Bad Purchase – Rolex Cellini Rose Gold
1 of a series
This is a series about my bad purchases, not bad watches. The purchases that I shouldn’t have done for some reason or another. Most of the pieces are great watches and made someone else very excited when added to their collection, but it just wasn’t right for me.
After close to a decade away from collecting, the bug had returned, and logic was loudly repeating in my brain – “who needs more than one watch!”
“Find one perfect watch” my brain reasoned, “that can be dress and casual, informed yet recognizable, get you back into the club yet be wearable everyday. Don’t let the collecting bug get the upper hand.”
So off I went searching for the “perfect” daily wearer, the one-watch collection piece.
I settled on the Rolex Cellini 39mm in rose gold with black dial.
Why? I have no idea!
- I’ve never worn a 39mm before – always 40mm or larger. But my wife felt that smaller size was dressier.
- It was not immediately recognizable as a Rolex being more subdued and monochromatic. This was appealing and yet should have told me something as I was trying to hide it already!
- It wasn’t from an independent watchmaker, wasn’t limited or scarce, and didn’t meet a single of the self created criteria I had forged as a foundation of collecting in the past.
But this was a new beginning, a fresh start and a better way to be a watch collector without the pain, frustration, and expense of actually being a collector.
It was a Rolex – how could that be wrong? It was iconic, classy and classic.
And yet, the Daemons of Compromise slowly rose from the center of the earth sucking all the oxygen from a darkening fire-red sky declaring – in a booming voice and with finger pointed directly at me – “the greatest waste of money is that spent on something not 100% desired!”
It was purchased in Feb 2018 and within 6 months it was sold at a 50% loss.
I compromised. A trend you’ll see in many or all of the “worst purchases”. I compromised and convinced myself that it would be ok. It wasn’t.
