Why I Don't Get to Tell You I'd Never Buy a Rolex

 

Comments

[Angelo]

Rolex is a lot like BMW. They were both icons in the 1980s----self rewards for the upwardly mobile who achieved career and financial success----status symbols. Some people might view that as a negative. It's not. It's a positive. Drive a BMW and you'll see that there's a reason why it was that self reward. Cut through the yuppie B.S. and you find the goodness in the product that justifies the price. That's harder to quantify with a watch---but Rolex makes a hell of a nice watch. It's iconic for a reason---craftsmanship, history, resale value, top notch materials and manufacturing----Rolex would be on my short list if I had thousands of dollars on the table for a watch purchase.

[Ulysses]

Money is a drug. Drugs are also drugs. So is booze, nicotine, you name it. That doesn't mean i'm gonna start drinking or smoking, just because I can or because it might make me look "cool" (an attitude that is changing these days, I know). It's the same with money - it might change you but i've found that if you've learned how to live without much of it, you won't go off the rails just because you suddenly acquire a fortune. It tends to be people who never endured hardship, and who never learned the value of money, that tend to splurge uncontrollably.

People sometimes think of me as a Rolex-hater, but i'm really not. They do make great watches, but this is a brand that has for decades acquired the status of "generic luxury watch". These things are pounded out at the factory by the hundreds of thousands every year. There's no mystique left when every snot-nosed kid desires one. It's the difference between flagrant, obscene wealth and so-called "stealth-wealth". That's where you buy something refined and expensive because YOU appreciate its qualities, not so others will recognise your wealth. People learned enough to know, will know. Unfortunately, a lot of buyers are only interested in the kudos they know they'll earn from other watch ignoramuses when they flash their Rolex at them. Once, Rolex were an innovative company, but nowadays most of their watches are tired rehashes of what went before. Perhaps it's only prudent that they don't mess with new designs when the old ones have served them so well. They resemble, and are priced like museum pieces. You can get equally good watches from prestigious brands with better technology for less, but for many the name alone is worth any cost.

I have only seen one Rolex I thought was remotely attractive from a design sense in recent years, and that was a chrono with light blue dial and brown ceramic bezel. I am much more interested in the Tudor brand, which is Rolex-owned and delivers similar quality but with more modern, less ostentatious design and at lower prices.

[Angelo]

Tudor makes some very nice watches these days.