Joy and relief - I found my favourite Rolex.

[Matt]

A month or two ago, my rather loved Airking went missing a little bit. At first I was unworried, I have a few too many watches scattered over a few too many boxes in a few too many places. While my beloved knows better than to disturb my complex low entropy storage system she affectionately calls 'that mess', it started to look as if a neatness might have been committed, resulting in the loss of the Rolex.

Eventually I became concerned enough to start working through a few boxes looking for an out of place Air King. Not a sausage. Today, with some work to do, and a bit of free quiet time as everyone else had gone to a friend's party at a bloody theme park, I decided it was time to check out the spares boxes. While I found quite a few useful things, the Rolex wasn't one of them.

At this point it was clearly an act of foul play. As no one had been in my room apart from old friends and family I didn't think it had been swiped deliberately, but it really started to look as if someone had moved it. The beloved hadn't, the older kids and friends wouldn't and that just left the younger kids. So I sat back and thought thought where a child would dispose of a watch that wouldn't be immediately found. After a thorough poke under the fridge I started looking down the backs of radiators and on the third radiator I hit the jackpot.

In fact, not only did I hit the jackpot, but I also found out why the boiler seemed to have been working harder this winter, where all the magnetic letters had gone and some post I didn't realise we had had. The Rolex was a little too warm to the touch and must have been in a few magnetic fields, but it seems to be working just fine, which is fairly impressive for a watch that has been down the back of a radiator since sometime around Christmas.

So here it is. Again:



Small, battered and lovely.

[OrangeSport]

Kids!

Lovely watch!

[Teeritz]

When my son was around two years old, I kept finding my car keys in a pantry shelf in the kitchen about a foot off the ground. He would 'neatly' arrange all the coffee cups too.
A customer of mine came in one day and bought himself a new Speedmaster because his three year-old son had flushed his previous one down the toilet. He came back three days later to get a refund because he'd found his old Speedy. It was in a pot plant in his lounge room. We refunded his money and took the new Speedy back. 'Twas the right thing to do.
When things go missing and there's a toddler in the house, it pays to start searching in low places.
Glad you recovered the AirKing, Matt!

[Der Amf]

When my son was around two years old, I kept finding my car keys in a pantry shelf in the kitchen about a foot off the ground. He would 'neatly' arrange all the coffee cups too.
A customer of mine came in one day and bought himself a new Speedmaster because his three year-old son had flushed his previous one down the toilet. He came back three days later to get a refund because he'd found his old Speedy. It was in a pot plant in his lounge room. We refunded his money and took the new Speedy back. 'Twas the right thing to do.
When things go missing and there's a toddler in the house, it pays to start searching in low places.
Glad you recovered the AirKing, Matt!

What would you do with the returned watch on occasions like that. Sell it as used? Sell it to a used dealer?

[Teeritz]

What would you do with the returned watch on occasions like that. Sell it as used? Sell it to a used dealer?

Thankfully, I can count the number of times that it happened. In eleven years, it occurred three or four times. It would get checked over thoroughly, sent back to Swatch Group to get checked out by their watchmakers and polished if required (very rarely), given a clean bill of health and then put back out on display to be sold at a better-than-usual discount to the next customer. This would only be done with a watch that was returned to store within 7 days in pristine condition. We would always tell customers who were buying a watch as a gift that, if the recipient didn't like the watch for whatever reason, it should go straight back into its box and be returned to us in " a sellable condition". Any scuffs or scratches would be polished out at the buyer's expense. People were always very careful with the watch after we told them that.
I was the biggest stickler in the store for watches coming back looking new and I didn't care if I got filthy looks from buyers because I was always concerned with the next customer who would look at the watch. If somebody returned a watch because they'd "changed their mind" and wanted a refund, then that wasn't enough to warrant a return.

And occasionally, we would offer it to pre-owned dealers who came in, but they would want obscene discounts.

[Chase]

Glad the Air King was found.
Was a bit of a nail biter there for a while!

When things go missing and there's a toddler in the house, it pays to start searching in low places.
Glad you recovered the AirKing, Matt!

I'm certainly learning that one. Anytime anything seems to be misplaced around here, we start looking where the kids could have conceivably placed them, not where we might have last seen them which would have been the 'old' thing to do. I think my boys know well enough to leave daddy's watches alone, that's why they have their own though they are a long ways off from telling time obviously.

[Nokie]

Hate it when they play hide n' seek like that......

Glad you found it. Love the vintage AK's.

[Seriously]

Room upgrade in order:

[Matt]

Room upgrade in order:

Ha!

It took the soon to be four year old precisely three days from discovering the game 'Peggle' on my I pad to being able to key in my password - she may not be quite on top of all the letters and be quite sure that 'eleventeen' is a number, but she can recognise how to get what she wants. I'm just gratified that she didn't consider me the weakest link in the security of my I pad. Thank god they are not cooperating yet, but that will not be long in coming.

[gnuyork]

That's a nice watch and a funny story (sort of). A very good friend of mine, one of my professors (who is now passed away) had that exact model Air King. I tried it on and instantly loved it.