now probably rests with men age 35 to 65. Nostalgia can be a force strong in these who, a generation or two removed from the greatest one, are quick to associate age and wear with their forefathers' scars of battle, and their value (real or imagined) on the virtues of honesty, endurance, craftsmanship, etc.

A healthy patina might speak to our nostalgia for these implied values, and can underscore a lingering belief that true quality and craftsmanship carry on and always shine through. Patina is the "through".

In 30 years again, when we're all wearing ....white admiral suits? ...and walking on the walls of a spinning space station, heavily patinated pieces might seem gross. Or just grossly out-of-place.

Time will tell.