How a Sweaty Man Convinced Me Not to Buy a Rolex
Summer of 2016
I was travelling in Niigata city on a public bus trying to catch a ferry to the island of Sado. Niigata, as a prefecture is well regarded for their production of rice, and more importantly their saké. Their fertile country sides tell a different story, one that isn’t buzzing from the noise of people rushing past one another to get home. Niigata isn’t deafened by the silence of cellphone users avoiding eye contact on their daily commute. You can hear laughter, conversation, and comfort. Although not a unique environment, it’s quite a change of pace from the big city.
Japanese Edmund Hillary
One memory that never left me from this particular bus ride was a very exhausted salary man breathing heavily in the thick summer heat as cicadas sang. He held tightly to the transit bus support beam as the vehicle swayed back and forth, side to side with each stop.
The perspiration from this salary man’s armpits stained his dress shirt. His sweat told a story of determination, devotion, but the stench spoke more about the desperation of his routine.
His well shined dress shoes, well-kept suit, and gel slicked black Machiavellian haircut was not an unusual sight in Japan. On his left wrist he wore one of my favorite watches of all time, a Rolex Explorer ref. 14270. It hung onto his wrist apathetically as it was 2 links too loose for him.
It wasn’t my first time seeing a Japanese salaryman representing Rolex. But there was something about this particular gentleman that really spoke a truth that I wasn’t ready to accept. In marketing school, they teach us you don’t ever aim to sell a product; it’s a lifestyle that you’re trying to convey to the consumer. It’s a feeling that you’re trying to sell, a way of life, and a projection of who they can become if they choose to go through with the purchase. The marketing team at Rolex since inception has been the very best, and they’ve done everything in their power to maintain that Crown.
With all of that said, this particular Explorer 1 had strayed quite far from the Matterhorn. But the truth is, this Rolex was where it was meant to be whether I liked it or not. This Explorer, and 99.9% of all the other Explorers were on the wrists of less extraordinary Joes like me and this gentleman; just like how most Speedmasters are egg timers rather than being used to time a life or death 14-second controlled burn on the Apollo 13.
Duh…
It was always intended for those who could afford it, to appreciate it for the shared DNA of adventure and courage. In that moment, I fell a little out love even though I was waiting to buy the particular reference once I returned to Tokyo. It had been a summer where I had counted a handful of different men wearing this particular reference, but it was this experience that drove a certain reality home for me. The realization that a nearly 4 grand watch would break my bank, and ultimately hold me back from experiencing other options really shaped the collector I wanted to be. In the end, I decided I had to leave the Explorer in an attempt to capture the essence of what the timepiece was all about.
