rscmaine

Yes, George, it is a joke... My second post above though, is sadly true.

Rolex Watch Company today announced the end of their long running advertising campaign "A Crown for Every Achievement" citing widespread misinterpretation of the phrase by the general public. A company spokesman explained the company's reasons, along with their new guidelines in a statement to the press this afternoon in Geneva. "It has come to our attention that many individuals have been buying Rolex watches to commemorate "achievements" which are not in keeping with the traditions embodied in our brand, and this practise must end. "We refer specifically to the recent purchase of a Two Tone Submariner with Blue Dial and Bezel by one Sheldon Finklestein of Passaic New Jersey, USA after his recent promotion to "Assistant Regional Manager" for the Sleepy Bye Mattress Company. While we are sure that Mr. Finklestein's mother is quite proud of him, this is hardly the sort of "achievement" that qualifies one for ownership of such a timepiece. "Rolex agents have visited Mr. Finklestein at his place of employment today and retrieved the watch in question. "Additionally, it will no longer be acceptable to purchase one of our watches because your divorce has been finalized and "That [censored] didn't get everything." "Rolex is instituting an application process to prevent similar innapropriate purchases in the future. All prospective Rolex buyers shall now be required to submit an explanation of the "achievement" they are attempting to commemorate, in essay form. All essays will be reviewed by the Rolex board of directors at their annual meeting in Geneva each September and those selected will be notified. "The Board shall also review every application carefully to determine which model most appropriately reflects the applicants achievement, and only that model may be purchased or worn by that applicant. All decisions of the board shall be final."

Enjoy! http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg...095#msg_4536580

Just plain fugly - The Sub looks like a truck hubcap - no grace, no sweep - it is as if Homer Simpson took over the design team. And I am afraid I could never wear any watch with the brand name written THIRTEEN freaking times on the front - and for what? The "rolexsrolexrolexrolexrolex" rehaut was in production in Shanghai within about a minute of it's introduction as a "security" feature... Perhaps this is a transitional period for Rolex, with entire patent descriptions written on the new DSSD, a veritable Noah's Ark of happy animal prints and "garanimal" watches, and a rainbow of fruit flavors in bezels and crystals and hand colors. I'll stick to the classics.

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tre...89060&rid=0

Here's a day to day "I really don't want to get mugged today" look - I'm going to order a black version of this strap for it. It looks like this to my dog right now -

What makes you think I DONT look like that?

7,4XX,XXX dates it to 1983/1984. Looks exactly brand new...(the cool thing about bark finish is that there are no desk diving scratches and never WILL be...it's already scratched all over!)

That's the toned down version...I am stealthily choosing NOT to use the MOP 8+2 diamond dial at this time..... THAT will keep it under the radar...

Heavy as a US Navy anchor. :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p :p here it is with the original factory dial - gonna keep it this way.

Thanks for all the replies...it has been over a decade now and our world is in good order and balance - kids well, family happy, Dad still a nut The wife of the Founder and Chairman of Aflac Mrs Paul once told my wife and I that such travails always stay with you - and always for the better - when they started the company they sold most of the stock for start - up money and Mr Paul worked for the first several years selling policies door to door and plowing everything into the business - they lived like church mice for many years. 53 years later Aflac is worth about $60 Billion. The Christmas before I joined the company my wife scraped together 8 $1 bills from redeemable cans so I could buy a present for our daughter - a nice stuffed horsey she wanted. Every Christmas since, I put 8 crisp new dollar bills in each stocking so we will never forget.

Just flipped the two Subs for this last night - it is arriving tomorrow - 1981 vintage 18038, factory diamond bezel, with all 25 links in the bracelet, dial has been swapped back to the factory gold stick (but I am also getting the MOP diamond too) A little background - Years ago I had a bunch of money, no wife or kids, and lived the Jimmy Buffett life living aboard a 35 foot Hinckley sailboat. I wore a brand new Rolex Seadweller at that time to give people an incentive to dive for my lifeless corpse when I inevitably fell overboard drunk. Got married and had a kid...things were swell. Then, I broke my neck and spent 18 months in a neck brace - lost the boat, 2 jaguars and a house...last to go was the Rolex...and it fed my family for 6 months during very dark days indeed... My pursuit of this watch (and yes the 18038 is my ultimate 'grail') has been fueled by a 13 year effort to regain all that was lost during that time. We were on food stamps, fuel assistance, jeep repoed from yard and house in foreclosure in 1997, and wife pregnant with 2nd kid- about as bad as I could ever imagine...(just got my Social Security statement last week - my 1996 taxable earnings for all of 1996 were $156...for the year) The President is my version of putting a period at the end of a long and difficult sentance...

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tre...89060&rid=0 They come from a nice guy named Manny in Mexico City -

Agreed - I have enough guilt from my mother - I absolutely do NOT need to feel any concern over the next buyer, or the next, or the next...where does it end? One could quickly go nuts. There is enough trouble in the world already.

1) Not only did I disclose the aftermarket nature of the dial and bezel, but I am also sending him the original dial that came from Rolex along with the Jubilee bracelet and box. 2) See above 3) Yup. We discussed the real cost of having Rolex assemble 3 carats of Rolex diamonds versus the "real world" cost - and as he is a jeweler he understood the insanity of paying 10X the cost just because they came from Rolex. Additionally we discussed his buying a gold fluted bezel for around $150-200 to undo the whole mess. He was excruciatingly well informed.