Grahame has so many excellent watches, it's almost unbelievable. Regarding the Rolex 5514 : I had an brief encounter with the first batch, no Logo dial in the early 1990's..... At the time I thought, I was clever. 10 years later I knew, I was very stupid. The Munich international watch fair was Europe's largest. Saturday was Dealer trading only. Sunday was open to the public. but Friday was the most interesting day ... Everybody from the planet arrived at the Sheraton and the evening was filled with the faces, you see now at Phillips Geneva auctions with a lot of funds. and something else: The big London dealers had their own weekend markets to attend. That created the " Runners ". They had only consignment watches from the UK. Not paid for. Trusted by the dealers. Flying over and all expenses paid out of their own pockets, they hoped to make a buck and profit from that set up. Most did. So : Friday late afternoon I was in a small vintage watch Shop which was owned by a friend of mine. Small operation. For me at that stage it was a Hobby, which paid well. But being an Omega guy from the start there was plenty, that I did not know. And there was never enough Money, to keep watches. buying, flipping, selling. And maybe keep the ones, I liked. So, that Runner shows up. My friend bought a few for his shop. He did not want a Rolex Sub with an obvious misprint. 5514 instead of 5513. The Runner called London twice and the owner had no idea either. So, I negotiated with him the normal used Sub 5513 price minus 20% . Paid cash. Everybody was happy. I thought, I just get a 5513 case middle from Rolex ...
. Saturday dealer trading . Italian dealer comes along and asks, what I want for that Mongrel Rolex. My calculation was price paid plus the 20% deduction plus roughly the new replacement Rolex middle case to make it a normal 5513 again plus 20 % profit. Without missing a beat , the Dealer counted the cash , paid and left. Did not pay much attention, because there was always a hectic atmosphere with buying and selling.....I thought, I was King. Wondered a bit, that the Italian guy did not place the 5514 in his watch case for sale . And wondered a bit more, that he invited me this evening to a very posh Italian restaurant in Munich. Good wine as well. A few years later, I knew. Just one short story from the early days ....
