BS: Can you live without a Rolex?

Subject: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 08:41 PM

So, CAN you live without a Rolex? I know I can. ;-) I don't even choose to wear a watch at all, period. I don't like them. I don't need them. They annoy me. Still, I get endless email spam about the stupid things (Rolexes, I mean), implying that the one thing that would elevate my life to absolute pure bliss is to spend some insane amount of money on a frikkin' watch and wear it on my wrist to totally impress the shit out of idiots who are impressed by that sort of thing!!! Unbelievable.

I also get email about imitation Rolexes that can be had for a somewhat smaller but still truly insane amount of money....and that way I could pretend to be a bigshot who bought a real Rolex because no one will notice it's a fake Rolex. I could really turn heads at the country club, I guess. Maybe get a "trophy" wife or something. I could imagine I was "Bond, James Bond"...or someone else like that.

Unbe-flippin'-leavable to the heights of gobsmacked hilarity!

There is truly some weird shit going on in people's heads on this planet and it just keeps getting sillier.

I think I will try to arrange for a different planet next time...if I have to come back at all, I mean. If not...no regrets.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 08:50 PM

Since the advent of electronic data files I've done away with my Roladex altogether. ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 08:54 PM

Isn't a Rolex a kind of corset?

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 08:58 PM

No its a leading brand of pace makers.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Sorcha
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 09:40 PM

I'm with the Hawk on this one. I HATE watches. Even more, I HATE Rolex. If I just had to wear a watch it would be an El Cheapo Timex or something. I don't have to wear one, and I am still bombarded with what time it is everywhere I go.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 09:57 PM

A lady bought one at a tag sale for ten bucks. She was on Antiques Roadshow and found out it was from the 30s and was worth about five thousand bucks. I wouldn't mind finding one like that, for that, and selling it for that. Otherwise, yeah, I have no desire for ANY watch.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 10:03 PM

fake watches, fake Nike shoes, fake luggage....etc.. ALL big items in spam these day....along with the ads for drugs.(pain pills & Viagra) If I ever DO need Viagra, I'll pay for it from my HMO.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 10:03 PM

I'm getting along just fine with my Casio digital. Both digital and analog face, time, date, five alarms and top-of-the-hour "beep-beep" available if I want them, stop-watch, countdown timer, and a second time read-out I can set and access at the touch of a button that will tell me the time in another time zone. It gains about ten seconds a month, and I set it with WWV every week or so. Cost me about $50.00.

I got compulsive about having a very accurate watch when I was working in radio.

It doesn't put the cat out at night or make coffee in the morning, though.

Rolex, schmolex!! I get eleventy-fourteen of the same e-mails almost every day. PHUI!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 10:06 PM

I wear a perfectly good Seiko I got at a Seiko outlet for about USD125.00. It keeps excellent time, has a second clock face (for a second time zone or to set as an alarm), a date thingie, a second hand, and a stopwatch function.

Of these I use the clock faces, the calendar date, and the stop watch; sometimes I look at the second hand.

I can also use it as an emergency compass to find south.

It's also supposed to be waterproof to 300 meters, but as I told the salesman, if I'm 300 meters underwater I got bigger worries than my friggin' watch.

Why would I want a Rolex? I get a lot of ads for those and for a bunch of watches I never heard of; PM me your email address and I'll be happy to forward the ads to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 10:19 PM

I guess it depends on what you mean by "live". LH!! I don't wear a Rolex, but if I made the kind of money where I wouldn't miss ten grand, why the hell not!! Status!! Prestige!!! Signs of success!!! Glamour!!! With-it-iddity!!! Top of the hill!! King of the heap!! Badge of Fiscal Knighthood!!

Wassa madda you, man?



A

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 11:11 PM

Check Chongo's wrist. What's that shiny thing under the hair?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: CarolC
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 11:23 PM

So far.

I tend to stop watches, though, so the real question would be, could a rolex live with me?

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 11:26 PM

That shiny thing under the hair is probably an ammo clip.

But no, you're right, Chongo does wear a watch. It's not a Rolex, though. He really does need a watch to pursue his profession.

****

Amos, my lad, you should definitely get a Rolex pronto. It will put you on the fast track to total success! And then secure yourself a cushy job in the presidential staff right after the next election. You might even get to work for John McCain! ;-) Wouldn't that be fun?

Hell, you might even get to meet William Shatner. Just maybe. Well, you know, I think you would have at least a very slim outside chance of that...if you played your cards right AND wore the Rolex at all times, eh?

***

Don Firth - "I'm getting along just fine with my Casio digital. Both digital and analog face, time, date, five alarms and top-of-the-hour "beep-beep" available if I want them, stop-watch, countdown timer, and a second time read-out I can set and access at the touch of a button that will tell me the time in another time zone. It gains about ten seconds a month, and I set it with WWV every week or so."

Hmmm. (yawn) Yes, Don, but does it have a foldout bar equipped with 25 popular brands of booze AND an instant expandable hottub option at the push of a button?    Hmm?

I didn't think so. Those Casio watches are so, like, entry level, know what I mean?

Say....what in the hell does anyone need 5 different alarms for?

Will it tell you if your girlfriend or wife is cheating on you, and if so, in which time zone?

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: artbrooks
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 11:38 PM

Actually, I wore a Rolex for over 25 years. I bought it while overseas in the Army for about $100 - and it really was a Rolex. It generally kept excellent time...the only time I touched the knob was when changing time zones. No winding and no batteries. Finally, it started loosing about a minute a week and the band broke - both of those would have cost far more to fix than the watch cost in the first place.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Apr 08 - 11:45 PM

I wonder if I ever get any of those ads?

ALL OF THE SPAM that I get is still coming in French-Canadian and I'm still not interested in trying to translate it to see what they think I need (although some of those ladies with the lingerie might be tempting enough, if I happened to be really desparate).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:11 AM

For a while I thought that a Rolex was some sort of tumor.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: JennieG
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:21 AM

I thought it was those sweetie things? oh no, hang on, that's rollos.

I don't get much spam here at home but at work it's a different story. Many offers of gen-u-ine imitation Rolex and other brand watches, and designer shoes, and designer bags....at this rate we will be able to completely clothe and outfit ourselves from spam.

Even Chongo.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:21 AM

I think it's a good name for a rich man's dog, like a Doberman. You could walk it in the park and say things like, "Rolex, heel!" "Down, Rolex!" "Up, Rolex!" "Wait, Rolex!" "Fetch, Rolex!" "Kill, Rolex! Kill!" (pointing at some lower class yobbo) ...thus demonstrating your total mastery over the savage beast and over all those wretched people who don't own a Rolex.

People would be tremendously impressed and they would know right away that you were someone important.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Teribus
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:24 AM

A French diving company, COMEX used to issue them in the late 60's and early 70's to their divers. "Can you live without a Rolex?", well the "Submariners" and "Sea-Dwellers" were the only watches that could withstand a helium decompression and all emergency routines in diving are governed by time, so they were required. They were after all:

"Rolex Oyster Perpetual - Guaranteed not to rust, bust, pick up the dust, tarnish, burn, or splinter."

I bought mine over thirty years ago for work, it has kept excellent "chronometer standard" time, I've never had to wind it and as Art says it needs no batteries. If what someone who was interested in watches said to me over the "new year" was true, it is now worth over twenty times what I paid for it. Would I sell it? No

Oh, and apart from that one person, who was interested in watches, I have never heard anyone else comment on watches being worn by themselves or by others.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:37 AM

Nor have I... ;-) I just got a lot of spam email about them, that's all, and that drew my attention to them lately.

But I do have a friend whose rich brother wears a Rolex, and he claims that his brother claims that it helps him impress other people and make business deals. I have no idea whether there's any truth in that, but that's what he says (that his brother says).

It does sound like the watch for men who serve in submarines or for divers, from what you say.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 02:15 AM

Well, the only watches in Rouge Towers are a red one kept soley for chromatic consistency and a camera one which chews batteries so fast it is not a lot of use as a timepiece.
Mind you there is a clock on the mobile phone (which can be made red when in character).

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:00 AM

I never wear watches - I tend to etch myself indelibly into the back of them and they fall apart.

On the Spam side - how many men in the world are called Liz? I'm getting all their junk mail about enlarging their penis size. I'm very tempted to write back to them all and say 'I'm a girl, I have one of These... with one of These I can get any size penis I like'.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Megan L
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:24 AM

"Say....what in the hell does anyone need 5 different alarms for?"

Easy to tell when the 5 ex wives ar in the area------- Meg heading for the naughty chair

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:51 AM

You don't need a Rolex. If you want to impress people get a fake one and wave your arm around a lot so they can't get a good look at it.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:42 AM

I don't like being without a watch but my Timex has done well for probably the last 8 years and I'm in no hurry to replace it. Perhaps when the cheap wind up watches I bought never were very reliable, I might have been interested in a Rolex but I find the quartz movements so good, I can see no point in looking for anything else.

Having to have a battery changed doesn't bother me either. My guess (I think I've only had one change) is they last about 3 years on this watch and I go use the (idiglo) light a bit.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Grab
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 07:34 AM

I used to be with Don on the Casio front. I can't wear a watch (the wristband accumulates sweat and irritates my wrist) so I used to keep it loose in my pocket. Every couple of years I'd lose it, but at £15 for a cheap waterproof watch, this wasn't a big deal.

Eventually after I lost one, I realised I didn't actually need a watch anyway. Then I went for several years without any watch at all. If you need the time, there's almost always a clock somewhere - on your PC, in the car, on a shop down the street, etc..

Now I've got a mobile, I check that on the very rare occasions I need to know what the time is. More usually, I need something to remind me when it's time to do something, and the calendar on my phone does that for me.

As for Rolexes and other posh watches, they're emphatically not watches - they're jewellery. If you want a bit of attractive wrist jewellery, they're fine. But whether they tell the time or not is completely secondary to their real purpose, which is to look pretty.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Zen
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 07:53 AM

Yes... my El Cheapo is perfectly good and trustworthy

This remind me of when I was at a medical technology conference some while back when a Japanese engineer was waxing lyrical about Japanese technology. Then suddenly and obviously feeling guilty that he was embarrassing his Swiss hosts, he excitedly pointed at his watch exclaiming "Rook... Lorex!".

Zen

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:24 AM

Some expensive things make a kind of sense - there's a real difference between a guitar that costs £1000 and one that costs £50, or a car that costs £30,000 and one that costs £5000. It sounds better, or it drives better. But a Rolex doesn't tell the time any better than a Casio. I could be envious of a pricy guitar or car - but a pricy watch? No way.

What it does, of course, is give a message about the person sporting the watch. Just what that message consists of is a matter of dispute. "I'm a stupid prat with more money than sense" is, I am sure, the one that most people see, but I suppose the Rolex wearers think it is something else. Which is in line with the message as I gave it.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:24 AM

I haven't worn a watch since 1997. But clearly, the message sells otherwise they wouldn't bother spamming people. And it is not that surprising really. In a society where presentation overtook content in importance a long time ago, it is to be expected.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:51 AM

Too true George.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Becca72
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:06 AM

I've made it 36 years without a Rolex. I wear a watch that I think I paid $10 for and have had it for about 3 years. Works just fine. I also wear it on the wrong wrist, which tends to throw people. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:08 AM

"Can you live without a Rolex?"

Well, I've never tried. May I get back to you on this, LH?

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:16 AM

Well I'm here to tell you that nobody notices what watch you wear. In the last 10 years I've had 2 people notice my watch. So if I wore it to impress people, I have failed miserably :)

G

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:27 AM

********************Bobert's True Rolex Story*********************

My *poor* brother is one of thsoe folks who has an amazing ability to make a million bucks or loose a million and one bucks, both feats of which he has accomplished several times in his life but the one cyle that is so vivid to me was during the Gulf War because I was part of both the rise and the fall...

Brother had quit his $250,000/year job as a general manager of a VW/Subaru dealership during that war because he had met some very wealthy Kuwaitis who were riding the war out in the Eashington, D.C. area and these folks wanted him to help them procure all kinds of stuff for the big bucks...

So he asked me if I'd help him and together we put together an $8M deal of which $1.4M was profit... And it was so easy that he figured that life would alway be like that...

Problem was that the war quickly ended and the Kuwaitis went back to Kuwait and for the next year either he or aguy we hired was camped out in Kuwait... I recieved tender after tender and we worked tirelessly but our trading company was small potatoes compared to the mega-corporations... But this didn't stop various ministers-of-this-or-that's from hitting us up for 20 grand here or there with the promise that we would certainly get a contract if we made these payments... Meanwhile, our expenses were racking up for hotels, dinner parties, etc in Kuwait to the tune of $10,000 to $20,000 a week!!!

Well to make a long story short... Kuwaitis a imfamous, but very good, liars and cheats... It's a cultural thing, I came to learn... They cheat each other and lie to each other as if it was a time honored sport and...

...remember me telling you about how my brother could blow a million as easy as making one??? Well, after a year, we had njot recieved one additional contract... We were even promised my a group on Kuwaiti ministers that they were going to buy the Sequoia ship back from a private foundation and present it to the American people and George Bush I as a token of their gratitude for booting out the Iraqis... It came down to them requesting bank numbres t make the transfer but it was just another big ass lie which was terribly embarrassing seeing as we had contacted Bush thru an intermediary and he agreed to acceot the boat...

But nevermind that... The money was gone... My poor brother was back to scraping and scrounging and had been to an equipement auction in hopes of buyin' some "iron" (bulldozers) for another party with that party's money and was driving a rental car since his big linmo has been repo'd and was clocked at 84 mph on I-81 and taken straight to some local magistrate by the cop for the shakedown...

Here's where the story gets interesting... Thru thick and thin there was one prized possession that my brother never lost and that was his Rolex watch... Yeah, the house was gone... The limo, gone... The trophy girlfried, gone... His Cezna, gone... But there on his wrist was that watch...

I don't know why it is but when you are caught in some of these backward counties in Virginia doin' somethin' that you shouldn't there is some kinda machine in the door jamb of the magistartes office that counts how much money you have in yer pocket and in this case it was $115 and change in my poor brother's pocket...

So the cop tells the majistrate that brother was doing 84 in a 70 mph zone and the majistrate looks at my brother and says "$80 plus court costs"... Court costs, as you might have guessed it were $35 meaning that the machine in the door jamb had correctly counted the money in brother's pocket...

So brother says to the majistrate, "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't think I have that much money" and the majistrate says, "Fine, we'll just hold that Rolex on your wrist until you can come yup with the money..."

Ask me how fast brother reached in his pocket and forked over the dough...

Well, I've often thought about not only that experience but all the crazy st6uff that my poor brother has put himself thru and have thought that his life would make for one heck of an interesting book and I long ago decided that if I were to ever write this book it would be entitled "Down to the Rolex"...

*************************The End**********************************

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Teribus
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:47 AM

There are very few watches that have "clockwork" movements, Rolex are one of them, most "cheapo" watches that all seem to admire/favour today are powered by batteries. You have the safisfaction of knowing that once your battery runs out, if you have a standard dial on your watch it will tell the precise time twice a day, the only thing is you will not know when that is, unless of course someone with a clockwork watch tells you.

"As for Rolexes and other posh watches, they're emphatically not watches - they're jewellery."

Do many people wear stainless steel jewellery Graham?

"But whether they tell the time or not is completely secondary to their real purpose, which is to look pretty."

Now is that a fact Graham? Somehow doubt that very much.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:52 AM

Rolex! Rolex! Rolex the whole world 'round
That clockwork o' mine's keeping perfect time
And we'll wind the Rolex down!

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 11:24 AM

You have the safisfaction of knowing that once your battery runs out, if you have a standard dial on your watch it will tell the precise time twice a day, the only thing is you will not know when that is, unless of course someone with a clockwork watch tells you.

Or amongst other options, someone else with a "battery watch" - I don't think they all stop at once.

That aside, given that I'm not planning on going anywhere for a long while where I can't get a battery changed (or maybe alternatively just buy another watch) it's not an issue to me. On the other hand, I did consider my (OK, not expensive) clockwork watches just stopping or keeping poor time a reasonably regular problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 11:39 AM

I got me a Casio...it not only tells the time, but it will tell me about the tides in relation to the phases of the moon....if I could figger out out how to tell it where I am! Never mind that I don't live near the shore and the tides don't figure promenently in my life.

But it does keep purty good time, and has a 2nd display for another time zone or Daylight Savings. My computer, at which I sit for WAY too long each day, gives me the exact time, and 2 pushes of buttons on my watch will synch to that time....which I use to be sure I get the news program turned on at the beginning. (CNN tends to be pretty good at starting right at the top of the hour!)

I just LIKE knowing that my watch is within a few seconds of them atomic clocks!

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 11:46 AM

Or,I can go here and get the current data any....uh...time.

(Some of them Rolexes are pretty...but I'd be afraid of losing one.)

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 11:50 AM

The mania for "prestigious" brand-name apparel and acccessories is SICK, and deeply indicative of the psychological screwed-up-ed-ness of the dominant culture all around us.

Why in God's name do people feel themselves validated by wearing overpriced brand-name artifacts on their bodies? The Rolex watch cult is bad enough, but at least a Rolex is a high-quality piece of technical gear, and wearing one is a relatively subtle advertisement of one's "status."

What really bugs me is the penchant for aspirants to nouveau-riche status to wear clothing that features oversized advertisements for the corporation that markets it. (You notice that I don't characterize the fashionable brand-name companies as makers of their products. Most of the stuff is made by underpaid third-world workers, many of them children, who are contracted to produce this crap.)

I generally wear a watch, at least during working hours, but I've never paid more than $35 for one. If anyone thinks less of me for wearing a black plastic Timex on my wrist, well, fuck 'em!

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 12:13 PM

Let me get this straight PoppaGator: Does that mean that you approve, or disapprove of flashy clothes wearers? ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:08 PM

Oh of course we all can live without ROlexes although i would prefer not to live without mine but not because it makes me look wealthy.

I wear my 22 year old black enamel & gold "starter" Rolex because my dearest friend and mentor Julie Schwartz of DC Comics gave it to me when he saw I hadn't a watch. He took my up to the Top of the 6's restaurant at 666 5th Avenue, ordered me a dry manhattan and handed me the box for my 22nd birthday. He told me one day when I could afford my own ROlex, I could buy a fully gold one but even though there was such a day for a bunch of years, I never did nor did I ever have the desire to. I bought a fake copy of my enameled Rolex once to wear while I wasd having my original restored but somehow I don't think that counts.

Bless Julie's heart, he thought a gal working her way up thru publishing should have a nice Louis Vuitton briefcase and a Rolex watch. A few years later he gave me the briefcase as another birthday gift and when he did, I asked him what else a girl needed and he told me "a good husband and no i can't buy that for you!" He did get me a Panasonic Easaphone (sp?)though - amost as good as a husband.

Oh how I miss Julie. I'd trade my Rolex, my briefcase and a hundred answering machines for one more day with Julie.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:27 PM

It's true that people rarely even notice what kind of watch anyone else is wearing...but here's a solution to that problem...if you're male, anyway...

Tie the band of the watch securely around your penis (use some crazy glue to keep it in place if necessary) and walk around everywhere in the nude. Everyone will notice the watch and you will get lots of attention. If it's a Rolex, so much the better.

I'm frankly a bit surprised that John Lennon forgot to wear his Rolex on the famous brown-bagged album picture with him and Yoko. It would have added the perfect touch of elegance and distinction to suit the occasion.

***

I think McGrath's comment about watches being a form of jewelry has some merit, particularly in the case of women's fancy watches...but also in the case of the more upscale and high-priced watches typically worn by the 3-piece suit professional crowd. After all, when the person goes to a store and chooses their watch from among many possible watches, are they only thinking of how accurately it will tell the time for them...or are they also thinking of how good it will look when they wear it? Is it not, for many people, a form of personal adornement? Do they not seek to find a more attractive looking watch, as opposed to one that is merely functional?

And what's wrong with all that? It is not an insult to watches or their wearers to suggest that they are a form of jewelry.

I think that for a really large number of people who wear watches that McGrath's statement that "Whether they tell the time or not is completely secondary to their real purpose, which is to look pretty" is dead right! ;-)

(I would not, however, suggest that this is so much true of submariners or divers or other such persons who have some very compelling practical reasons to be wearing a watch that tells the time accurately under all possible conditions.)

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:28 PM

I need a Rolex!

I NEED it!

I mean I really NEED it!

Goddammit! I NEED A FUCKIN' ROLEX!

Now get off your ass and send me one!

NOW!

Send me yours!

I need it more than you do!

DO IT!



Aw, fuck it!

Keep the Rolex and send me money!

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 02:14 PM

I quite agree with those remarks Little Hawk attributed to me - but it wasn't me that made them, it was Grab.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:17 PM

Oh Lord, wontcha buy me a new Rolex watch?
My friends all have Timex, a really cheap clock
Been on time all my life through
What else could I do?
Oh Lord, wontcha buy me a new Rolex watch?

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:31 PM

Rolex, Rolex, Rolex...
All hide!

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:43 PM

No, I couldn't make it one day without my 1986 Rolex Oyster Perpetual. It's so much more than a timekeeper. When I look at it...and I do, often...it says to me "you're successful, smart, good looking, and you have an appreciation for precise machines with tiny, shiny parts. We're pals you and I. Together we can face the slings and arrows of the daily grind with style and a very smooth second-hand sweep. Just don't take me in the hot tub...I'm water resistant to 300 feet, but the thermal shock is tough on my little ticker. And don't wear me at night on the wrong side of town. Casio can come out of the drawer for those little romps. And always make sure to hike up your sleeve in those high-dollar business negotiations, just to let me breathe the tension-charged air, and flash my silver smile at your intimidated opponents. And we'll keep our little secret about my band being made from harp seal skin. Wouldn't do at the Greenpeace meetings!"
And I scoff when I hear that people are paying 10,000 dollars for these watches. I know a little place on Times Square where you can get one just like mine for 19.99. Tell Shamir I sent you.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:56 PM

A Rolex with a leather band? Forgive me for asking but what is the point? I suppose Lonesome you are saying yours is a fake? I always thought the whole point of paying for a rolex was to get the Steel & Gold band or the enameled starter watch such as mine?

This thread has made me better appreciate my old battered Rolex. I'm gonna take it out of my jewelry box and go get it cleaned. It's the only watch that ever fit my wrist properly. After presenting it to me as a gift, Julie walked me down to the store and had them take out 3 links. I never had a more functional watch and I've been given two that were more expensive but I sold during the 2000 Writer's Strike.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:08 PM

I forgot to mention that my Seiko has an elapsed time indicator dial so that when I'm 330 meters underwater I know how much air I have left.

Thought you'd like to know....

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:16 PM

Huh. There's a Rolex out that's good to 3900 meters. Of course by then ya'd be a bit thinner than the watch.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:20 PM

"I received the watch today. Perfect condition! I'm 100% satisfied with the watch and your service has been top notch! Feel free to use my [sic.] as a reference if you ever need one. I will be letting the members of the Rolex forum know about my experience too. It was a pleasure dealing with you and I'm sure we'll be doing more business in the future."

Anyone need the forum address?

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:20 PM

Becca, how can you wear your watch on the wrong wrist? Are they not both yours?

I don't remember what breed of watch mine is, I'm not wearing it, so I forget. Casio, I think.
The problem with wrist watches is, they shred your sleeve with their metal band.
If I'm not going anywhere, why do I need a watch? It's too dark to see it in the cellar anywhay.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:25 PM

Jacqui just reminded me that our cell phones give the time.

I have an antique Railroad watch that I wear when I'm all gussied up. The problem is I have to wind it every day, and if I forget, I have to unscrew the face, pull a little lever and set the time that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:32 PM

Well, I was kidding, Dave's wife. The only "Rolex" I have ever had was, in fact, a Times Square purchase and lasted about two months.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Teribus
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:38 PM

"...my Seiko has an elapsed time indicator dial so that when I'm 330 meters underwater I know how much air I have left." - Rapaire

Oh no it wouldn't.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:54 PM

When first invented, of course, watches were an incredibly expensive luxury item available only to the nobility. Hand-crafted precision instruments made of such tiny parts required the hard, slow work of the very best craftspersons, and there weren't very many of them.

In those days, I suppose, even a "basic" watch was so expensive that throwing in a superfluous diamond or two only raised the price a few percentage points. Hence, the timepiece-as-jewelry.

I loved Dave's Wife's story about her Rolex and its sentimental value. It was undoubtedly unfair of me to characterize all Rolex-owners as shallow stupid status-whores. I'm sure there are many folks who could tell stories like hers.

But I still maintain my feelings about people who define themselves in terms of status symbols, especially those displayed conspicuously on one's person. I think most Rolex owner/wearers can fairly be placed into that category, and of course anyone who would buy a fake Rolex in order to appear more impressive is definitely a person of inauthentic consciousness.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 05:09 PM

Rolex makes a fine watch, a very good watch, and if I needed one (e.g., I was a submariner or a diver) I would probably own one. I run a Library; I recently found it convenient to use the stopwatch function to find the time it takes the elevator to go between floors (10 seconds, if you want to know). I don't need a Rolex, so I don't own one.

It's just that simple.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 05:48 PM

anyone who would buy a fake Rolex in order to appear more impressive is definitely a person of inauthentic consciousness.
I bought a fake Rolex and I can promise you my consciousness is completely authentic. I bought it as a joke. Anybody who is impressed by a Rolex, fake or not, is the one who has a problem. There really is nothing that a $10K Rolex does that a 200 dollar Seiko doesn't do probably better. A Rolex is a fine watch, but that's not what you're buying. You're buying a status symbol. Its just that simple.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 05:52 PM

I was given my first wristwatch for my sixteenth birthday and I've worn one ever since. Feel nekkid without one. Where I got into the chronometer kind of watch was when I started working in radio, particularly when I worked for a network affiliate station. You had to know exactly when to flip the switch to go to the network news, so I needed one that was right on the button (for some reason, the studio clock was unreliable, and they never did get it fixed!). A stopwatch and a countdown timer were essential for producing commercials, so I bought myself a Seiko chronograph ("self-winding"). It was quite accurate compared to other watches at the time (early 1970s), but when it got stolen thirty years ago, I replaced it with a battery-powered chronograph. I've had a couple since then, but the best one is the $50.00 Casio I'm wearing right now. Not all that flashy looking or "fashionable." It's hardly a piece of jewelry; black plastic case and wrist band. But it keeps excellent time and it has more features to it than I actually use, which is fine. Even if it doesn't turn into a rocket-powered skateboard at the touch of a button.

Jewelry schmoolry! The idea of a flashy wristwatch, especially the kind with seventeen dials and bristling with stems may impress the rubes, but the really powerful dude is the one who doesn't worry about getting to appointments on time. The real status symbol is no watch at all.

Because he knows that nothing of any importance is going to happen until he gets there.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 05:55 PM

I have a Roadrunner watch and somewhere a Mickey Mouse watch. I only wear either for 'formal' occasions.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: gnu
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 06:19 PM

Kendall : "Becca, how can you wear your watch on the wrong wrist? Are they not both yours?"

Now, the time is Maine.... slow and common sense... slow and deliberate... slow and.... easy... does it.

Thanks, Kendall. I needed that just now. Minds me of better times.

Drink lots of cold water and walk slow.

gary

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 06:33 PM

I started a bit of a discussion about watches in the thread called BS: Technological Dead-ends.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: artbrooks
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 06:38 PM

Boy, after listening to all of these positive experiences, I think I'll go look for the brown paper bag that my Rolex and its broken (in several pieces) band is in and go get it fixed.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:22 PM

As a watch collector (19th C. railroad pocket watches), I watch the collector's market fairly closely.
Some Rolex watches are eagerly sought after, including the pre-WW2 bubble face models, which sell for a good bit above the purchase price. Artbrooks, if you have a Rolex of that period, it is well worth a check-up, cleaning, and repair by a certified Rolex technician. A local watch club is a good place to contact someone knowledgeable or find one of the watch collectors catalogues which post estimated prices for older models.
And incidentally, a well-cared for Rolex is always worth at least a very good percentage of its purchase price; any older one has value added because of the inflation rate.

I do have one Rolex; almost an antique, a mediocre model from before the time the company started making precision watches. It is worth a bit as a curiosity, but it is really just a cheap watch.

Several other precision watches of pedigree have been a good investment. Patek Philippe is especially sought after.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:28 PM

I just opened my e-mail and along with the usual crap was a spam message that was entitled "You and a Rolex". Having seen and posted to this thread I thought I would seek enlightenment. I opened it. This is the message.

"Have you seen the latest Gucci handbags, from their 2008 collection? They're so beautiful and stylish... and so expensive! But I just found this store, Prestige Replicas, that offers them at just a fraction of their cost. Granted, they're replicas, but they look just like the real deal, and the prices are so low, that now you can have not just one Gucci bag, but two or three of them! The best part is that at Prestige Replicas they have such a wide collection, organized by styles, that you'll feel like a kid in a candy store! Seriously, if you love Gucci bags, you will adore Prestige Replicas!"

Man, I AM gonna look swanky with a stylish replica Gucci bag and a snazzy replica Rolex watch.

Uh, if any of you gals out there have a pair of size 11 heels--in black please--that you'd care to part with, I feel this will enliven my Friday nights on the strip. Thank you. No smart-assed replies please. Serious offers only.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:42 PM

Heck, I get offers for Muller, Patek Phillipe, and about fifty other watch makers I've never heard of in every bunch of spam.

I guess I'm just not a Gucci Kind Of Guy....

My shirt is Lands' End, my pants are LL Bean, my shoes are old Sperry Topsiders, and I don't have a clue about my underwear and socks. My belt is Wrangler with a brass Tlingit Wolf buckle. I'm wearing this stuff because it is serviceable and comfortable.

Once I had my own tuxedo, studs (which I still have) and all. I don't need one anymore, and when I do wear a suit and topcoat people swoon and wonder whether I'm job hunting or if I've just been to a funeral.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:44 PM

"I don't have a clue about my underwear and socks"

You openly admit to wearing those things? Sheesh, Rapaire. THINK before you post, will ya?.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Gurney
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:25 PM

LH, you devil! How is it that you get spam about Rolexes and I get spam proposing to make my penis bigger, and stiffer?





Anyway, as (I think it was) you once said, why would anyone want to make MY penis bigger?

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: artbrooks
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:27 PM

Rapaire answered all of those e-mails. That's why he can no longer wear underwear......

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:32 PM

Stanfield is a revered Canadian name, in underwear and in politics. I looked at the label of my Stanfield's underwear, and guess what? Made in China.

The day Swiss Rolex comes with a label 'Made in China,' we had better know how to say "Yes Sir, Master," in Mandarin. They truly will have mastered it all.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:33 PM

LOL

I answered one of those spam that said they make my pecker 12" long. I asked them if they'd pay for the reductive surgery. Never heard back.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:41 PM

2:00 a.m. on the Golden Gate bridge. Two guys standing at the rail, relieving themselves.

One sez:   "Man! That water's cold!"

The other sez:   "Yeah! Deep, too!"

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:48 PM

Ya know, I really don't get ticked at the spam. But good gawd I wish they'd write them in something akin to good English.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 12:12 AM

The way to make your penis bigger is to place it on any flat surface and whack it good and hard with a sledgehammer. It will get bigger and stay that way for some time.

The way to make it stiffer is to then starch it. Or freeze it.

These are things that anyone can easily do themselves at home, so who needs all these stupid spammers to help them? People need to empower themselves and stop paying strangers for things they really need no help with.

But just think!...if you buy a Rolex your life will improve so MUCH that you won't even have to WORRY about how big your penis is anymore! It won't matter. ;-) Women will be throwing themselves at you heedlessly, even if you have the world's tiniest and least capable penis. All you have to do is raise your left arm briskly in the straight-arm salute popularized back in the 30's and 40's (at about the angle of a rigid hardon)...and your sleeve slides back...revealing...the ROLEX!!!!

And when they see it, they're yours. It's that simple. Go out and buy one now. You won't be sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 03:00 AM

Liz - what you have that can get as many penises as your heart desires - well there are people who think that with one Rolex you can get as many of those things that can get as many penises as your heart desires as their heart desires. But they are welcome to ......

as many of those things that can get as many penises as your heart desires as their heart desires

but you wouldn't want on of those people that think that with one Rolex you can get as many of those things that can get as many penises as your heart desires as their heart desires.

if you see what I mean

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Grab
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:28 AM

There are very few watches that have "clockwork" movements, Rolex are one of them

Why is that good? There aren't many laundry mangles sold these days either, and they'll see you right when the electricity goes off, too. Doesn't make them worth having.

As for survivability, the Rolex website only lists two watches, the Sea-Dweller and Submariner, which are proof to more than 100m. The Submariner makes it to 300m. The Sea-Dweller claims to do 1200m, although that's pretty much immaterial since you wouldn't be alive at that depth. My Casio was rated to 100m, although I only ever took it down to 10m (since I only do casual snorkelling). A very quick search for dive watch on Google found a quartz movement one rated to 500m for £150. You might have bought your Rolex because it was the only thing that'd do the job back then, but damn sure it ain't the case now.

Do many people wear stainless steel jewellery Graham?

Yep - check the market for piercing jewellery, for one. More usually though, low-end white metal jewellery is silver simply because it's easier to work. The more upscale Rolexes use gold (yellow or white) or titanium, and those are *certainly* jewellery metals.

"But whether they tell the time or not is completely secondary to their real purpose, which is to look pretty."

Now is that a fact Graham? Somehow doubt that very much.

Yes it is a fact, I'm afraid. Go to the source. Check out the Rolex gallery. Or the various James Bond posters. How are they presented? It sure as hell ain't as functional, workmanlike objects. Especially not the ones covered with diamonds.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:32 AM

James Bond I think you will find, wears the inferior Omega.

G

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Teribus
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 12:16 PM

"A very quick search for dive watch on Google found a quartz movement one rated to 500m for £150. You might have bought your Rolex because it was the only thing that'd do the job back then, but damn sure it ain't the case now." - Grab

Sure you could fasten your Casio or the Quartz movement watch on a line and lower it to 100m or to 500m respectively, they would tick away telling the time quite happily, you could then pull them up to the surface and all would be well.

Repeat this trick this time with the watch inside a diving bell pressurised to the equivalent depth with the required Oxy-Helium gas mixture. They would tick away telling the time quite happily, however when you brought them back to the surface you'd probably find that the faces had been blown off them, or the water tight seals would be blown (reminds of a joke).

The thing that makes the Rolex Submariners and Sea-Dwellers special, and fully capable of withstanding a helium decompression, is the helium relief valve. No other diving watch has this feature, it is patented to Rolex. I certainly know that almost 30 years ago mine proved good at 220 metres water depth. Do I think it is worth what I paid for it? Most certainly, yes, it is a superbly crafted piece of precision engineering, and I can see nothing wrong at all in paying for quality in anything.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 12:33 PM

"Looks like you blew a seal," says the mechanic to the worried penguin motorist.

"No, no!!" replies the penguin. "This is just ice cream!"



A

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 12:38 PM

ROFLOL, Amos!

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 12:42 PM

There's a great chimp video on Youtube illustrating that very joke. I'd link to it, but I think everyone here has seen it already anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Teribus
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 12:55 PM

10 out of 10 Amos that was the one.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 01:56 PM

the helium relief valve. No other diving watch has this feature

That may well have been the case but a quick google finds other makes with this feature.

One places view over water reisitance and related bits here

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 03:05 PM

220 metres is a considerable depth. This has nothing to do with scuba diving.
Breitling and, I think, a few other precision watch makers besides Rolex have models with a helium relief valve, but they are not cheap!
An Omega Seamaster (several models) with steel case will cost about $3000 US (no relief valve). A Breitling Navitimer in plain steel about US$4000.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Teribus
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 03:25 PM

Ah Guest Jon, the helium valve on the Omega is that second "winder" and it has to be operated. Now have a look at the Rolex the helium relief valve is built into the case of the watch, no protrusions and it does not have to be operated it works automatically.

I see from the Omega web-site you linked to that they do not feature the absolute "lemon" they first brought out to challenge Rolex for deep diving watches - That was also called a "Seamaster" and it had a bloody great red button on the side whose sole function was to allow the elapse time bezel to rotate. It did not have a helium release valve it worked by having the inside of the watch pressurised to whatever its depth rating was. This was normally far beyond working dive depths so nothing seeped in, they were hopeless, because of the internal pressure if anything went wrong with the watch it had to be sent to Switzerland for repair.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 03:34 PM

I see from the Omega web-site you linked

It's not the Omega web site although currently, I am seeing an "image of the day" Omega to the left.

Whatever and btw, I have no problem believing these Rolex's are superb watches for this highly specialised purpose. For me though, the most I hope from "water resistant" is that it might offer the watch some protection if I do something stupid like going into the bath with it on or perhaps remove the pond pump for cleaning forgetting I'm wearing a watch :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Grab
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:13 PM

Fair nuff then Teribus, you bought yours as a tool that'd do the job. Now about the other 99% of Rolex sales... :-/

It's kinda like cars, I guess. Sure, there are a few folk who buy sports cars and race them. But mostly they're just used for posing, or at most for going fast between traffic lights. So for all the smart engineering, they could as well have bought a Ford Fiesta, except that it wouldn't look as good. If you really need a fast car to win a race, maybe you need a tooled-up Ferrari. But most tooled-up Ferraris don't get bought by racers.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with people buying stuff because it looks good. If they like it and can afford it, great. Personally I reckon good engineering is often the basis of great art - it was a lot of the basis for Art Deco, after all - and Rolexes score in a similar way. (So do many musical instruments, for that matter.)

But most Rolex owners didn't buy the Rolex because it'd survive helium decompression - they bought it because it was a Rolex, and it looks cool. Same as most Ferrari owners didn't buy it simply because it had whatever 0-60 time - they bought it because it was a Ferrari and they loved how it looked and sounded.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:45 PM

$10,000 for a Rolex
$10,000 for hungry kids

Tough decision to make.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:55 PM

I understand when people buy things for work situations. We use some equipment in firefighting that is especially designed for certain situations, and when ya need that, it's what ya need. IMO, wearing a f$$king watch to impress someone is a bit sick. But maybe that's just the way our world has become. Dress for success. What a philosophy.

Night all.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 10:04 PM

And my apologies to LH. In answer to the question of the thread title: Yep!

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 12:54 AM

You buy a Rolex for the same reason you buy a Martin guitar.

Top-of-the-line piece of equipment which will increase in value over time.

And you can sell them for the same reasons.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:01 AM

Thank you Seamus, logical, sensible, and totally objective.

G

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 09:18 AM

Don't mention it, Giok.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 10:24 AM

I can't really envisage many Rolex wearers going in for much deep sea diving.

I get a vision of this fat cat who made his money in dodgy company who offends his colleagues, and ends up sleeping with the fishes. On his wrist as he floats there, attached to a concrete block, is his Rolex, keeping perfection for years and years...

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Teribus
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 10:53 AM

Well it's a slight modification to Kevin's picture but this one's fact, it did happen:

"On his wrist as he floats there, half anchored by his equipment and torn umbilical, is his Rolex, keeping perfect time" until of course the body washed ashore and lay still on the sandy shore of Denmark. Of course he'd gone missing many, many miles away, in the UK Sector of the North Sea. The watch had kept going for five days after the motion of the sea had ceased to move his body.

Unlike Kevin, most of the people that I know/knew who wear/wore Rolex watches are, or were professional divers.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 02:13 PM

Rolex makes about 2000 watches per day. I had no idea there were that many professional divers.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 03:57 PM

It all depends on what they're diving for...

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:04 PM

Clams, I believe. You can make a lot of clams as a professional diver.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:28 PM

A Rolex collection is an investment, just like good guitars, rare postage stamps and coins, Steiff teddy bears, classic fishing rods, Navajo blankets, Georgian silver and etc., etc.

Seamus encapsulated it.

Rolex may make 2000 watches a day, but there are models for men and women, in several styles and quality. They do make some with batteries, but these are considered an aberration by the connoisseur.
The number made to divers' specifications, professional or wannabe, is small.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:53 PM

Lonesome EJ wrote:

"anyone who would buy a fake Rolex in order to appear more impressive is definitely a person of inauthentic consciousness."
I bought a fake Rolex and I can promise you my consciousness is completely authentic. I bought it as a joke. Anybody who is impressed by a Rolex, fake or not, is the one who has a problem. There really is nothing that a $10K Rolex does that a 200 dollar Seiko doesn't do probably better. A Rolex is a fine watch, but that's not what you're buying. You're buying a status symbol. Its just that simple.

You and I couldn't agree more, Leej. Someone like you was never intended to be included in the category I described as "anyone who would buy a fake Rolex in order to appear more impressive." Those of us who might conceivably buy a fake Rolex just for laughs are obviously people of much greater class and distinction.

And you're right about those who would be impressed by another's choice of wristwatch. They're at least as dimwitted as those who seek to impress them ~ probably moreso; they're the ones being duped.

I'll see your $200 Seiko and raise you my $30 Timex, which also tells time accurately and provides more ancillary functions than I can use.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 05:06 PM

Seamus encapsulated it.

Seamus gave one reason which would not be my reason for buying a Martin guitar if I chose one.

Personally, I can believe a future value could be a consideration for some buying a Rolex as I believe that divers do comprise a certain percentage of the Rolex market, etc. My own feeling is that fashoin/status account for a greater share of the Rolex market though.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 05:30 PM

Anything that is the finest in its category can be interesting in its own right, just because it is the finest. This could apply as well to watches as to guitars, rifles, lithographs, bicycles or anything else you could care to mention. One just has to have an appreciation for that category of things, that's all. The more you get to know about anything like that, the more you appreciate seeing the best that is available.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 06:18 PM

I'm sure that most people don't use anything but digital clock or watch these days.
For confirmation of this just try giving "clockwise" as an instruction at a ceilidh.

By the way, who wrote the tune "the digital watch"?

Robin Madge

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 08:18 PM

Don't the hands on a watch, battery or wind-up, move clockwise? The instruction 'clockwise' is not obsolescent.
There are some watches that have those numeric dials, but looking over the display at the drugstore, they are a minority.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 09:25 PM

Don't the hands on a watch, battery or wind-up, move clockwise?

Well there are some clocks (and perhaps watches but I've not seen one) where the hands move anti-clockwise...

That said, I'd have thought the instruction "clockwise" well understood even if there were no clocks/watches around. I don't know what others do when they try to think of the direction but when I just tried to picture clockwise now, my first reaction was the way I turn a tap off...

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 05:05 PM

Most people around here seem to do without timepieces that have hands, hence the confusion over clockwise.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Gurney
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 01:54 AM

Helium relief valve? How does that work? If you dive deep, you need to keep the water out, not let the helium out. If you climb Everest (don't we all?) and the helium comes out, does that leave a partial vacuum in there for the life of the watch?

That's how it seems to me, anyway, working from logic.

But what do I know?

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 05:14 AM

Snipped from a link I gave earlier:

"Helium does NOT seep into the watch while the watch is in water at any depth!"

2The purpose of a helium release valve is for people who wear their watch inside the helium-saturated environment for an extended period. Because helium is the smallest atom, it will seep through the watch's seals under the high air (not water) pressures in this environment. If the watch stays in this environment for an extended time, helium will continue to seep in to the watch until the air pressure inside the watch (initially surface air pressure) equalizes to the air pressure in the environment.

This becomes a problem when the vessel is brought back up and depressurized. The helium which seeped into the watch over a couple of days, cannot seep out any faster. The excess pressure inside the watch needs a way to release faster than it seeped in. It is only in this situation that a watch needs a helium relief valve at all. If a relief valve was not on the watch, the excess pressure would likely escape by pushing the crystal out."

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 01:36 PM

(1) From the Wikipedia article on watches, subheading "electronic movements":

The best quartz movements are significantly more accurate than the worst, but the difference is much smaller than that found between mechanical movements and quartz movements. Quartz movements, even in their most inexpensive forms, are an order of magnitude more accurate than purely mechanical movements. Whereas mechanical movements can typically be off by several seconds a day, an inexpensive quartz movement in a child's wristwatch may still be accurate to within 500 milliseconds per day—ten times better than a mechanical movement.

(2) Helium is not the smallest atom; hydrogen is. (But that's not particularly relevant to your explanation).

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 03:52 PM

'Because helium is the smallest atom'

No offense, but I think it's the second smallest. Hydrogen would be numero uno. Helium would be numero duo (thanks, WC).

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Peace
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 04:00 PM

Dang. Sorry, Jim.

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Apr 08 - 10:07 AM

The definition of socialism that I like most is the one which describes it as 'the politics of envy'
So I suppose that any thread about something which is perceived rightly or wrongly to be the prerogative of the rich, like a Rolex watch, was bound to attract the grudging and uncharitable remarks that this thread has received. I note that many of the knocking posts have been from the usual suspects who pop up on political threads.
I can't speak for the US side of the debate is concerned, but my perception of the UK contributors to this site, is that the majority are politically well to the left. For some reason folkies in the UK are left leaning politically, so next time someone asks for a definition of folk music, perhaps it would be correct to define it as a form of music the appeals to socialists? :)

G

{I am under the table if anybody is looking for me!] ¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: Can you live without a Rolex?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 21 Apr 08 - 10:31 AM

I don't wear a watch so yes I can live without a Rolex. I wasn't aware there is a right and wrong wrist to wear a watch on.