I already told you the story of my father’s Rolex. It’s a 1965 Rolex Oyster Perpetual that he received from his father as a high school graduation present. Apparently a new Rolex cost all of $125 back then, which is about $750 today. Anyway, now it’s time to tell the story of my mom’s Rolex.
First of all, lest you think I come from a wealthy family where all the children wear little Rolexes and are raised by European nannies, I’ll start off by saying that my mom’s Rolex was actually free. I’ll further qualify that statement by saying that it was also not stolen.
We moved a lot as I was growing up. Probably every two years, on average. My parents were in banking, real estate, and building, and my dad eventually got his real estate license for the sake convenience, and to avoid having to pay agents commission. A friend of the family needed to buy a couple of office condos for a new business he was starting, so as a favor, he did so through my dad. Turns out the builder was giving away a Rolex to any agent who could sell two units within a certain amount of time. My dad came home ecstatic one day with the news that he was getting a second Rolex, though he was swiftly corrected by my mom. The result was a very nice ladies’ two-tone Rolex Oyster Datejust.
That was about 19 years ago. The same watch sells for $4,175 today which may seem steep, but consider this: since she received the watch, my mom has hardly ever taken it off. It has been cleaned twice, and had the crystal replaced once (sapphire crystals generally don’t scratch, but they do chip and break if you’re hard enough on them). The watch keeps excellent time, and is just as stylish today as it was the day she got it. Someday it will be passed down to my sister, and she will likely get many years of use out of it, as well.
So as you can see, I come by my Rolex fetish honestly. One of these days, maybe I’ll even get around to telling the story of my GMT Master II.
By Christian Cantrell
