Are Rolex watches anything like Ford pickup trucks. My thinking is simple: People buy a very expensive Rolex (anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000) and then they proceed to wear it swimming, gardening, and just literally “beat the heck” out of it.

On the other hand, people buy a very expensive truck that is made as a work vehicle and designed to stand the rigors of off road trails etc, and these men and women baby their truck and would not think of getting it dirty!

I just don’t understand this.

I am probably going to get a lot of criticism for this statement: “Never wear your watch swimming or get it wet.”

Most customers tell me they bought their Rolex so that they never need to take it off. This is basically correct, but every week, especially during the summer, I get at least one phone call from a panicked Rolex customer that with a wet watch after a brief swim or shower. I tell them that they need to get the watch serviced quickly to make sure that the watch does not rust. Keep in mind that freshwater is bad, but salt water is deadly to a watch movement. If your watch fails to stay watertight in the ocean and you get salt water inside, it could be ruined in about 24 hours.

I thought of this parallel when we were car shopping for my son Tom’s first car. We were at the local Ford dealership and after finding Tom a nice car, my wife wanted to look at a truck (for some reason she wants a big truck to crush things on her way to the grocery store). We looked at some very nice, top-of-the-line trucks. Can you say sticker shock! $50-$60,000 for a beautiful truck was a bit more than I could handle. That got me thinking of all of the nice trucks in our town, and I know for a fact that most of them will never see a dirt road or construction site. These trucks are babied by their owners and there is no way that they are going to get those big tires muddy.

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Now let’s flash forward to the man who wears a $5,000 Rolex and wears it in the pool or doing yard work. Yes, the watch is designed to handle this kind of activity, but is it really the best thing for an expensive item like this? For a guy like me that is wearing a $50 Timex, the thought of first spending that kind of money on a watch, then the idea of getting it dirty is not something that I can even consider. If I had the extra money to buy this kind of watch, it would never see dirt, let alone take the chance to get it wet in a pool. It would be worn carefully, babied and would need to last me a lifetime.

Here are two conversations I’ve had with customers with Rolex watches that failed while in a pool. The first customer has had his watch for quite a few years, hasn’t had it serviced in a while and went swimming with it on. It leaked and it was full of water. He was more than a bit upset and said, “it has always been watertight before, but now it leaked?”

The next customer has a $9,000 Rolex Seadweller. The watch is four years old, in perfect condition and is rated water resistant to 12,800 feet. He went in a pool and the watch fogged up. He is extremely upset since going swimming with it on was the reason he bought this expensive watch in the first place. Both customers had watches that should be fine to swim with, both customers now had wet watches and suddenly their swimming is my problem to solve.

Resale value

The other thing to think about as you wear your Rolex is resale value. The better it looks, the more it is worth — is it all original, has it

been serviced, no rust on the movement etc. Same goes with your truck, is it in good condition, no digs, dents or rust. Interior clean and spot free etc? The better it looks, the more it is worth.

Mark Sirianni Watch Repair
25 Fraley Street
Kane, Pa. 16735
814-837-9435
814-558-4818 (cell)
watchdoctorpa@gmail.com

CHARLEY PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Charley rang in the new year by playing a game of Uno.