July 31st, 2023 | Words and photography by DAHTT
15 years ago today I bought this Rolex.
How I bought, sold and re-bought my first Rolex.
I recently posted a review exactly 15 years to the day since buying my first Swiss watch. In that review I told the story of how in my early twenties during a trip to Switzerland a colleague had recommended I buy a Swiss watch and I'd purchased a Longines Lyre in Geneva airport.
In the story I mentioned that the Longines had lead to me buying a Rolex just 32 days later. Well, it's 32 days since I posted that review and therefore exactly 15 years to the day since I purchased this Rolex. Here's the story of the simple watch that didn't leave my wrist for a decade.
For those of you who haven't read the Longines review, I knew absolutely nothing about watches. I chose the Longines because it looked pretty. I unboxed it on the plane and my colleague, a Speedmaster and vintage Rolex collector explained what "automatic" watches were. Over the next month I fell in love with the Longines and mechanical watches, however there was a problem.
As a complete novice totally ignorant about the different types of watches, I'd bought a dress watch, and as a professional musician in a band I can count the number of times I've worn formal attire in the last decade on my fingers. The Longines did not fit with my daily jeans and T-shirt, but I couldn't take it off. Not wearing a watch after just a few weeks felt wrong! I needed something more casual, more versatile.
On July 31st 2008, I was in another airport, this time London Heathrow, about to fly to Chicago to play our first gig in the states, a festival called Lollapalooza. My guitar tech, the colleague who'd suggested I buy the Longines was with us again.
I explained to him that I felt the Longines was a bit too dressy and that I wanted something made of steel. With some time to kill before our flight we wandered into Mappin & Webb in the departure lounge. They were an authorised dealer for lots of Swiss watch brands.
My colleague rated Omega, he'd already told me enthusiastically once before about the Speedmaster Professional, but I wanted to know about Rolex. I'd heard of them, were they any good? They were he told me. Solid watches.
I found myself standing in front of a display cabinet, staring at a plethora of Rolex watches thinking how monochromatic they all looked. There were some with funny rotating bits, others with very shiny bracelets, all very serious looking. I knew nothing about any of them and without any understanding of what made each one special, none were really grabbing me.
Then I saw it, amongst this collection of presumably very serious and capable watches, was one with a sense of humour. A stainless steel case like the others, a black dial just like most in the cabinet, but there on that simple dial were the numbers 3, 6 and 9, in bright pink. It made me smile. I'd like to have a look at that one please, I found myself saying to the assistant.
The instant I touched it, I knew it was flying to America with me. Compared to the Longines, it felt hewn from the solid. The bracelet articulated beautifully without any resistance, and the clasp snapped reassuringly into place.
I immediately understood it was a much more serious thing than the Longines, and yet, obvious as the quality and precision abundantly was, there were those jovial numerals, still putting a smile on my face. The assistant sized it, I put the box and papers in my suitcase and wore it out of the store, still smiling.
What I'd bought was a Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36mm, reference 116000, and I didn't buy another watch for over a decade.
The specifications are standard OP and familiar to many. 100m of water resistance from the 36mm Oyster case, 44mm lug to lug. Twinlock crown and sapphire crystal. The movement is the 3130, COSC certified with 48hrs of power reserve. The same movement used in similar era no-date Submariners.
The pink numerals (which I still love) are framed in white gold, the hands are also white gold, as is the applied Rolex crown at twelve o'clock. I often see these dials referred to as Explorer dials, and whilst I understand why, the absence of the triangle at twelve, with the applied crown in its place for me differentiates the two.
Pink numerals aside, by far the most interesting quirk of this dial option is the combination of Chromalite lume on the indices and Super-Luminova on the hands. Chromalite, Rolex's blue lume was brand new in 2008, and they were clearly having some fun with it. As far as I know there aren't a great deal of Rolex watches which mix lume types. The Milgauss springs to mind, but not many others.
On the long flight across the pond I sat admiring this little watch. By the time we landed I was basically in love with it. Over the next ten years or so there wasn't a day I didn't wear it. I slept with it on my wrist most nights and wore it on stage for every show we played.
It's been to Japan, Ukraine, I've worn it up mountains in the Alps, I learned to fly a plane wearing it, driven race cars with it on my wrist and it's survived two pretty serious car accidents! It's been in pools, showers, on beaches, in snow, next to huge speakers with giant magnets in them...it performed perfectly. And then one day I sold it.
My brother had saved up some money and wanted to buy a Rolex. In the ten years or so since I bought mine for £2000, the RRP's had risen dramatically. I'd had the Rolex experience I thought, he hadn't and wouldn't be able to for anywhere near the money I'd been able to. So I sold it to him for not much more than I'd payed.
He wore it while he trained to become a classic car mechanic, he's now one of the few people in the world who works on pre war Aston Martins. I really thought I wouldn't miss it. I bought a Speedmaster, a Seiko, a couple of Smith's, but I gradually realised with some horror that none of them carried the memories of that Rolex.
In 2021 my brother told me he was ready to sell the watch, he very kindly offered it to me for the amount I'd sold it to him for, but the market value had increased a lot since then and I felt it would be wrong to do that. So instead we did a swap, my vintage MGB-GT left, and my Rolex came home.
The relief was immense. Over the few years I'd been without it, I realised it had been on my wrist for so many important days. In some ways that separation has made me appreciate it more than I might have done otherwise.
If I could only keep one watch now, there wouldn't be a moment of hesitation. It would be the Rolex, the one with the silly pink numerals, they still make me smile. The one that never took itself too seriously and always reminded me never to take myself too seriously. The one that took more abuse than any other watch I've owned. It never missed a moment, and it's never missed a beat.