Hi all, new to the form, but have been reading your threads for the past months, thanks!
Below is a brief outline of my adventure in finding the perfect 14060m:
After happily wearing a quarts Tissot throughout collage and into the first few years of my professional life, it suddenly hit me; the urge to wear perfection around my wrist. I don't know were it came from, but it had consumed my every thought, that is till I bought my new sub 14060m Z! Now Im just in love and look at it all day
I spent the last 3 months reading everything I could get me hands on concerning fine watches. Initially I started out with my eye on the Panerai Marina, however after trying on the 44mm monster i realized the watch was not for me. I passed the rolex area of the jeweler on my way out and figured I would try a few on, always liked the sub, however disliked the frog eye, so when I encountered the 14060m I was pleased and after trying it on, in love.
At this point I knew the 14060m was for me and started looking for the best deal possible (paying MSRP is just silly in my opinion). My plan was to buy a used late model (2007-present), this was a challenge however as i live in Slovakia (Im American). After speaking with the only AD here in Bratislava, he explained that the gray dealers here are shady but there are some good ones in Vienna (which is only a 45 minute train ride). I also found some great deals online at Chrono24 for example, but after some thought decided to only buy from a face to face.
I arrived in Vienna with pocked full of cash and high hopes, visited some ADs and all quoted me around the same discount. Then I visited a "reputable" gray (he has watches on chrono24), I will leave the name undisclosed. I was dealing with the owner of this particular dealer and he came across as very knowledgeable and passionate about watches, which I liked. However as the minutes turned into hours, I became quite uncomfortable as he would not answer any of my questions about the watch he was trying to sell me (14060m 2004 non cosc, mint) and instead made broad and longwinded comments about rolex in general. Despite, I loved the watch and wanted to make the deal, so asked if we could go to an AD and get it authenticated. At this point he got angry and insisted that i trust him and should buy the seller not the watch, blah blah. I don't know about you guys, but if i have some joker trying to sell me a 3000EU watch and that I should trust him that it's authentic, I think that's a load of sh*&!
Please correct me if im wrong, would any of you buy from a gray without getting the watch authenticated??? Anyway, to make a long story short, I refused to buy the watch as he would not authenticate, so he kicked me (and my poor girlfriend who was almost in tears over the ordeal) out of the store in a made rage. I couldn't believe it
Again this is a "reputable" second hand dealer with a large turnover...
I visited my local AD here in Bratislava and informed him of my ordeal as he was the one to recommend this gray in the first place. For fun, I asked if he could match the 20% discount that the Vienna ADs offered (this was a bit of a bluff as the Vienna AD's only offered an 8%). We went back and forth for a little while. Long story short, he had 3 14060m's in stock and apparently was having trouble moving them. One of them was a Z (2007 the first year of cosc cert if im correct?). I bought the Z as it will be more collectible down the road (your opinions on this please?)! And at almost 1,000 EU of the retail price!
In conclusion, I got a brand new 14060m Z at about a used price. I believe this was possible because of the raport that was built between myself and the AD (I was always in the shop learning about rolex and comparing prices) and because the no date is apparently appalling to Slovaks, thus low demand
The watch itself is a masterpiece, its masculine but not trendy and oversized, a true classic! I love that it fly's under the radar and is not recognizable to the masses as a sub, this is due to the absence of the frog eye of course. It goes with anything in my wardrobe. But most importantly, it just feels amazing around my wrist, and looks soooooo good, I still cant belive I own such a beautiful watch
!
Thanks for reading guys, just realized that i killed more than an hour writing this, so back to work for me.
Take care