I have my father’s Rolex that was presented to him by the crew of a ship he was on in the Antarctic in 1959 the year I was born and was engraved ‘Antarctic 1959’. When he sent it to me (he lived in South Africa) he had worn it every day for over 30 years and it never missed a beat. The only thing was, as he had worn it as an every day watch, the original metal strap had long gone and he replaced it with a leather one. The only other thing, was the glass face was a bit scratched.
I took it it a Rolex dealer here in York and asked how much to replace the strap with an original metal one and a new glass. At the time over about 25 years ago, we hardly had a pot to you know what in and were just about paying the mortgage. They said it would cost £200 but also Rolex said because of its age, they would only do it if they could service it too. I saved and saved and went without, but got it done.
It came back looking like new and I was so proud to wear it, and did so for 14 months. It was a perpetual motion watch which wound itself up whenever you moved your wrist. So, although it had a winder it didn’t actually wind the watch up, it just adjusted the hands and to do so you had to unscrew it. I was showing a work colleague it one day and how the winder inscrewed form the watch, when it popped out of the body of the watch completely and pinged across the room, which it obviously should not have done. I was very upset, but took it immediatley back to the jewelers and showing them, they said because it was out of the 12 month service warranty it would cost me quite a few quid that I didn’t have to repair.
So, I put it in a box and in the loft (thinking if we got broken in to, thieves never go into the loft) until such times as I could afford to get it fixed. Several years later, I went looking for it and could not find it. To my horror, I remember clearing out the loft and was sure I accidentally threw away the box it was in, not remembering which box it was exactly.
As you can imagine I was beside myself, but what could I do? My dad’s watch was now in some landfill somewhere.
23 years on and I was in the loft having a clear out again, and came across an A4 size box hiding way in the back with the words KEEP written in red. I opened it up and there were lots of little boxes inside. Upon opening them up, I found cufflinks and tie pins and yes you’ve guessed it, my dad’s watch. I will admit I cried.
Now at 64 and with the mortgage paid I thought, I can get it fixed. I took it to the same Rolex dealers still in York and asked them what it would cost. They said they would have to send it off to Rolex for them to look at it as it was old and even possibly classed as vintage depending in the serial numbers found inside. However that would be at a cost of non-refundable £120 even if they could not repair it.
Off it went, and some three weeek later I was told it was back and to come into the shop. They sat me down and said Rolex confirmed by the serial number it was classed as vintage and therefore worth more. They also said they could not fix it, as they no longer kept the part required for such an old watch. However, they had an independant vintage watch repairer who could make the part and fix it. FANTASTIC!…..and it would cost me just over £3000. The watch, by the way if fixed, would be worth closer to £12,000 and of course will keep increasing in value.
Unfortunately I do not have 3k spare and anyway, regardless of what it would be worth, that only matters if I were going to sell it, which I will never do. I would want to wear it as my every day watch as I did and my father before me did. So, I had to decline and they gave it back in a nice velvet bag.
So, it sits in that nice £120 velvet bag hidden away. And maybe one day whomever I leave it to, they will be able to afford to have it repaired.
I have nerver worn a watch since the day my father’s broke.
Sorry for the long winded story, but just the cost of the repair because it was a Rolex I think they take the perverbial pee, has definitley made me go Grrrrrr!
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