C-segment Wrist Watches

Sunday, 10 August 2014

Safe Queen : Rolex Datejust Model No. 1601 - part 1

It has been a busy morning and afternoon bringing Alex for his co-curricular activities around Damansara and Puchong. Finally, he is now doing his homework and I have a little bit of time to be on the computer.

Going through previous postings, I saw 2 comments left for a posting i.e. 1972 Vintage Rolex Datejust Model No. 1601 made sometime in April 2014. I had then been bitten by the vintage watch bug and was looking for a vintage Submariner or Datejust to add into my collection, and chanced upon this excellent example from a fellow collector and paid a small princely sum of RM10,688 for it.

Apparently, this Steve Robinson was a big fan of this vintage model no. 1601 and was pretty interested in my watch. And from the site that he referred to, I Googled a bit and found that good examples were really being sold at quite a premium overseas. Vintage seemed to be much more of a rage there compared to locally.

After the currency conversion, that's a cool RM21,500 for a 1973 vintage Rolex Datejust 1601 over there. And to think that I just paid 50% of that value to get my minty 1972 vintage Rolex Datejust 1601 in this part of the world.

I haven't seen that old girl for a while actually, so I went to retrieve her from the safe. She's a thorough safe queen alright, still in the condition as the day I bought her to join my collection- perhaps slightly better in fact, as I had sent her to my Dad's fellow watch smith friend whose shop used to a former Rolex AD. He had inspected the watch for me, serviced it and confirmed to me that it was a genuine watch with all its original parts intact. And he gave me the thumbs-up that it was a good example, and remarked that she's a keeper alright. And after that, I had placed her into the safe.

Till today.

Her time was still accurate despite being placed on a winder for 3 months now, and I duly took out my polishing cloth to give her a quick rub. Then, I whipped out my phone to snap a couple of current shots as per the following :

I still think that the old gal's a beauty, and very well-preserved for a 42 year old watch. I guess that's why we pay top dollars for Rolex's quality.

But after purchasing the Tudor Black Bay Burgundy Red (launched during Baselworld 2012), I must admit that I have been thinking about getting the Monte Carlo Chrono Blue (Baselworld 2013) and Black Bay Midnight Blue (Baselworld 2014). In fact, I wrote about related watches some time back @ Tudor Chrono Blue and Vintage Snowflake.

If I could free up some funds from this old gal, I could then get one of the pieces above sooner rather than latter. In fact, the very same piece in the Monte Carlo Blue pictured above is up on the market; and from what the owner told me, should be in minty condition and hardly-worn as he was mainly overseas while the watch was in his friend's safe-keeping in Malaysia. To say that I am tempted to take this off his hand would be an understatement.

Decision decision decision...

To be continued @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.com/2014/08/safe-queen-rolex-datejust-model-no-1601_10.html.

Friday, 8 August 2014

8/8/2014 : Tudor Heritage Black Bay Burgendy Red, 8.40 pm

This has been a good week to me. And I'll be starting the weekend with one of the watches that I had been admiring for a while but have yet to pull the trigger. I am, of course, referring to the...

Tudor Heritage Black Bay Burgendy Red, codenamed BB Red hereinafter.

Throughout the year thus far, I have been purchasing and flipping a fair bit of watches - some almost within the same month, as some watches may look good on the Net but may not exactly sing to you after they arrived vide international shipping. Yes, I have been buying quite a no. of watches vide the Net, although I always choose those retailers with good feedback worldwide and preferably return policy. Asian retailers may not entertain returns, but having worked in UK for a no. of years, I am used to such European store policies whereby you may return those goods purchased (but unused) within a month or so.

The fact that watches from overseas normally cost a little lower than the selling prices in Malaysia, helped steering me towards that angle somewhat. Or they may offer some useful freebies or watch accessories.

The good thing about this watch blog was that fellow watch enthusiasts always point me towards the right direction. 2 days ago, I wrote about the temptation of BB Red @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.com/2014/08/tempting-tudor-heritage-black-bay.html, and a fellow reader pointed me towards a mint piece advertised by a watch collector for just RM8,800.

I contacted the said watch collector ("WC") and was given to understand that he had received the BB Red as a gift, but he was actually interested in another piece so he was letting the BB Red go, to fund towards his intended purchase. The watch was supposedly in mint condition, and as good as new.

If it was as good as new, I could save some RM2,000 from the purchase compared to walking into a Rolex AD, which would then help to fund some Peter's Gunny Straps for some of my watches. We arranged to meet tonight near my home.

After some pleasantries upon meeting each other, he handed me the BB Red for a thorough check-up. We watch collectors normally keep our pieces on rotation in the winders, and watches from collectors would typically be in tip-top condition.

This piece was no different. In fact, it was even newer compared to the display sets in ADs.

This was an easy deal. One look and I know that it was a done deal. And WC even gave not one but two pieces of genuine Tudor Nato straps with the purchase. One was the black colour strap that came along with the boxed set, while the other was a retro chic strap decorated with raised rows of interwoven satin originally from his Tudor Heritage Advisor.

He told me that he had read my blog and knew that I was a Nato type of guy.

So I came home, had a quick dinner and started to work on the link adjustments to suit my wrist. Easy-peasy of a job armed only with my trusty mini-screwdriver. And thereafter, a quick rub with my trusty Cape Cod watch-polishing cloth and I have a BB Red that was shining and gleaming like the stars above.

Enjoy the pictures hereafter :

All in all, I am pretty satisfied with this BB Red purchase and I have no doubts that I would enjoy having her adorning my wrist from hereinafter. There she was, having a good chat with her new-found horology friends. Nice...