"It's Easy To Make Good Decisions When There Are No Bad Options."

Battle of My Divers : Tudor Pelagos vs Rolex Submariner Hulk vs Rolex Sea-Dweller Ceramic

No, I don't own all the divers above- from this picture, the ones that I have owned or still own, were Tudor Pelagos, Rolex Submariner Hulk, and Rolex Sea-Dweller Ceramic.

(NB : My Pelagos referred to the 1st generation i.e. 2-liner black dial, in which an ETA 2824-2 movement was utilised.)

Having owned a no. of diver watches from various brands utilising Swiss or Japan mechanicals, I could easily pick the ones that was truly a pleasure to own in my collection. One watch that really stood out and was up there in my diver throne, was the Tudor Pelagos.

The price was reasonable at MRSP : RM15k; it came with an innovative spring-loaded titanium buckle matched with a comfortable bracelet AND a rubber strap (no need to pay extra for Rubber B); and the bezel had a unique stopper at 12 o'clock such that if you were to push the bezel for a full round, you could sense the pressure change at that spot and therefore stop right at 12 o'clock, even with a blindfold on. I have amazed many onlookers with this neat trick- not many people including the owners, knew of this feature in the Pelagos.

I flipped the Pelagos last year at RM10k, and was to top-up the proceeds for a 2nd generation Pelagos, in blue no less. However, when I tried on the blue Pelagos (MRSP : RM16k) at the AD, I found the dial too cluttered with the 5-lines; a common complaint amongst its collectors. I decided that it would be a bit of chore staring at such a cluttered dial and moved on.

The reigning throne was thereafter taken by the Rolex Submariner Classic black dial (MRSP : RM30k), which was a nice diver watch that could be worn anywhere. However, I can't helped but noticed that in every function or meeting that I attended, there were sure to be a couple of others spotting the Submariner (in various guises- date or non-date, ceramic or non-ceramic). It was a very common watch with every Tom, Dick and Harry sporting the same watch.

Lo and behold, a reader offered a trade for my Submariner Classic with his Submariner Hulk (MRSP : RM33k). I pretty fancied the Hulk for my initial purchase if not for the higher premium and waiting list in KL. So I flipped the Submariner and the Hulk became my daily wear. I especially liked the green sun-burst dial; and it helped that green was a favourite colour of mine and there were less people sporting the Hulk in my business circles. Note that I mentioned "less", as every now and then, I found myself shaking hands with yet another wearer whom had a Hulk on his wrist.

The Submariner was pretty much a great go-to watch; in that you could pair it with a tuxedo, casual wear, or t-shirt and jeans; and it would still looked at ease. I viewed the Hulk as pretty much a keeper in that I won't be flipping it off; but at the same time, I was hankering for a black-dial Rolex sports watch that would looked more formal. 

A chance to acquire the Explorer II (MRSP : RM31k) came about and I pulled the trigger. However, the novelty soon wore off and I realised that I still preferred a uni-directional rotational bezel, which was useful for many a daily chore. I may be flipping off this Explorer 2 in due course.

I thought back about the diver watches that I had and realised that my fave ones were the Pelagos 2-liner and the Submariner Ceramic Date. I liked the Pelagos' symmetrical dial minus the cyclops on the Submariner Date; but I preferred the heft of the Submariner Date to the light titanium feel of the Pelagos. At the same time, I liked the raised sapphire crystal that I had with my (flipped) Tudor Black Bay Burgundy. I also liked the Mil-Sub's matte dial, graduated bezel and vintage thinner lugs (the lugs on the Submariner's maxi-case looked as though they were on steroids, yet the bracelet remained at 20mm instead of 22mm, which could be a better match to the widen lugs).

I suddenly realised that there was ONE watch that would satisfy all my above preferences. I figured that I could flipped off most of my watches (sans the Hulk) to raise monies towards this piece, and I would be happy with this watch as a daily go-to wear. I was of course, referring to my latest acquisition in the...

Rolex Sea-Dweller Ceramic.

The Sea-Dweller was the bigger brother of Submariner, and its higher MRSP : RM40k ensured that most customers turned to the better-priced Submariner to scratch their Rolex diver itch. Therefore, this watch was rather rare in the wild and I dare said that I have not spotted a Sea-Dweller Ceramic on my associates' wrists thus far.

I know that this could well be my watch for life; and after acquiring this beautiful piece in all it's glory, I am now a happy man indeed.

E-mail from Reader : Hunt for Rolex with Discount

This was a follow-up e-mail from reader Steve over the earlier posting. From my personal experiences, I found that one could generally get better offers from Rolex ADs in Hong Kong, Macau, UAE and Europe. If you go to an AD with higher and faster turnover, it could meant that they have the sales volume and could therefore offer you that extra price-down to close the deal fast. It helps if you have purchased from them before, or are buying a few pieces together. Not the norm, but I have done that before- 3 Rolexes over 2 days at the same shop, helping my Boss and colleague to net some good deals. Needless to say, I struck quite an impression with the manager and during the next purchase, I received preferential treatment and price-down offers.

If you were not a seasoned traveller or have no friends whom could assist you to net these pieces overseas, you could still purchase from grey resellers. Point to note was that some of these grey resellers deal with pre-owned pieces so make sure that you were paying for the right type of goods. You don't want to pay a less-than-AD-price-but-more-than-pre-owned-price, for a pre-owned piece marketed as a new piece. Another point was that some grey resellers only offer their shop warranty and not the Rolex manufacturer warranty- for me, I would advise to get the Rolex manufacturer warranty wherever possible as you could just walk into Rolex SC at Meara Dion in case of any issues, and needn't be worried about Franken parts. And some grey resellers sell non-full boxed sets so be sure to bargain down the price if that was the case.

Let us see what was the Rolex RRP from the previous blog post :

I would share with readers on some of the prices from grey resellers here in Malaysia, and you could see that there was an element of discount presented in their sale. In the example below, you could see that the Sea Dweller 116600, which was my current fave-most Rolex diver watch, retailed at RM40,350 at Rolex Authorised Dealer, but discounted 10% downwards to RM36,200 at a grey reseller shop.

As per above, there were elements of discount but be sure to learn more about the warranty provided. And if the piece that you wanted to buy was priced way too low, you should think rationally if it was at all possible as Rolex watches tend to sell well even in its MSRP. Learn to be smart to avoid being taken for a ride as there could be pretty good replica pieces out there in the market. All the best in hunting for your fave Rolex piece!

E-mail from Reader : Rolex Pricing

Well, the e-mail from a reader i.e. Steve that came in was worded along these lines :

Well, it ain't exactly the most polite of the e-mails that I received from time to time; but then again, it caught my attention for shooting straight from the hips. 

Far from being paid by Rolex, I actually have to pay them for servicing my watches as evidenced below. I don't even get a discount, as you could well see for yourself.

Well, I liked watches and Rolex is an established brand name in the horological world. It ain't the most expensive watch out there, it ain't the most decorative watch out there, and it ain't the most yuppie watch out there. But the watches that Rolex make- they tend to make them with the highest quality in mind, in its traditional hand-made manner, with the usage of patented technologies over time. For instance, their Oyster case was essential in bringing water-proof features into the watches of today, their usage of 904L stainless steel was still the pioneer and only one in the industry todate, etc.

I like Omega myself too, and if you looked through the watches that I had previously owned and flipped, you would find a couple of Seamaster Professional and Planet Ocean in the list. The only Omega watch that I still have in my collection now was the Speedmaster Panda, and I find that the Speedy was amongst the nicest-looking chronograph watch out there, beating even the Rolex Daytona. No doubt the Speedy's reputation as the first watch on the moon, helped in shaping my opinion so. But I digress.

For Diver and GMT watches, I find that the evergreen and oft-copied Rolex design still wins my attention hands-down. The design was practical, easy to read, and had an identity that was synonymous with Rolex. My favourite Rolex models in this genre were as the following :

For a new Rolex collector, I would highly-recommend the Rolex Submariner 114060. It had the very pleasing symmetrical look and was the original Rolex that was associated with James Bond from the Sean Connery era. An absolute beauty and easy to flip, a new collector couldn't go much wrong with the Submariner Ceramic No-Date (RRP : circa RM29k).

Next, we have the Submariner Ceramic Date, (RRP : circa RM33k) which was the best-selling Rolex diver watch. Buyers normally go for the Classic (black) or Hulk (green). I used to have the Classic piece, before I flipped it for the Hulk, which remained as one of my favourite watch.

For the GMT-Master 2 (RRP : circa RM34k), I have a preference towards the BLNR (blue-black), which was a very handsome watch in my eyes.

And finally, my fave-most Rolex diver watch was the Sea-Dweller Ceramic (RRP : circa RM40k). It has a window feature like the 116610LN, but without the Cyclops, so it looked symmetrical like that of the 114060. It's water resistance was to a depth of 1,220m as opposed to the Submariner's 300m. Here are my 2 fave Rolex diver watches side-by-side.

Pictures : Rolex Sea-Dweller Ceramic model no. 116600

This was one of my latest acquisition and I am pleased as punch to add this beautiful piece into my collection. Compared to the other divers in the Rolex line-up, the Sea-Dweller Ceramic aka SD4000 was considered the rarer piece in the open; as most buyers would rather pay lesser for the Submariner Ceramic Date (116610LN), which looked almost similar to the untrained eye; and in which the same movement i.e. Caliber 3135 was utilised in both the Sea-Dweller and Submariner.

I found the rarer Sea-Dweller to be captivating in its own rights, and the lower production nos. was an attractive plus point to me too.

Here, enjoy some eye-candies :