The Gift That Keeps On Ticking!

I am not a big jewelry guy. My brother Paul owns a diamond encrusted Rolex that is probably worth more than my car. He also owns an older Rolex Sub Mariner he bought in Germany when stationed in 1968. Now my jewelry collection includes a gold chain that my Mom picked up for me in St. Thomas, my 2 wedding bands from Deb (one regular and one american indian), and one 1993 Breitling New Pluton watch. The watch was a gift to myself that I purchased in 1993 on installments. It cost $850 at the time, and was the cheapest watch that Breitling sold, and I got it for a good sale price. What I liked about the watch, was that it was the first digital analog combination watch that Breitling had made, which included a chronograph in the digital display panel. Little did I know, that a few years later, my eyes would need reading glasses to see something in that small window! So I started buying cheap casio chronographs that had big numbers I could see on the run. Now I use my garmin forerunner watch that my son got me hooked on. The Pluton was based on another watch the Breitling also co-manufactured for a variety of military special forces called the UDT Chronosport. Chronosport used navy seals in their advertisements. Anyway, I had beaten up the watch somewhat, and scratched both the crystal and the bezel. Deb had taken it to Silver City about a year ago to get a new battery, and when she came home, the analog display worked, but the digital window was blank like in this picture I found on the intergoogle. So last June, I sent the watch to Bestfixwatch in Texas to have the watch repaired. It cost $300 and included a new crystal, repairing the bezel scratches and scratches on the case back, pressure sealing and testing, etc. Now they told me that since this watch has not been manufactured since 1999, they would have to order some parts and to be patient. I sort of forgot about it until today, on my birthday, when I had to sign for a package from the postal carrier, and lo and behold, another birthday present, my old watch back. It looks close to as good as new, and hopefully will hold up long enough to give to my boy someday. I have found a few at auction on ebay, and they generally end up selling for $600 to $700 bucks, so maybe someday, when he has it, it will be worth what I paid for it! Who knows!