ChipSlap Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 A few months ago I visited my niece at her job at a bookstore in my hometown of Napa. We chatted for a while before I asked about watch books, informing her I was a watch enthusiast. This prompted her to tell me that a couple of months earlier her father (Steve, my former bro-in-law) showed her an old blackface Doxa diver that he was selling on ebay. Some weeks later I asked her father about the watch at my nephew's wedding. The provenance is interesting. Steve was a Navy SEAL in the Vietnam War. His SEAL training lasted through Christmas, so he had a week leave in the middle of it. During that week he flew from San Diego to San Francisco to visit his family, buying a black dial Doxa diver (were they called Sharkhunter then?) at a SCUBA shop. He wore this watch through the rest of SEAL training and a year in Vietnam. His BUDS class photo shows him wearing it. Sometime after that he was doing a jump, during which the famously crappy rice bead bracelet broke. He was able to track the watch with his eyes and follow approximately where the Doxa fell. Thirty minutes of searching got the watch back, but it had taken quite a shock and was running about 5 hrs/day fast. The watch spent the next 35 or so years in the sock drawer. He finally dug it out and auctioned it on ebay. It generated enough interest for more than one bidder to physically visit the watch during the auction. It sold for about a grand. Steve finished telling me all of this and then said: "If I'd known you were into watches I'd have given it to you." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThinkBachs Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Great story though! Thanks for taking the time to share it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Great story! Too bad you didn't wind up with it. Here's what it must have looked like falling through the clouds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxman Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 Great story though! Thanks for taking the time to share it. I know this look Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 I hate sad endings. Now I am going to be a all day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted April 5, 2009 Report Share Posted April 5, 2009 I think we can all look back over our lives, and think "If I'd only done..." "If I'd made the move..." knowing that had we made that move, we would have wound up with that 'achievement' (whatever it may be). Definitely one of the more frustrating emotions, the best thing to do, is not dwell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipSlap Posted April 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2009 Great story! Too bad you didn't wind up with it. Here's what it must have looked like falling through the clouds... I see you dropped your watch at 4:20. Something inhibit your motor skills Nanuq? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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