Originally Posted by flybigjet
So. Since I'm trapped in my guest bedroom coughing my lungs out, here's a (sort of) short story.
Last year, I was coming up on a "triple-crown" of three events (within a year or two of each other): my 10-year wedding anniversary, my 50th birthday, and my Captain upgrade.
My wife wanted to get me a Sub or a GMT since I'd always sort of wanted one from back when I was on Active Duty in the AF (and boy, not buying a dozen GMT's at the AAFES in Germany in the mid 90's? Big mistake. Huge).
She liked the Air-King (which sort of made sense with me being a pilot), but the face was a little busy to me and I thought the whole tie-in with the Bloodhound SSC was sort of a gimmick.
I liked the Explorer from a picture I'd seen with it on a nylon strap but nobody near me had one in stock. Funnily enough, on a long layover, I wandered into an AD and they'd *just* put one out in the case that morning-- I looked at it, tried it on, tried to love it, but it just didn't grab me-- I wasn't much for the shiny bezel or grey face (it photographs much darker), and it felt a bit small for my wrist. So I passed on it (although I could have made a quick buck on it if I'd wanted to flip it). As soon as I decided against it, another guy bought it before the sales rep could even put it back in the case.
My wife and I continued to research and did a LOT of shopping around trying to find "my" watch-- IWC, Panerai, Muhle Glashutte, Omega, Tudor, yada yada. I actually spent time in Chile, Argentina, and a bunch of islands in the Caribbean looking around for something that caught my eye with no success.
We both kept coming back to a ceramic Sub No-Date (114060), but good luck finding one, as I had NO relationship with any AD's.
I looked around locally, and an AD an hour north of me put my name "on the list" with the expectation of 2-3 years before one came available.
Then, I just happened to stop by the AD nearest my house (go figure), since I needed to get some of my wife's jewelry repaired/cleaned/appraised and chatted with the sales rep. I told her my story and about how my wife wanted me to get a Sub No-Date, but that we couldn't find one anywhere. She took my name down, and I honestly never expected to hear from her as she said they *never* got SS Rolex's in stock.
Two weeks later? She calls. A ceramic no-date Sub came in and she'd talked to the owner, told him my story, and he said to call me to see if I wanted it. They were very interested in only selling to someone who would keep the watch and not flip it for a profit.
My wife and I went down, picked up the Sub, and then I had to wait a week to wear it while I waited for my Everest nylon strap to come in (I'm not a big fan of bracelets). The strap *completely* changes the look of the watch-- it's still a Sub, but it's more subtle and doesn't have the large ss bracelet that screams "Look at me- I'm a Rolex!".
So, now my watch collection is complete. I have a vintage Glycine Airman that was my father's in Viet Nam that has pride of place (it's a "true" 24 hour + GMT watch)-- it's a little small on my wrist now by current standards, but my father gifted it to me when I graduated pilot training and I wore it through every conflict and war I flew in for 27 years. The Sub is my "around home/date night" watch when I'm not on a bike or motorcycle. I've got a Sinn 856 UTC that is utterly and completely bombproof for when I'm flying (its casing is 5x harder than a Rolex), a Seiko Samurai dive watch that I've had down to 200', and an old titanium Skagen Quartz that weighs nothing, is worth nothing-- but it's handy to have a non-automatic occasionally.
My wife claims that with this whole virus thing, the Sub and the M2C are probably the only two things we have that might eventually appreciate!
R.
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