How Much Is That Rollie in the Window?

As I was walking through an affluent neighborhood in Hamburg called Eppendorf the other day, I noticed a store that sold antique clocks and watches. Because I was on the phone, I didn’t stop and look in the shopwindow. However, after wrapping up my phone call nearby,  I returned to the store.

In the shopwindow, I saw many watches on display that didn’t excite me. I don’t know all that much about watches, and {most of the watches just looked like timepieces from, like, an era long ago. Still, there were a few watches I did like. There were several antique Rolexes set up next to each other, and one in particular really did it for me. It was black with a leather band and it had a black face with a small crown where the notch denoting "12" would have otherwise been.

I was attracted to this black Rolex because it didn’t look like a Rolex. First of all, the band was leather and the watch itself wasn’t that chunky, which I find Rolexes usually to be. I came up with a price in my head. I thought maybe between 325 and 700 euros. I knew I couldn’t afford the watch no matter the price, but I was curious, so after working up the nerve to go in the store, I walked down the steps that led to the door.

Inside, the shopkeeper was busy rearranging a display in an adjacent room. Still, he stopped what he was doing momentarily to greet me. He was standing by the doorframe separating the two rooms of the shop, just inside the other room.

I didn’t waste any time -- I honestly felt a little awkward in there -- and said in my nicest German, “Sorry to bother you, but I’m a little bit curious about that Rolex in the window.”

To my relief, the shopkeeper immediately took out a key and opened the shopwindow display case and took out the watch. Again, I didn’t want to waste his time, so I flat out just said it: “How much is it?”

“This one,” he said, turning over the watch, “it’s 3,200 euros.”

“Oh,” I said. “I’m very sorry. Wow. I didn’t think it was going to be...wow, OK. That’s all I needed to know.”

To my relief, his expression didn’t change at all, nor did he put back the watch. Instead, he told me why it was that expensive.

“Of course this watch is going to be expensive, ” he said. "It’s from the ’60s, it’s in very good condition, and you see this” -- he shook the thing -- “it’s self-winding. It’s an automatic watch. That makes it's a lot more valuable.”

He then went to the display case and took out another Rolex. “This one,” he said, “you have to wind it by hand; it’s not automatic. This one is 1,200 euros.”

“Wow,” I said. “I had no idea.”

“Yeah, when they say the word ‘perpetual’ that means they are automatic. You see this?” He came a little bit closer to me and brought the watch a little higher. He was pointing to the watch's face, just below the iconic crown. “It says Rolex Oyster Perpetual. 'Perpetual' means self-winding, which means it's always going to be more expensive.”

“Wow, thank you so much,” I said. He shrugged his shoulders and waved his hand, as if to say, "No problem at all." I told him again thank you, and as I was leaving the store told him that maybe one day I might be back. I meant it, too.