Surprise pickup, luck and serendipity in Holland

[uscmatt99]

Thought I’d share a fun story from recent travels. TL;DR my friend scored a win for the little guy, see pics below.

My wife and I are fortunate to be good friends with our next door neighbors (but not with our other next door neighbors!!). We’ve traveled with them one other time to Costa Rica and had a blast, but it’s been difficult to align our schedules until this year for another trip. One of them is of Dutch descent and has always wanted to visit the motherland, so we decided to spend a week in Amsterdam, with the plan to do a couple of day trips.

After spending a couple days exploring Amsterdam, we decided to take a trip to Rotterdam to explore the city center and take a boat trip. That place is an engineering marvel! First stop from the central station was to be the big market near the water to sample the delicacies. As Western European residents are aware, it was crazy hot, and that country is just not set up for days that hot. So we debated walking or just taking an Uber. We decided to walk, and made our way from the station.

There’s a lot of shopping opportunity with a beautiful modern design that is pedestrian friendly. While walking, our friend spotted some sundresses to try on, as we’d all packed for cooler weather. My buddy and I knew this would take a bit, and while waiting outside, we noticed a watch store with AP and Omega. I’d been recently eyeing Speedmasters and peeked through the window. The store was on a corner, larger than it appeared. So we ventured around the corner and noticed they were a Rolex AD as well.

My friend is a big dude and his only mechanical watch is a GMT Coke he was gifted after graduating high school. He left it at home for the trip and was sporting an iWatch. He’s always wanted a Submariner or Sea Dweller, but had put it off due to other priorities. Of course now that the time has been right, there is no stock anywhere. However, this AD was a bit different. Among a small sea of 2-tone DJ’s, there was a beacon of pure stainless steel, without the signature cyclops. It was a beast. It was a DSSD.

We walked in to enquire about it, and sure enough they had just put it in the case that morning an hour or two before we arrived. Not spoken for. He tried it on, and with the adjustable clasp nearly completely extended, it was a match made in heaven. This guy is totally over the moon, and the anthem for the rest of the trip was “Dude, what time is it again?”

Mandatory wrist buddies shot:

Watch buddies by uscmatt99, on Flickr

I’m so happy for him, he works his ass off and this is a great way to celebrate the accomplishments he’s had in his career. But I have to say I was feeling a bit inadequate. He can go to the bottom of the ocean, but all my watch can do is climb Everest. I needed to go as high as a watch can go if he can go as deep as a watch can go, after all.

So my wife and I paid a visit to Ace Jewelers on our last day in Amsterdam. I’ve been lusting after a Moonwatch for years, as my birthday is July 20th and it just seems oh so appropriate. They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Here it is!


Over the moon by uscmatt99, on Flickr

Hope you enjoyed the story, it was an epic trip