re: Whose got a Rolex?

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It also never keeps accurate time.

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Last one has the watch James Bond wore in Dr No which I guess is a submariner. His grandfather was a huge Bond fan and it’s been handed down.

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I know three people that have owned Rolex’s. First two where the first “splash” purchases made when they got their new money. Also was one of the first things to go back when the new money ran out.

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1. Rolex Is The Best (New Guy Version.) The fact that Rolex designs evolve so slowly has done something very important --it's ensured that if you have one on, a disproportionate number of people are going to know you are wearing (a) a Rolex and (b) an expensive watch. The upside is that it can and does say you're a person of means (there is nothing wrong, per se, with conspicuous consumption if that's what you know you want) but the downside is that a certain percentage of observers will conclude, rightly or wrongly, that advertising your affluence is the only (or at least the main) reason you bought the watch. You may have bought a Rolex simply because you've decided you like watches, and you've heard Rolex is a good watch --unfortunately, that's not going to stop some people from assuming you had more ignoble motives. Sooner or later, though, the new owner may wonder why so many self-styled watch experts are sneering, which leads to . . .

2. Rolex Is For Suckers (New Connoisseur Version.) This stage of appreciation --well, of recognition, anyway --is usually the result of one's first exposure to the enormous range of other luxury watch brands, and the onset of suspicion that what you get when you buy a Rolex is an overpriced, uninteresting watch from a company that is too lazy to update its own designs, too rich to risk change, and is generally happiest resting on its generously proportioned laurels. This stage is often marked by a discovery of, and fascination with, the vocabulary of hand-finishing of movements, largely absent in Rolexes; one swoons to the alluring exoticism of côtes de Genève, anglage, oeil-de-perdrix, and the whole rich world of finissage. The awareness that Rolex, rightly or wrongly, is associated with a certain kind of person in many minds --generally male, American, McMansion-owning, loud, golf-obsessed, sartorially challenged and gastronomically undiscriminating, and fond of unnecessarily large and inefficient automobiles --merely serves to confirm the prejudice that unless one wants to be taken for an illbred, reactionary lout, Rolex and all it stands for is best avoided. This stage can persist indefinitely, potentially, but if one continues to inquire one may arrive at . . .

3. Rolexes Are Actually Pretty Good Watches (Grizzled Veteran Version.) There are several paths that can lead to this stage. One observes bemusedly that it is, oddly enough, one's Rolex --usually in the context of being worn when you don't want to wear one of your "good" watches --that seems to keep time best. One observes bemusedly that it is, oddly enough, one's Rolex that seems to be the most free of irritating and expensive prima donna temperamental behavior. One finds, bemusedly, that it is --quelle surprise --one's Rolex which seems to be migrating more and more frequently onto one's wrist, like a faithful Jeeves tolerant as the years go by of the mad whims and fads of its master. One may even find, as I did, that Rolexes are worn by a rather surprising number of watch industry executives working for other brands (on their days off, of course!) and are preferred, for their extremely reliable engineering, by an awful lot of watchmakers. And one discovers that what one thought was lack of personality was merely a refusal on the part of the watch to impose one on you --its very simplicity is what lets it become, as it develops its palimpsest of scratches, marks, and nicks through the slings and arrows of daily use, your watch, and not a brand billboard.

The beauty of this last level of Rolex Appreciation is that it is a temperate one; you are not wearing a Rolex (or refusing to) because of what other people think --good or bad --but because you have made up your own mind, and for your own reasons. You like the watch largely for what it is, not what other people think it means, and you have the very special pleasure that comes from being well informed and doing what you damned well please anyway.

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While I have never heard the Seiko theory I do know the Connery connection is tenuous but it is the first told and most often repeated.

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