Rolex Explorer - 5 Things I Love and 5 Things I Hate

what's up YouTube this is guy and today I am putting together a long overdue video we're talking about my five loves and five hates of the Rolex explorer if you've been following my channel watching all of my videos you're well aware that several months ago earlier this year anyway I had purchased a brand new Rolex Explorer and over the course of several months I came to the conclusion that it just was not quite right for me it wasn't to the forever watch that I was hoping it was going to be and I sold it a lot of people undoubtedly have been wondering why could I possibly have not been in love with that watch what could have been wrong with it for me to decide that it just wasn't the watch for me hopefully this video will clear some of that up and maybe it'll help people that are going down the path of purchasing one from themselves if they're still in the decision-making process this isn't going to be the typical love / hate video that you are probably used to seeing from other youtubers I'm not gonna just do a random list of 5 things I loved in a separate random list of 5 things I hated I'm gonna talk about specific aspects of the watch and things that I loved and hated about those aspects so that'll become a little bit clearer as I go through the video if you don't understand exactly what I mean so let's just go ahead and jump right in number 1 on the list of things that I loved and hated we're gonna talk about the design the presentation the overall feel of the watch things that I loved first and foremost the dial the handset the overall aesthetic of this watch it has a beautiful simplicity in its symmetry you know and when I look at that watch it's still to this day one of the most perfectly designed watches it has the most perfect presentation of any watch that I've ever seen on the market I absolutely am still in love with it and I don't think there's anything that beats it in terms of just the overall look and feel and presentation next thing you know I really love to the chroma lay loom Rolex uses in its most recent iterations yeah I know they used a super-luminova which the final finishing in particular on this wash and I assume this applies to all Rolexes but on this watch in particular the sides of the case and the bezel I mean it just presents like absolute jewelry it has a level of polish unlike any other watches that I've had the experience of the holding top notch hundred percent perfect when it comes to the overall finishing of the watch something that isn't talked about a lot when it comes to Rolex watches in general and of course the Rolex explorer is no exception the end links there's something really interesting about the end links if you look at them closely they are I mean just sculpted you know that mean the machining that goes into the end links is outrageous and it's a little thing to point out to say like man they really do their end links well but really nobody ever touches on how incredibly interesting exquisitely finished machined and again they just look sculpted the the end links on this watch are and you know the the final thing when we're talking about the design the presentation of this watch is just the subtle and understated look of it it does literally work for any occasion be it a you know something more formal to just an average you know around town and t-shirts and shorts it really doesn't matter what you're wearing along with it it just works perfectly for any and all occasions now when we talk about the design presentation the overall feel of the watch there are things that I hated about it too you know number one the size and weight it wears really big and despite the fact that it's only quote-unquote 39 millimeters once you really get into it and you talk about the heft of it on the wrist you look at those other dimensions besides the thirty nine millimeter case in particular we're talking about the lug to lug distance this watch wears more like it is a 40-millimeter watch then if it worth its it's closer to 40 than it is closer to 38 millimeters if that makes sense so it wears big in my opinion that's that's a negative I wish it were a little smaller if I had my way I wish they knocked it down to 38 millimeters and maybe shortened the overall lug to lug with a millimeter or two I believe it went up from the previous generations when it was a 36 millimeter diameter that I think the lug to lug with went up three ish or maybe almost four millimeters so it does really wear quite large despite the fact that it's marketed as being a thirty nine millimeter watch that's a little bit of a problem for me another thing that I hate about the design the presentation and the overall feel of the watch is the 9:04 elf stainless steel which is touted by Rolex as being some sort of super steel it really it's not all it's cracked up to be in particular it's a scratch magnet and if you care about keeping your watches as pristine as possible for as long as possible you're gonna have a real problem with that with this watch on the high polished pieces in particular and I had a lot of people commenting on my videos when I mentioned to that in one of the reviews that they found it to be exactly the same in their experience they said that their Rolex explorers were bigger scratch magnets than any other watches they owned and I can absolutely confirm that if I take a look at any of my cheap Seiko watches and 316l stainless steel they don't attract scratches scuffs or blemishes nearly as readily as that Rolex did finally something else that I hated about the overall design presentation is the crystal and it's a minor complaint I didn't think it was an awful crystal but the fact that it had no significant source of anti-reflective coating or properties it did make the legibility suffer a little bit so there's my loves and hates insofar as the discussion of the design the presentation in the feel of the watch the next thing I want to talk about is the value there's things that I loved and things that I hated when we talk about value of this watch in my opinion it's probably the best value proposition when we compare it to any of the other watches in the Rolex catalog it's got an MSRP of sixty-five hundred fifty dollars but you can easily get it for under six thousand if you have any sort of relationship at all with an authorized dealer you should be able to get probably ten percent off you know probably pick it up for something in the area of fifty you need nine hundred dollars that's not unreasonable now of course you can get into a very basic date just with a smooth bezel or perhaps even an Oyster Perpetual for the same or less money but those aren't really sports watches and they don't particularly interest me if I wanted to get into a date just I'd be looking at a two toned a chest and something that would end up being much more expensive and they just don't have any interest in the Oyster Perpetual z-- so yeah in my opinion it is the best value in the rolex catalog however despite the fact that it's a really good value for a Rolex something that I hate when we talk about value is that visa V other watches on the market it's really not a great value I mean you're paying a whole lot for the brand and for the prestige of owning a Rolex in my opinion but personally I didn't get up Rolex to be a status symbol I got it because of the design of the engineering of the quality of the craftsmanship and all that is there but I think when you talk about dollars you're paying more than what you're really getting unless you consider the fact that you're also paying for the brain and paying for the name so yeah visa V other watches on the market I think it is a bit overpriced and it's not a great value but it is a good value amongst other Rolex watches the third thing I wanted to talk about my list of loves and hates of this watch is the movement aside from the design and you know the aesthetic of the watch the movement was one of the main reasons I was drawn to the Explorer and Rolex is in general of course it has the caliber 31 32 and it features you know 48 hour power Reserve 28,800 vibrations per hour it's a cost-plus Rolex superlative certified chronometer that runs at plus or minus two seconds per day it's got all kinds of awesome features like the pair of chrome hairspring the pair of like shock absorbers offering you greater resistance to shock temperature and magnetism all that stuff is great and I really love all of those aspects of the engineering of the swatch in theory it's an it's an excellent it's a great movement and that's something that would it's really what attracted me to the Rolex brand in general was that they seemed to go above and beyond when it came to their in-house movements but something that I hated about mine in particular there were problems with the movement number one it didn't keep plus or minus two seconds per day of accuracy as advertised on my wrist on a daily basis it was more like gaining four seconds per day now of course that's not awful and when we talk about accuracy that discussion is extremely polarizing some people will just argue till they're blue in the face that accuracy doesn't matter and for other people it doesn't matter I'm one of those people that it does matter and I was definitely disappointed that my watch was running more than twice of what they advertised that I should be expecting another kind of weird thing when I first got that watch the internal oscillating bi-directional self-winding rotor was dead silent so much so that like you wouldn't even think that there was a moving rotor inside the watch body you know if you have cheaper watches be it psychos or Orient's or any number of brands you give the watch a little bit of a shake and you hear that rotors spinning you can feel a little bit of a wobble that was not the case with my Rolex for about him maybe a month then eventually it started to have a very faint but noticeable wobble to the rotor I could feel it spinning you know it just sort of started out of nowhere I don't know if that was a problem or not maybe that's just the way they break in I took it to the authorized dealer where I bought it they looked at it and said that's fine don't worry about it it's keeping good time it was a little I don't know concerning to me but I was assured that it wasn't a problem there was some other minor idiosyncrasies about the movement as well in particular things like when I unscrewed the crown it would make kind of a weird little clicking noise when you would spin it in the reverse direction so not if you were winding it to charge up the power reserve but if you just slowly spun it the other way there'd be like this weird little kind of clicking or grinding noise again I don't know if that was normal or not I would think no but I've had people both say my Rolex does do that I've had other people say no your Rolex shouldn't do it mine doesn't do that something else that was annoying about the movement of when I was setting the time as you would rotate to the hour and minute hands when you would release it they would kind of wobble there was like a little bit of resistance on them so so you try to set it exactly at you know maybe the 56 minute hash mark and it would wobble away from it as you release tension from the crown so there was just a lot of little like I said idiosyncrasies about the movement itself that kind of had me concerned but nothing major nothing like oh it broke on me but nevertheless those were some of the things that I hated about the movement but there was plenty of stuff to love about it too it was you know mechanically quite impressive at least on paper number 4 though of things that I love and hate about the Rolex explorer we're gonna talk about the bracelet I was gonna discuss the bracelet in the first section when we were talking about the design the presentation the overall feel of the watch but this needed its own section its own specific discussion I did love things about the bracelet the three piece link oyster bracelet with folding oyster lock safety clasp is extremely high quality and well made the finish on it was just absolutely beautifully brushed as far as the clasp had awesome fold-over safety latch and the hinged clasp was incredible excellent very very well machined no other clasp that I've ever seen in any other watch even comes close to the quality in the craftsmanship of this you know Rolex Oyster bracelet clasp and the bracelet itself in the links they were excellent too I've already mentioned how much I liked the end links so we don't really need to discuss that here so yeah the overall quality was just outstanding on the bracelet however there was some things that I hated about it number one it was just horribly uncomfortable for me I found that the taper from 20 millimetres down to I believe at the clasp bend it went all the way down to 15 millimetres if I'm not mistaken it was just too extreme too aggressive and the easy link extension was all but useless for me a five millimeter extension was just too much now what that means is I could never find a correct size for the watch it was either too tight and uncomfortable or it was too loose and it was flopping around all over my wrist I would have rather have had a cheap garbage Seiko style clasp that had five little micro adjustment holes at that point just so that I could make it fit my wrist well and be comfortable now on top of that the watch bracelet and even the case have some very sharp edges not sharp in a way that is going to maybe cut you or injure you just very very clean crisp edges but what that meant was when your hand got a little bit sweaty or your wrist got a little bit sweaty and things started to swell up if you were wearing the watch tight enough so that it's not flopping all over the place now those sharp crisp edges were biting into your skin and after even a few minutes for me I would have pretty aggressive indentations of the outline of the clasp and the edges of the case all over my wrist and then if I popped open that easy link extension it was just too big and the watch flopped all over and it was uncomfortable moral of the story is it would never fit me just right and that's ultimately the main reason why I had a problem with this watch and probably why I got rid of it so yeah I loved again on paper how incredible the bracelet was extremely well made beautifully finished the clasp with the exception of that extension 5 millimeter easy link extension was outstanding I've never seen anything quite as nice even the swing arm as you opened the clasp was finished beautifully with polishing the Rolex logo just outstanding but all of that means nothing if the watch is uncomfortable and and it was you know the main culprit being problems that I had with the bracelet now the fifth thing that we're going to talk about and closing here I call these X factors because it's not really specifics about of the the Rolex Explorer but just different things about the company that I do love and hate I love the history and the heritage of the Explorer and and Rolex in general it's super cool if you're a watch nerd like I am and like I'm sure most of you guys are that are watching it there's something really special about the brand that you just can't explain and they do make incredible high quality watches craftsmanship the engineering everything about them really is amazing despite the fact that I think their price tag is a little bit too high but there's something that I hate if I wanted to talk about X Factor's and throw in a fifth hate I guess it's that in the end despite all of the research that I did despite all of the time that I spent saving up for this watch and going to the authorized dealer looking at it and getting to know it thinking that this was going to be the perfect watch for me and something that I was gonna keep forever I hate the fact that it just didn't work out and I ended up having to sell it because I didn't look forward to putting it on every day after a few months and it's not something that I wanted to have sit in my watch box the majority of the time I hate the fact that it didn't work out to be what I had hoped it would be so yeah there you go guys there's my five loves and five hates again it's a little bit of a different list than you might you know be used to from other youtubers but I thought it was the best way for me to approach this discussion and and I hope you enjoyed it as always I appreciate you tuning in and if you have questions or comments leave them down below of course I'll be back later on this week potentially early next week with another review video thanks for tuning in guys bye

Channel: JustBlueFish Watch Reviews

Views: 178,818

Rating: 4.441277 out of 5

Keywords: Rolex, Explorer, 214270, 5 Things, Love, Hate, Review, 3132, COSC, Superlative

Id: xOhq5lEMDQU

Length: 16min 51sec (1011 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 30 2017