02-05-2005, 02:23 PM
[list=]Følgende har været postet på TimeZone, derfor den engelske text ...!!
About a year ago I met a fellow watch collector right here on TZ, he responded on a Navitimer WTB add I posted, he had seen the watch I was searching for and gave me a link, that was the start of something far beyond imagination.
We started to mail each other on a daily basic and soon became “friends”. Thomas (as that’s his name) has become an important person in my attempt to create the largest & most complete collection of Vintage Navitimers in the world by helping me in all of the deals I complete in USA (check out seller, talk to him on the phone etc. etc.) and he have even found a couple of Navitimers for me that has become part of my personnel collection.
Then after hundreds of mails and many telephone calls we decided to meet each other somewhere in the world, at that “somewhere” became Amsterdam where we rented a Houseboat for 4 days right on the Amstel channel.
He had 4 Navitimers of mine in his possession before travelling to Amsterdam so I was really excited when we met each other, one of them was the Cosmonaute which I had bought on ebay in the end of January it was the most expensive Navitimer I have ever bought and Thomas had paid seller on my behalf, then we should settle the account in Amsterdam.
Seller was a retired US pilot by the name of Fred Dauer that just moved to Hawaii to enjoy his retirement. He bought the watch in December 1964 in Hong Kong while he was serving as a Warrant Officer pilot in Viet Nam in 1964-1965 flying out of Danang.
Fred was a fantastic nice guy to talk to on the phone, he could have been my uncle so I began to address him Uncle Fred in my mails to him. It was his first ever appearance on ebay so it was very reassuring to talk to him on the phone, I became certain that he could be trusted and that he was very reliable guy, Thomas had the same feeling so he went through with the payment.
Then …….. Amsterdam, and here comes the part that showed what an amazing person Fred Dauer is.
Thomas told me that he had a surprise for me when we met. With shaking hands while investigating the watch I suddenly felt the need of drying my dripping eyes as he began to tell me the surprise.
Fred had decided just after the auction that he wanted me to have the watch for free and had asked Thomas to tell me as he wouldn’t do it himself. He had paid $ 50,- for it in 1964 and lost a $ 1,- bet to his wife over the watch so $ 51,- was all he wanted.
When I called him a few days ago to sincerely thank him couldn’t tell me why he did it, he just said that it felt like the right thing to do at that time and that he never had any regrets.
I will treasure uncle Fred’s old watch forever as it’s my holy grail, I was searching for it for more then 3 years and it closed the gap in my 806/809 Navitimer collection as I do now have them all.
I know a cold beer is waiting for me in the sundown of Waikiki Beach and I hope I will be there one day to drink it with you Fred.
Thomas & I turned out to could have been brothers (and we had quite a few beers), we have decided to carry on meeting each other somewhere in the world at least once every year.
It’s needless to waste time telling you about the condition of the 43 year old watch, the picture speaks for itself.
That’s the end of “Friends, a watch & a houseboat in Amsterdam”, now you probably understand why I decided to give the posting that title.
Hope you enjoyed reading it, Kurt
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