My AD Story - New Watch Content

[Kevin of Larchmont]

I've been shopping at my local AD for ten years and buying for four. I have a nice retail relationship with one female sales associate there. In 2016 I had a burst of activity and purchased a DJII, a MK1 Pelagos and a five digit Sub. I stopped in occasionally in the intervening years and kept in touch. My discretionary purchasing was interrupted rather harshly in 2018 when my wife at the time changed her mind; I held the classical definition of the word Forever but I came to learn that her definition was more transnational. This continued the slowdown in my purchasing but I nonetheless benefited from the AD relationship by having them adjust all my bracelets after I lost forty pounds during the divorce, again keeping the dialogue going. Over this last summer I sold the house that I shared with my ex and my first stop after the closing was at the AD where I purchased a DJ36. During that transaction I mentioned that I was also interested in a polar Explorer II and could she let me know when they received one. Relationship notwithstanding my sales associate friend explained that they get very few, they'd only had one so far this year and didn't expect one until next year and that there is no "list," rather the owner decides who gets what - the unspoken context being that he decides who gets what based on past and potential purchasing history. Now I'm no whale but I paid my entrance fee with four watches in four years and I made my case. Still, it wasn't up to her. Over intervening months I kept up the charm offensive, secretly hoping that she called after Christmas but ready to pounce whenever. The day before yesterday I got the call. Yesterday I got the watch.

I'd never seen an Exp II in person before. I knew it was big but the white dial and the orange hand just killed me and I was going to buy it no matter what. I never bonded with my DJII partly because of the size but also because of the scale of the markers and the lettering on the dial - they just seemed off to me - a little strained, as if the watch was designed by committee. Finally what bugged me the most about the DJII was the way the crown dug into the back of my hand. I traded it in on the DJ36 which is as close to the perfect watch as I have ever encountered. But the Exp II follows closely. It wears differently than the DJII in ways that are hard to quantify but suffice it to say it rolls less towards 12 and the crown guards really protect the back of my hand nicely. Did I mention the orange hand? I have a bigger watch (my wrist is 6.75"), a 44mm Seiko Sumo so I have experience with big watches but the Exp II doesn't feel as big as it looks. So in my meager Rolex stable I have two classics - a five digit Sub and a DJ 36 - and an idiosyncratic wild card, the polar EXP II. It's taken me four years and one misstep to put this combo together but I'm at peace, for now.

Which brings me back to the AD. So many posts here declaim the wait for the watch models we want, cursing the grays for their high prices and imagined hoarding of inventory. Watches can be had at the AD's if we play the long game. Like many things in life worth having we need simply need patience. You can't buy a college degree over the counter, you have to earn it over time. The difference between a college degree and a watch is that a college degree is important and a watch isn't. None of what we talk about here really matters anyway. When I asked my sales associate friend what swayed the owner to allow me an opportunity to purchase the watch she said it was her effort on my behalf. That's how you get what you want, you make a friend. And that takes time.