I met Mr. Ed and Marc Bridge (of BenBridge Jewlers) at Rolex event

[TheVTCGuy]

First, I know you are going to say: "Pics, or it didn't happen" I say it all the time... You're just going to have to take my word for it, this happened.

Last Thursday evening, my local AD, Ben Bridge Jewler in the UTC mall here in San Diego had a special Rolex event; the Deep-Sea. It was a tribute to the two Rolexes that have made the journey to the bottom of the world, the Mariana's Trench. They had both watches there, on Display (in extremely secure cases!). The first one went with the Bathyscaphe Triest in (I think) 1963, and the second, with Mr. Cameron several months ago. I was thrilled to be invited, it was a very classy event (how did I get invited? ).

I met Mr. Ed Bridge, son of found Ben Bridge. Mr. Bridge saw the lapel pin on my suit coat, identifying myself as an (ex) Navy Pilot. He came right over, shook my hand and thanked me for my service. Mr. Bridge was in the Navy as a young man and he said had the utmost respect for us fly-boys. It was truly an honor to meet this man, the epitome of class and respect. He is 88 years old, and I wish I looked as good as he did and I am half his age.... (OK, so a little more then half!... Geeeez). He introduced me to his Son, Marc, who (I believe) is VP of sales for Ben Bridge world-wide. They were two of the nicest gentlemen I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and were as humble as could be. They thanked me for being a customer, asked what my experiences in their store was like, how could they improve etc. (asking ME!? I was being treated as if I were a "whale" customer, having spent millions of dollars or something when in reality, I was just a very low-level buyer). I can understand now why BB is succesful. It was just a very enjoyable evening.

OK, now let's get to the important part... I met the Rolex rep and asked him about Basel.....

First, he gave the most honest answer I've ever heard. He looked me straight in the eye and said: 'I ... Don't.... Know" So, no wild crazy things coming from him. HOWEVER.... I pushed, and asked: "Well, if you had to take a guess, what would you think?" He said:

Rolex seems to release new models after making some kind of anouncement, or publicity thing or ... something. There were two anouncements that caught his eye lately. The first, was that Rolex had an event recently TO CELEBRATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSERY OF THE DAYTONA.....

Hmmmmm.......

The second, was there was an article published by Rolex explaining how difficult it was to impregnate red color on the ceramic bezel of the GMT.... He said: "Now why would they come out with an article talking about how difficult a process was.... UNLESS THEY SOLVED IT.

Hmmmmmm............

I asked him about a 42 GMT, Daytona, anything else and he (again, honestly) said: "I really don't know."

So, what the heck, I had a very enjoyable evening and thought I'd throw in a little new-model controversy.