The results are in! We asked our community to submit their personal Rolex stories, with our favorite winning a fantastic prize bundle and a feature in the Chrono24 Magazine. After reading the many touching and unique entries, we’ve selected Eric as our winner. Read on to discover his moving tale!
Howdy! My name is Eric, and I was born and raised in Austin, TX. I have a younger brother, and as kids, our parents basically raised us inside their small family-owned Chinese restaurant, which is in the 3rd generation now. I’m a day trader and am also involved in an angel investing group. In my free time, I like to hit the gym, find new places to eat with my girlfriend, and hide in my man cave to watch football all Sunday long!
My story is a bit different. Growing up, I wasn’t a huge fan of watches. I didn’t own a single one! It wasn’t that I didn’t have any interest in them — I just wasn’t exposed to them growing up. Occasionally, I would hear about them in rap songs, but it wasn’t something I cared for. Fast forward to 2019: I was 28 and was getting more into adult wear. One of my best friends was the first one out of our friend group to get married, and I definitely wanted to come dressed to impress. As I was browsing for suits, I thought to myself, “A nice watch would go really well with this.” I searched for watches online for months leading up to the wedding, but I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. Being a complete rookie to the watch game, I was all over the place. I tried to research where to buy watches; I ended up searching “is this watch a good investment” and, of course, the most popular search: “how to tell if a watch is fake.” Out of all the websites I came across, Chrono24 caught my eye. If anyone knows about the app StockX, this is the closest thing to it. As I mentioned before, I trade stocks, so I’m used to seeing trends on charts. Chrono24 offers a great way to show you how the watch you’re interested in is doing on the market.
A key feature I love is the Notepad, where you can create a watchlist, save the watches you’re interested in, and see how the price would fluctuate over time. I would show the timepieces I found to my family members to get their input, and one day, I was met with a surprise. My grandma pulled me aside and told me that she knew I’d been wanting a watch for some time now and that, as a family, they had decided to give me something that had great value to my grandpa. It was a Rolex Oyster Datejust in 14-karat gold! Whoa! Talk about a surprise! I’d had no clue my grandpa had this watch. It turns out that the family bought this watch for him as a gift back in 1988.
The backstory was that my grandpa had had a stroke 5 years ago, and it affected his speech and ability to walk. Growing up, my grandparents took care of my brother and me the most because my parents would be working at the restaurant all day. My brother and I developed strong bonds with my grandparents at an early age. I was my grandpa’s first grandson, so I was spoiled like crazy. I took on the responsibility of taking care of my grandpa because I wanted to repay him for how wonderful he treated me growing up. The family decided it was only right for me to have it.
It’s the day of my friend’s wedding, and I’m rocking this gold Rolex proudly, making a statement. I’d never had anything nice and expensive before, and something about having that timepiece on my wrist made me feel on top of the world.
My grandpa passed away back in August 2020, and his memory lives on forever. I only wear his Rolex when I have a nice party or event to attend. I wear it with pride, carrying the family name. Every time I look at the watch during the party or event, I feel like he’s still with me. Flashbacks of my childhood with him, as well as his sick times, would spontaneously occur. I never thought I would be so connected and have an emotional attachment to such a materialistic item. But that’s the power of a watch. It’s a conversation starter that gets people asking questions, and memories start to form in that instant. I never wanted anything back in return for taking care of my grandpa. I was only doing what my heart was telling me. In the end, I truly believe God rewarded me. As a family, we don’t carry out any traditions, but now, I will surely pass down this watch to my kids and hopefully my kids’ kids and tell them how great a man my grandpa was, with the thought that a new tradition has been born.
Although I didn’t buy a Rolex on Chrono24, I did purchase other watches from the site. It’s so easy to use. From adding watches to your Notepad to filtering out the model’s exact dynamics, watch lovers will find something that fits their needs. My favorite section has to be when you’ve bought a watch on Chrono24, and under “Watch Collection,” you click on your watch, and it shows you a breakdown of everything about that watch as it relates to the market. Chrono24 is definitely my go-to place to buy watches. Just make sure you do your due diligence on the seller beforehand.
All and all, if your watch was a gift from a loved one, a gift to yourself, or something you inherited, it all circles back to a great story and purpose.
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