I had stuff I needed to do today so took the afternoon off work, and before heading off to my appointment I had time to walk from work through the West end. My Rolex experiment continued. Aspreys on new bond st first. ‘No sir you won’t get one.’. I understand they are in short supply, can I perhaps express an interest? ‘ no so you can’t, no, no there’s no way you’ll get one, bye.’. It felt blunt to the point of rude and I was surprised they didn’t try to see if they could sell me something else but no they seemed uninterested. So I walked to Pragnells on mount st. Very different experience, friendly, offered a drink so I had a cuppa. No promises but gave me the impression they could do something and maybe by my birthday (7-8 weeks away). Probably a bit unlikely but they were friendly. I was asking about a GMT, black bezel. The rep got out a just in but not collected bimetal sub to let me try for size and answered my questions about the glide lock clasp. Even let me take a snap of it on the wrist. I then asked about white dialed oyster perpetuals, no white in but he fetched a champagne dialed 36mm and 39mm to try on. They wear smaller than I’d expected. All in all a pleasant 30 mins and I’d go back to Pragnells to spend money, I’ll avoid asprey!
Oh and the Pragnells guy said they hadn’t had a black bezel GMT for a while which has set him thinking it’s possibly going to be discontinued at Basel. He said otherwise they get them ‘most weeks’. Either they get a heck of a lot or that’s a bit of a stretch I suspect.