I was born in Singapore in 1975. Two years after I was born, my mother realised that my father had a separate family complete with wife and kids, and divorced him. That was the last I time I saw him.
We spent the next year moving from one rental home to another while as a single parent on a low wage, my mother struggled to provide for two. This continued until she had the good fortune of moving in with the family who would become my second family – they had a room for rent, took pity on us both and the rent was very reasonable. Two years after moving in with them my mother met a New Zealander, married him and left the country overnight, leaving me with my second family. I remember waking up the next morning and wondering where she was. I did not hear from her for another 10 years.
Faced with the choice of either abandoning me on the streets or accepting a third child into the family, my second family chose the latter. Although poor, my adoptive parents took good care of me, brought me up as one of their own, showered me with love and affection and provided me with the best education they could afford. By six, I discovered a love for reading. Knowing our family’s plight, our neighbours were kind and passed on old issues of National Geographic and Time for us kids to read. It was around 1985, on the back cover of one of these magazines that I first saw the Rolex Submariner. That was also the year that my adopted father retired, and the Government Printing Press he worked for gave him a brand new Seiko for his 30 years with them. It was the single most valuable thing anyone in the house had, and I was fascinated with it. I took it out of the drawer when no one was looking and played with it. I called it my Rolex because my friends at school told me that Rolex was the best watch in the world.
In 1991, after 10 years, and on the eve of a Physics finals exam I received a phone call from my mother. It was brief, without explanation or apology, and culminated in an offer -“How would you like to visit New Zealand”, she asked. That started a series of short summer holidays to the Land of the Long White Cloud and although I failed the Physics exams, I scraped enough credits together to start University in New Zealand in 1997, aged 22.
I struggled through the next four years and in my final year of University, despite failing some papers, I applied for and managed to secure a job in a reputable accounting firm in Wellington.
I started work in 2001.
Two days ago, and now a Senior Consultant in my fifth year with the firm, I was walking through downtown Auckland when I saw an authorised Rolex retailer and service centre. Over the last 20 years, I quietly nurtured my once innocent puppy-love for the Rolex Submariner. I simply had to have one, was determined to, but never found I could justify the price. Rolex helped by increasing their prices frequently. Just when I thought it was within reach, someone in Rolex Heaven would increase their prices just a tad and “poof” – a dream once more.
I guess my body finally quit resisting and I was only half conscious as my legs took me through the front security doors and into the plush surroundings of the shop. I walked straight past the Pateks, Panerais, Omegas and Audemars and stopped in front of the Rolex display. There she was, my Rolex Submariner, but she looked different somehow. Had she changed over the years, just like I had?
The Sales Assistant who walked up to me must have read my mind. Would I be interested in a 5513 Submariner, he asked. There was one for sale. I nodded dreamily.
I was ushered to a comfortable room when after a brief moment a gentleman walked in and introduced himself as the Manager. The 5513 for sale was his own. An ‘84 model, it was fully restored recently in his very own service centre by his watchmakers and under his direct supervision. He intended for it to be his weekend yachting watch, but never go around to using it. Despite having a new case, new bracelet, new hands and the movement completely overhauled, it lay unused in a cupboard for the last year. Would I like to see it, he asked. I nodded dreamily.
And then I saw the Submariner. There she was!! Just like when I saw her all those years ago. In the privacy of the room, we talked for the next hour, undisturbed; about watches, about Submariners, about the changes over the years and finally about this particular watch. Two men sharing a passion few understand.
I cradled the watch in the palm of my hand and reminisced. After twenty years, I finally felt at peace. I decided then and there. This was the one.
“Come with me”, he said. “I want to show you how we service these watches”. I was led upstairs to the service centre and given a tour of machines I never knew existed. There was one that simulated dive depth for waterproof testing. Another amplified the sound of the movement and measured accuracy in different positions; +1, +5, the numbers flicked across the digital display and a graphical worm traced the trajectory of the movement’s accuracy on a digital computer. A Daytona winked at me from a technician’s bench-top, feeling naked as its bracelet was being replaced. Men in over-coats and bent over their workstations barely noticed as we shuffled past them in whispers.
I felt truly privileged.
The tour lasted close to an hour and concluded back in the room, where with a kind twinkle in his eye the Manager quoted me his price. Considering the rarity of the watch and its condition, it was very generous. Perhaps he felt a connection, perhaps he was being nice, I guess I’ll never know, but I could not refuse. I did not refuse.
That was yesterday, but because I did not get much sleep last night it was really today. The 5513 rests on my wrist now, purring at a leisurely 19,800 beats, content at finally having found someone to be with.
I found it… finally mine.
I reflect now on a life some might say had its fair share of twists and turns, ups and downs and I now realise some things. As a child and through teen hood I used to focus only on the negatives and envy the life others enjoyed. But now I wonder.
So what if I never knew my father and my mother quit fighting life as a single parent? So what if I grew up in poverty and lacked the luxuries other children enjoyed?
The only reason I found my Submariner was because I was in Auckland two days ago. The only reason I am currently in New Zealand is because my mother left Singapore. The only reason I discovered the Submariner was because my family relied on donations from the community and was too poor to afford our own magazines.
Let’s face it, the only reason I can now afford a Submariner is because, despite my grades and all the setbacks I had to endure, someone took a chance with me and offered me a job.
I realise now that life has a way of throwing curve-balls at you and then giving you a break just because you kept your chin up.
- sylshamy