Digging through old files (already forgot what I was looking for) I came upon old service receipts and invoices going back at least 24 years...when paper was in fashion. Most interesting was the receipt for the purchase of my first 1013 from a dealer in Joplin, MO on Feb. 18, 2000. Then in April I had the dial and hands changed by Rolex. There were only three service dials left in their NYC inventory...gray, blue, or black...I took the black. The pictures show with the original dial and the black service dial. At that time, Rolex had an Authorized Service Center that was not owned by them. It was Walter Gooden, Inc. Service Center for Fine Swiss Watches on Bundy Drive in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. Just starting the archeological journey through my hobby's past. Will update when I find something interesting.

 

Whatever you find, do NOT mention buying prices.....

 

interesting info about third party service. you think this was a common practice or exceptional? It is said the in the 60s latin america sent all of their oficial Rolex watches to Buenos Aires official service and this was super slow and expensive.

 

Was pretty common then.

 

Worse than remembering what I paid is remembering what I bought...and then sold. And what I wish I had now.

ROLEXES I’VE OWNED
* STILL OWN
# WISH I STILL OWNED

Beginning somewhere in 1997

1. 1991 DATEJUST SS/WHITE GLD – SECOND TIME AROUND
2. 1958 1601 DATEJUST SS/GOLD – EBAY
3. 1940S BB 14K/SS – EBAY
# 4. 5505 EVEREST 14K/SS PRIVATE
5. 1940S BB SS EBAY
# 6. 1975 GMT MASTER SS/GLD – EBAY
7. 1970S OP DATE SS – EBAY
# 8. 1968 ZEPHYR DATE SS/14K EBAY
9. 1968 14K DATE – EBAY
10. EARLY 1980S OP SS/18K – EBAY
11. 1953/54 ZEPHYR NON DATE SS/14K – EBAY
12. 6305 DATEJUST 18K PRIVATE
# 13. 1013 YGLD NON DATE OP 18K EBAY
14. 1024 14K CAP – EBAY
15. 6594 MERITUS SS/14K – EBAY
16. 5506 EXPLORER SS/14K EBAY
# 17. 1013 18k PG – EBAY
18. 1601 DATEJUST BLK DIAL 14K/SS – EBAY
19. 6085 OP SUPER OYSTER 18K/SS – EBAY
20. 1803 DAY DATE EBAY
# 21. 1978 GMT MASTER 14K/SS – EBAY
# 22. 1625 TURNOGRAPH 14K/SS – EBAY
23. 1957-ISH DATEJUST 6605 9K – EBAY
# 24. 1803 BLK GLOSSY SPIDER WEB DIAL/DAUPHINE HANDS – EBAY
25. 18078 (1983) DAY DATE – PRIVATE
# 26. 1602 DATEJUST 18K W/ ORIGINAL BRICK BRACELET swap
27. 1502 DATE 18K ON BRACELET – EBAY
# 28. 1012 PG GLD 18K - EBAY
# 29. 1013 YG ON ORIG JUBILEE BRACELET * EBAY
30. 1803 w/ claw markers (Bonham)
31. 5505 w/ refinished honeycomb dial - EBAY
# 32. 1018 w/ black glossy dial - VRM
# 33. 18K 1601 BLACK INSERTS ON MARKERS AND HANDS – EBAY
# 34. 1012 from john Litvack
# 35. 1013 traded for DJ
# 36. 1013 Serpico Y Laino dial
* 37. 1018 silver dial
* 38. 1013 w/ silver dial and hacking feature
* 39. 1018 w/ blk gilt dial but stick hands
* 40 1013 w/ silver dial, old style with dauphine hands

To be honest...I'd go crazy if I had them all back. I'd spend half my day putting them on, then swapping it for another one. I'd spend the other half of the day, winding and setting them. But owning them has been fun.


41. Tudor Sub non-date, meters first. traded for #39

 

You certainly have had a good run.

 

When I got each one, it was like a new girlfriend. Time has taught me to treat them better.

 

At your invitation, I will. Give me a day to collect my thoughts. I've always loved watches and cameras and cars and tools and guns and anything that was a machine made of metal and by the hands of men. I still keep an old Olivetti Underwood portable typewriter in my office. The first wrist watch I remember was a black dialed manual wind Omega. I don't remember how old I was or the model (maybe in the mid 1950s)...it was a gift from my Uncle Michael (dad's kid brother)...and soon I had over wound it and got water inside. It stopped running and disappeared into my desk drawer. I never saw it again. I don't remember wearing another watch until my dad gave me a stunning 14k solid gold dress Bulova Accutron with a silver dial...first generation. I wore that every day, didn't take it off at night, went through basic training on my wrist, marriage, career struggles and changes, and every night I loved the sound it made singing through my pillow. Then in the mid 80s, in my early forties, I thought about a Rolex...but didn't buy one...yet. I'll continue my story tomorrow.

 

So, after 24 years of excellent service, I began to want more than the Accutron was offering me. I wanted a mechanical machine...a real watch like the Rolex DateJust my dad would let me hold while he played tennis. But in the mid-80s, Rolex had been soiled by its success. Everywhere I looked were cheap knock offs of two tone DateJusts...10 year old kids had Timex versions...and I wasn't ready for gold yet. I knew nothing about watches but I went into a well established store and discovered the Breitling Chronomat...in an hour it was on my wrist. (See photo of young pseudo-Italian vintage race car driver, Paolo Gambini.) That was a good run...8 years...but in the mid-90s the desire for a real Rolex was too strong. I was out of racing...had gone through a Maserati, a 308 GTSi, a 911 RS America, and was now driving a rare 993. I sold the Breitling to another car nut, and found a shop in West Hollywood specializing in vintage watches...with lots of VC and Patek and Rolex and IWC, etc. A day later I had a stunning stainless DateJust on a Jubilee on my wrist. Silver dials and silver markers was its undoing. I was hard to just glance at and tell the time...yes my eyes were showing their age but my ego was fighting back. And this is how I discovered the internet and ebay, courtesy of AOL dial up. All very primitive by today's standard. I didn't have a digital camera, uploads and downloads were painfully slow, but it was the mid 90s. On ebay I encountered a watch dealer in London. He had posted about 15 or so different watches and I made him an offer...my DateJust for all of his watches. I couldn't show him the Rolex so I sent it to him based on trust. He accepted the offer and a week later I was the owner of an amazing assortment of gems...18k two register Lemania chronograph, a Wakmann triple triple, an Omega Speedmaster Professional pre-moon...and others I can no longer remember. But I was once again without what I really wanted...a Rolex. I was now an ebay junkie. A private seller in New England had a 1958 two tone DateJust, head only. I don't remember the price but it was less than a thousand. I bought it and put it on a brown croc strap with a rare silver Rolex buckle and at last I felt a proper member of the club. Now I began my education in watches in general Rolex in particular. The first two books I bought were "Wristwatches: A handbook and price guide" by Gisbert L. Brunner and Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, and the "Complete Price Guide to Watches" by Cooksey Shugart Tom Engle and Richard E. Gilbert. And then "Rolex: the best of time an unauthorized history" by Dowling and Hess. So that covers the first two Rolexes on my list...but also give the back story of how I got into watches. Oh yes, there was an odd little website called The Vintage Rolex Forum...from somewhere in Sweden. I'll try not to be so words and move more quickly through the next 30 some watches on my list. Oh yes...and I will explain what happened to my Accutron.

 

Almost forgot...the picture of the almost Italian race driver, Paolo Gambini at the 1988 Palm Springs vintage races...wearing his Breitling Chronomat

 

So, I'm barely into my second Rolex and the disease spreads rapidly. I start going to NCWCC shows. I buy a 1940s 14k/SS bubbleback on eBay. I meet a serious dealer, Bob Maron, at a show, I am trying to sell my bubbleback, he shows me the 5505 Everest, he won't trade but he pulls a guy out of the crowd and the guy buys my Bubbleback, gives the money to Bob, who gives me the Everest. I'm in heaven. I'm back on eBay...still dial up on AOL...but getting more sophisticated...people have websites and lots of pictures. I buy another BB...then I come across a woman in the mid-west (still in business today) and I buy a 1975 GMT Master...ss/14k, black dial with gold nipple markers...less than $3500. I buy a ss OP Date just because. Then I find a Zephyr Date...now that was rare...the modern bezel and markers and in great shape. I buy a great leather service pouch from James Dowling on eBay...he delivers it in person as he's passing through LAX (on his way to Vegas and an IWJG show). He spots the Zephyr Date and tries to buy it. I don't sell...life and watches are coming and going...I try not to have more than three or four at one time. And then I strike gold...or it strikes me.

A 6305 18k DateJust. I wear it on a leather strap...the silver pebbled dial is perfect. Walter Gooden Inc, the authorized Rolex Service Center in Los Angeles, gets it running perfectly. I become accuracy obsessed...tracking the positions it rests in, noting the time when I go to sleep and when I wake up. Gooden is a real gentleman...he reads my time logs and makes very minor adjustments on five separate occasions and never charges me a dime. Gold strike #2. My first 1013, on eBay...a full 36mm 18k case, original dial and hands, non-date OP...I'm dazzled and snatch it up for $1800. That officially launches my fascination with the non-date 36mm models. I enjoyed the 5505...but in gold, the 1013 was irresistible. It is 2000...stocks are crashing but gold is doing great.

I can't remember when I went from dial up AOL to whatever the early versions were of what I am using today. But in the early 2000s I continued to explore (pardon the pun) variations of the Explorer...a 6594 Meritus, a 5506 34mm Explorer precision, a two tone DateJust with black and gold dial, a 6085 for my wife (she never wore it), and my first 1803 with doorstop markers. And a 1978 GMT from the same seller of the first one, same ss/14k with black dial and nipple markers, now just a little over $3500. And my first Turn-o-graph. I was scanning my watches now...still no photos...and it was all coming together. Then my second 1013...actually a 1012 smooth bezel version with a dial in terrible shape and a highly polished case. It was love hate for me with pink gold. I gave it a redial and it came out beautifully...and that made me put aside dislike of a well done example. I've lost track of the years. So I'll take pause and come back tomorrow and wrap this up.

 

So to wrap this up. Having a 1013 and now a pink gold 1012, this style of Rolex became my focus. Ebay and digital photography (no matter how far I was behind the curve) had rovolutionized the vintage watch market and vintage watch collecting. 28 of my 40 watches spread out over two plus decades, were purchased on eBay. In all those watches, I've never been cheated. There were two watches I was disappointed in, but that was it. Yes I grabbed a few other models...but the 1013/1012 was my passion. I was chasing a second 1012, but when I passed because of price, a collector I knew made a better deal and got it for less. Later he tired of it and I bought off him for what he paid. I picked up a great early 1013 on its original bracelet from an estate sale (on ebay). It was covered with dirt, as if robbed from a grave. The original owner had his name and social security number engraved on the back. It became my favorite. I found another that was almost its twin. Then I found a "grail"...a watch with the retailer Serpico Y Laino on the dial. The story of these two Italians who settled in Caracas Venezuela is deeply tied to the success of Rolex in South America. This was a special 1013. Then I discovered the stainless steel version of the 1013, the 1018. A stunning black glossy gilt dial, all original including hands from a fellow in Italy. Followed by another 1018 with a standard modern silver dial. Suddenly I said, "I've got too many watches." I started selling them. And suddenly I had none. I clutched my chest in horror and regret. A great retailer in Northern California, Jessy Webster of The Oyster Palace, brought me back to life with a stunning very modern generation of the 1013...with the coveted hacking feature. And now all these watches swim in my head, making me dizzy with lust and remorse.

The epilog: I've got four Rolexes. The 1013 from Jessy, a recent classic style 1013 (via eBay) from a watch retailer in Sacrament, CA., a silver dialed 1018 (that I've swapped back and forth with Jessy), and another black gilt dial 1018 from Wannabuyawatch in West Hollywood. And this is what sort of brought me to Omegas. The first watch I remember having...an Omega from my Uncle Mike (he served time in Attica)...left the Omega name branded on me. To broaden my horizons, I have my Jumbo case from the early 50s, my Pink Gold capped Seasmaster (bumper) from the later fifties, and my most treasured Omega, a late fifties 18k Deluxe Constellation. End of shaggy dog story.

My lesson from these years and watches? Don't be afraid of the internet, just do your research on the seller, and ask lots and lots of questions, and if you aren't satisfied, walk away. My list proves that there is always another watch.

 

Oh yes...what happened to the 14k Accutron...first generation? Well, it was given to me by my father. We were very close and even after I stopped wearing the Accutron (after 24 years), I kept it. Then one day after my father passed away, I looked at all my watches and wondered "what will happen to them if I suddenly died. Because all my watch friends were online and scattered around the world...and often I didn't even know their real names, I guessed that my wife wouldn't know what to do with my watches, or what they were worth. I could almost live with that for any of my other watches but not the Accutron. I found a real Accutron collector...someone who would not only appreciate the watch, but also the story behind. He would now become the keeper of the flame, so to speak, insuring that the watch was always passed on to others, along with the minor celebrity status that went with it. That was over 20 years ago. I don't know where the watch is today, I can only trust that I made the right decision and that it and its story have stayed together and will be appreciated for years to come. If something happened to me now, my wife or brother or nephew or someone will get my watches, sell them for half of what they're worth...and like the end of the Soprano's...everything will just go to black.

 

All in favor of @johnireland making a coffee table book (or at least writing a few chapters in one)?

 

Thanks, but I'm better off writing short-novels crime fiction and selling the ebooks on Amazon for 99 cents. After a three month break, I'm back on book #6, "Bebop Noir," hopefully out in October.

 

never mind the watch....,
That Alfa!

 

That was a great car. Three years of racing...8000 rpm every gear, every lap. Never a DNF. Never burned a quart of oil in a full weekend. Ran it on Blue Streak bias ply racing tires. The guy on the left built the car for me. The guy on the right was another vintage Alfa racing junkie.