Another metallic addition to the family!

[Vernal]

As I shake my head in disbelief, I introduce you to the newest member of my Rolex family, my Explorer II 40mm. I'm not exactly sure how this happened - a phrase which I think should become my signature on TRF, as it probably appears in every post like this I write. At the beginning of July I owned ZERO Rolex watches, nor was I even really shopping for one.

I had to bring in one of my babies to see about getting it fixed, and happened to get spotted by my usual saleswoman. However, I was just there to drop off my watch for repair and get back home to watch football, but while the staff was doing their stuff to prepare the watch for shipment to their jeweler, I decided to wander around. I want to repeat I WAS NOT THERE TO SHOP! I looked again at all the Tags, Omegas, Breitlings, Cartiers, Pateks, Panerei - nothing called to me. Then I passed by the Rolex case. Nestled in the corner was the 40mm black-face Explorer 2, right next to a white-face.

And then the voice started whispering.

"You know you want a watch with a GMT function..."

I answered myself with confidence. "The GMT looks too much like the Sub for me to buy because I already have four Subs. Only a Pepsi can tempt me now, otherwise my collection is complete."

"You know that they are making the Explorer 2 bigger next year..."

"I don't need another watch."

Then my saleswoman who sold me my Hulk brings out a black-face SS Daytona from the safe! Man, what a watch! I looked, and I lingered, and lusted.

"You know you need a watch with a chronograph..."

"Yeah, but I need it to go to 1/10 of a second, and the Daytona doesn't do that."

"But LOOK at it, man, just LOOK at it..."

So I tried it on, and thought about it, and thought some more, but decided I just couldn't pull it off, fashion-wise. I have NO fashion sense, so I must be careful. However, off in the corner came the whispering again.

"What if they don't ever make a Pepsi GMT ceramic...

"I'll just buy a used original one."

"That Explorer 2 looks like it will go with everything..."

So I asked to try on a 41mm Datejust, just to see the size of it on me. Too big. 42mm would be out of the question. I'm barely pulling off the Subs with my micro-wrists.

"What if you decide you 'need' a watch with the GMT function and run into the same trouble finding a Pepsi that you had with the 16613?....

That was hard to refute. I can be very persuasive to myself sometimes. So I tried it on. Fit like a glove!

Then I offered her three prices - if they were willing to consider them, I gave them a) one that I told her I would have to go home and sleep on; b) one that I would go outside and think about; and c) one that would have me pulling my credit card out right there.

A few minutes of conferencing in the back, and I became the new owner of the Explorer 2.

I have to say, my opinion is that this watch has been underrated on this forum. It is light as a feather, more comfortable than my 14060 (which was in the lead, to date), it appears to feel quite rugged, it doesn't catch on my cuff when I try to check the time, and it has a subtlety that the Subs lack.

Of course, as you can see by my other picture (taken for my insurance company doubters, who were questioning that I would add so many expensive watches in so short a period of time; I guess they thought I was flipping them and was going to report them all stolen or something despite a few decades of no claims whatsoever), I LOVE the "noise" that a Sub makes. It's just that sometimes I want to listen to Rock, and sometimes to Jazz.

Next time I go in that store to pick up my other watch, I'm going to make that saleslady go in another room. I mean, there is no ulterior sales mojo going on, no "attraction" to anything other than the watches; it's just that she shows up, two buddies talk about watches for a while, and I walk out with another watch.

I don't know if conventional wisdom will say I made a mistake by passing on the black-face Daytona (which was SO cool but wouldn't look right on me), or by buying the black-face Explorer 2 instead of the white-face, or the 40 vs the upcoming 42, or the old bracelet over the new, etc. All I know is the "buy me" song started playing in my head again, and the only other time that song plays is when I'm looking at something with a V-8.

So now I'm sure my collection is done. All I need is a wife and some kids to pass them down to. Although she did show me in the catalog a cool-looking Panerai with a blue face that I've never seen before...