How I saved £9,970

My morning routine is just what it is, routine, getting up with a great deal of difficulty and around 7 ‘snoozes’ of the alarm, followed by daily duties part 1, a hot cuppa coffee with the newspaper, daily duties part 2, breakfast and running out of the house, late as usual.

The first 1.5 hours of this morning were no different and I found bursting into the train, huffing and puffing in a way that would shame Mr. Wolf, for I had done a manic 200 metre, 2 storey (3 storeys to them Americans) dash to catch the train, carrying my considerable bulk and around 15 kg of equipment and book (more on the book in the next post), breaking several land speed records in between.

I found a place to sit and tried to calm my breath, which incidentally, had no intentions of doing as I begged it to do. Textbook stuff so far. Then things changed. The man sitting opposite my seat was an elderly person of the English variety i.e., suit, tie, polished black shoes, newspaper in hand with the obligatory spectacles. Little did I realise, that barely 10 minutes later, this man would make my day…

With breath finally under control, heartbeat slowing down from humming bird speed to human-like speed, I was able to take in the finer details of other occupants of the train. I feel obligated to explain matters a bit here. Sizing up occupants of the tube is a national pastime here. You can’t find it in culture books; you won’t hear anyone talk about it. All it involves is a surreptitious peak through the corner of one’s eye while appearing to read a newspaper. Everyone does that and no eye contact is made whatsoever.

So here I am, sitting down, ‘reading’ (wink, wink) my book and looking around when I notice this person’s wrist. A shiny, golden object catches my attention and immediately looks familiar. Deeper analyses confirm my suspicions and I’m getting jubilant by the minute. Yes, his watch is the same as mine. I can see most people reaching this part of the post and wondering what is wrong with me and why am I getting so excited about finding another person wearing the same watch as me. Can skeptics please allow me to explain?

The watch was visually identical to mine, same cut bezel, golden dial, magnified date, silver metal strap with a golden strip in between. The only difference is that his was a Rolex and mine is a Paolo Gucci (in Mr. P. Gucci’s defence I don’t think he is in anyway related to the fashion designer Gucci. They just share a surname much like you would get a zillion people with surnames like Kumar, Rao, Reddy etc.). That discovery had me thinking – did the cheapskates at Rolex copy Mr. Gucci or was it vice versa or was it merely a case of great minds thinking alike? It’s probably vice versa, but whatever!

The fact that actually made my day was this. This poor loser had probably shelled out £10,000 for that watch while the good Mr Gucci decided to supply mine for £30. So is my watch a cheap knock-off or is his an overpriced rip-off? Let me know in the comments. Before you jump at the opportunity of knock-off bashing and beat me black and blue, consider this. If PG can sell a watch for £30 while still making a profit, what is the justification for Rolex selling it at £10,000? Quality wise, on a scale of 1 to 10, if we blindly give Rolex a 10, my PG would surely come in at 5 (reliability and looks), so is the fit, finish and goodwill of the Rolex for the remaining 5 points worth £9,970?

If the Rolex loses 1 second in a 1000 years (that’s 1 minute in 60,000 years), how are you going to find out of that claim is true? Not in your life, or your children’s or theirs or theirs…with the PG, it probably loses a minute every 2 years and all that’s required then is to pluck the crown out, increase the time by a minute and push the crown back in. Process done in 10 seconds. No sir, I am not paying £9,970 to save 10 seconds for the 601st generation of my family. I’m sure humans wouldn’t even exist then, let alone that watch.

Finally, I urge you not to dismiss me as a bloke who supports the piracy industry; I assure you I am not. I am merely a person close to the heart of well meaning people who gifted me the Paolo Gucci watch. So then, should the title of this post be “How I saved £10,000” because I haven’t paid for the watch in the first place?