I had been looking for a red depth Explorer for a long time. No joy. A man who makes his living travelling around the world looking for rare vintage Rolex is someone I know quite well. I asked him to keep an eye out for me. He told me that in the last 10 years, he had seen just one.
Two weeks later....
Saturday afternoon, an elderly man went into a jewellers shop in Oxford Street and asked if they wanted to buy his Explorer. It was not an up-market Jewellers shop.... quite small.... but they did buy pre-owned watches. Well, they didn't know anything about this old vintage Rolex so they happened to have a magazine in which my friend (above) advertised as being a vintage Rolex expert. They called him and said they had an old Rolex but didnt know anything about it. They described it to my friend. It was a red depth Explorer.
It was also bought by this man from new. It also had all the original paperwork from Rolex from new. It is not the very first of its reference style, but it is for sure one of the earliest.
My friend couldn't believe the serendipity of the events. Just two weeks after I had asked him, he gets an almost random call from someone he has never spoken to that just happened to see his advert in a magazine.
Now I have the watch!!!
As a firm believer in Jedi mind tricks, I maintain that I put the message out there into the universe that I wanted this watch....and it came back calling for me!!! Hahaha
It has a great deal of charm for sure.