Win A Race|Get A Rolex

Luxury watches were not on my mind when I started to sail. When I started to race on yachts I was a young pup and did it to learn how to sail. Learn I certainly did and I was able to move along to racing my own small boat while at the same time continuing to race on larger yachts a swell. As my experience expanded I was able to take a more vital role on the large yacht I had been racing on for years.

The owner of the boat I crewed on was very wealthy and liked to maintain a steady group of crew members and to encourage our participation he always covered expenses and meals and was very generous. If you sail in large races and regattas you learn pretty quickly that Rolex Watch Company is a major sponsor of major yacht racing. We sailed in many of their sponsored races but not at a national level until now.

We had the opportunity to sail our Swan in The Rolex Championship in Monterrey and were able to win our division. The Skipper was presented with a Rolex Yachtmaster. It was a beautiful timepiece and we all admired it as much as the trophy. To our surprise, at our next gathering, the yacht's owner presented us all with a Rolex Submariner. What a great surprise and whata great watch. I now where mine with pride every where I go.

When To Buy Your First Rolex

I knew very early in my professional career that I would someday treat myself to a fine watch. After studying the merits and looks of many watches I chose a Rolex as my desired timepiece. Even though I was not yet in a position to make the purchase I was well aware of which model I would acquire - The Rolex Yacht Master!



When I wondered would be the right time to buy my watch. Should I wait until I was comfortable with my salary and expenses? Or should I go out on a limb? Should I buy it for myself as a celebration or reward, or just when it was finaancially a sound decision?

It seemed like I had no answers even as my career took off and my salary increased. Then as if I never needed to have thought about this question at all my decision was made. I had just met the woman of my dreams and had gotten my best job opportunity. just as was deciding when to buy my watch it dawned on me that I needed, instead, to buy an engaement ring and ask my girl friend to marry me. She said yes and as a bonus gave me that Rolex Yacht Master for my birthday. So sometimes you can wish for something and have your dreams answered.

Rolex Updates A Classic: Yacht - Master II

Rolex just announced a new watch for yachtsmen: the Rolex Yacht-Master II. When Rolex updates an existing watch model, you will always see impressive new features. Rolex made significant improvements to the GMT Master movement between the original GMT Master, and the GMT Master II, the newer allowing the hour hand and the 24-hour hand to be set independently. Likewise, the Explorer II changed dramatically from the original Explorer, adopting the same movement as the GMT Master II which added a 24-hour hand and date. And now the Yacht-Master II represents another extremely important step in Rolex history.

In my opinion, the original Yacht-Master doesn't really do much more for yachtsmen than a dive watch can do. The bi-directional rotating bezel can be used to track the start sequence of a boat race, and the Triplock crown keeps the case impervious to sea spray, but that's about it. Nothing else except the name, and possibly the watch's exorbitant price, really has much to do with yacht racing.

Not so, with the Yacht-Master II. This watch has an very complex and innovative movement with a countdown timer which can be programmed to start between one and ten minutes in order to accommodate regattas with varying start sequences. I use the term "program" rather than simply "set" because the value is actually remembered, and when the countdown timer is reset, the countdown hand will return to the last programmed value. For a mechanical watch, this is an extremely impressive feat. There is a trade off: the date which was present in the initial Yacht-Master had to go to make room on the dial, and no doubt to allow for the additional complication of the movement.

The other trade off is that the Yacht-Master II is a tad complicated to operate. For watch aficionados, a single demonstration will probably be a sufficient lesson, but I'm sure the Yacht-Master II will be worn by plenty of yachting types who appreciate the aesthetics much more than the functionality, and for whom it will be enough of a challenge to keep the time set correctly. For a very good demonstration of how the Yacht-Master II works, check out the Yacht-Master II home page on Rolex's site, and specifically, the operational tutorial.

I found the reaction from the hardcore Rolex watch fans out there to be mixed. I think most of them were so accustomed to looking at more or less the same Rolex styles for so many years that the new Yacht-Master II really caught them off-guard. The two biggest complaints I heard focused on the surprisingly prominent "YACHT-MASTER II" branding on the bezel (for better or for worse, the new generation of Rolex watches are much more heavily branded), and the fact that you have to unscrew the crown in order to set the countdown timer, leaving the watch more vulnerable to moisture, of which there tends to be plenty around yachts.

Whether you like the new Yacht-Master II or not, there is no denying that it represents a major new innovation in the world of watchmaking. In many ways, Rolex is the Apple (as in computers) of the Swiss watch world. They are arrogant and secretive, they end up setting most of the trends, and they command an extremely loyal following who sometimes complains, but in the end, always comes around.

The new Rolex Yacht-Master II should start showing up this summer. It will be made in yellow or white gold, and is expected to sell somewhere around $30,000 (no, that's not a typo -- the theory is that if you can afford a yacht, you can afford a Yacht-Master II).