Two Explorers and mosy of a Lifetime.

[Gugnunc]

Many years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth (well 1965 to be precise), I was approaching my 21st birthday - an occasion which my parents had always said that they would like to mark by buying me a "good" watch; at that time neither I nor my parents had any idea of what constituted a quality timepiece - I doubt that we were even aware that Breguet was considered by many to be of superior quality to Timex! However, it so happened that a few weeks before reaching my birthday I had read "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and had learned that James Bond used a Rolex Oyster Perpetual - well I reckoned that anything which was good enough for 007 was good enough for me and, with a bit of persuading, my parents agreed - this was very generous of them as the O.P. which they bought me (an Explorer) was to cost them over £50 - a lot of money in those days. Anyway off we went one sunny afternoon (afternoons are nearly always sunny when you're twenty one) to the local Rolex dealer and I emerged with something which would prove to be very special to me- the more so as the years passed. I was very impressed with my present, it was keeping time to within a minute per week (a very consistent loss) and this was in an era when the average watch was considered acceptable if it stayed within 2-3 minutes per day; no quartz then and tuning-fork watches were very rare and expensive birds.
I have owned the watch ever since and it has proved to be a solid, reliable and attractive piece of kit. I was wearing it when I first met my wife and when I married her two and a half years later. It was with me when I survived a spectacular car crash in which it was torn from my arm, when I qualified as a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and also when I was made Chief Chemist of the company (now long defunct) for which I then worked. It was ticking nervously when I hit the magic "ton" on my Honda in 1977 - I was 33 at the time and old enough to know better! It was there when I carried out my first solo in a powered aircraft, when I first tried my hand at aerobatics and when I gained my pilot's licence. It attended my father's funeral with me. It has survived a burglary because it was well hidden. It has also seen me through two redundancies and a broken engagement. I am wearing it as I type these words. It has been present during most of the pivotal moments of my life and forms a link to those parts of my past which have combined to produce the person I am now.. Few, if any, of my other material possessions is so evocative of what used to be! So - badly misquoting Noel Coward: "Every beat marks the sweep of (my) history..................." .
Now, having reached retirement age with time to spare and having access to this new-fangled interweb thingy, I decided that I would like to do some research into this amalgam of cogs, springs, hands, dial and stainless steel. It turned out that what I have is a Super Precision 5500 Explorer with an underline (which in 45 years I had never taken note of) and a double "T>25"marking which I had always assumed to be a model number! But, more importantly, the serial number suggested that it had been made in the Autumn (probably October) of 1963 - and this was the month and year in which the Beatles were at No.1 with "She Loves You", President Kennedy was just weeks away from visiting Dallas and I started my apprenticeship as an industrial chemist; I like to think that it may have left the factory on the same day that my studies began. Having now come to the end of my formal working life I thought that, as I had discovered that I owned a watch which marked the beginning of my professional life, it would be nice to own another which marked this point too. So - back to the same counter in the same shop where my watch had been bought 45 years before (strangely the staff looked so much younger this time) I showed them the watch, the original receipt (which they photocopied for their archives) and the box, then I said that I would like to buy another Explorer. Somewhat surprised, they were, nevertheless, only too happy to sell me one. So now I own two Explorers, one from 1963 and one from approx. 2009 - which means that they mark the alpha and omega (sorry, that's a terrible pairing for watch enthusiasts) of my formal working life.
Looking at the two watches they are, paradoxically, both very similar and very different. The new one is slightly larger, 36mm as opposed to 34mm, but this is hardly noticeable, and looks crisper and more defined than did the old watch even when new. The '09 version hacks, '63 version doesn't. The new bracelet is more practical with its safety catch but I still like the 1960's spring-loaded version with the rivets. The new watch is heavier and keeps better time (but only just) and is specified as a chronometer whereas the 5500 is not (although it has the 1530 chronometer movement and is running on the cusp of chronometer standards). Overall there is not enough difference in their appearances to suggest that they are separated by 40+ years of development - not surprising as Rolex is largely defined by tradition and continuity. The older watch has a mellowness about it which I doubt that the newer one will ever acquire because this is largely due to the aging of the tritium - it looks just "right" for a 47 year old watch.
Still, I like the new watch, an 114270, very much and the almost "chiming" sound of the movement just oozes class, but it can never inspire the same affection which the older one does, because to me that one can be appreciated at two levels; as a well-made and very functional instrument and also, without becoming overly sentimental, because it is something which has always been there when important things have happened to me. I am very lucky to have owned both of them, but especially the 1963 model.