This is one of a series of watch stories I wrote several years ago...
OT: Watch Story #3...or the diver that wasn't...
The watch: a late 1960s Rado President
Original owner: Guy Hourlichman
This story began when Guy Hourlichman needed a new watch. He was curator of the Singapore Royal Botanical Gardens and worked outdoors most of the time. This created havoc with his watches and other jewellery. His old watch, a vintage WWII Seiko had simply disintegrated from the combination of the tropical heat, humidity and accumulated horiticultural wabi that built up around and in it.
Guy made several trips to Alexander street where all the major watch, camera and jewellery stores did business. There were so many different watches to choose from and he finally settled on this Rado. The shop owner had opened the case to show Guy how well made it was and assured him it would withstand the ravages of time and anything else he might do to it.
With that assurance, Guy took the watch and went back to work. As it turned out, he was scheduled to lead a mini-safari into one of the lush jungles that surrounded the four large reservoirs on the island. This safari/field trip had to be done at night as the quarry was an illusive night flowering orchid that only bloomed once every 10 years and several plants had been located which showed promise of blooming in the near future.
There were four people in guy's party; the others being professors from the University of Singapore and one from Singapore Polytechnic. They left their car on one of the concrete roads that meandered around the perimeter of the reservoir they were visiting. The roads; built by the Japanese during their occupation; were still maintained and passable, so reaching the jungle was not difficult at all. Once into the jungle and on the small game trails, it was a different story.
Within 100 feet of leaving the car, the party were surrounded by utter blackness; no moon light or stars were visible through the lush forest canopy. Fortunately, they carried adequate flash lights to find their way.
Guy lead the way and was paying more attention to the trees and looking for the elusive orchids which would be 20 to 50 feet above their heads, than where his feet were stepping. They came to a small stream which had an old log laying across it and was used as a bridge by the animals and perhaps any humans who ventured down this path. The log was damp and covered with a slimy coating of rotting vegetation...
Guy, not paying too much attention to his footing, stepped out on to the log and immediately lost his footing. One foot slipped to the right and the other to the left, causing Guy to land hard on the family jewels. The sudden shock caused him to lose grip of his flashlight which fell into the stream below the log where it sank to the bottom in about 10 feet of clear water; yet remained lit. Guy, in his immediate reaction to the pain leaned forward to attempt getting back up on the log, slipped sideways and fell into the water. The cool water seemed to help stifle his pain and he figured that while he was already wet, he would just dive down and retrieve his torch.
As he reached the lamp and picked it up, he caught sight of a pair of glowing yellow/green eyes approaching him along the bed of the stream. Guy, being somewhat knowledgeable about the indigenous fauna and flora, knew right away what it was and where he was going. He had fallen into a pool in the stream which a Malaysian Kayman; cousin to the crocodile; had made it's home. Guy didn't feeling like staying for dinner and swam to the surface, grabbed the waiting hands of his very worried colleagues and was yanked from the stream so fast that his newly baptized Rado President was torn from his wrist and flew off into the jungle along side of the track they were following.
A quick search ensued, with the four scientists crashing around in the undergrowth feverishly looking for Guy's watch. The first to find something was the professor from S'pore Polytechnic; he disturbed a family of Rusa Tikus(Mouse Deer) which exploded from the undergrowth, startling him so much that he added more stains to his already damp and muddy jungle clothing. The second professor to get a surprise, discovered a large Python which had probably been stalking the Rusa Tikus. The snake wasn't particularly disturbed or interested in a fast retreating two legged meal and simply continued on it's journey.
Guy and the remaining flower hunter both spotted the watch at the same time; it had flown up and during it's decent had become trapped in the web of a large golden spider with red knees. This fellow had a leg span of around 7 inches and was busily inspecting his prey and wrapping it in a cocoon of his silk. Neither Guy nor the other scientist was too keen about reaching in and retrieving the watch with such a fearsome looking guardian watching over the Rado. The Polytechnic prof came over and seeing that the others were a little apprehensive; reached over and picked the spider up and placed it on his palm where it seemed quite happy to sit. Guy quickly grabbed his watch and with much difficulty managed to strip all the sticky webbing off. The spider prof gently returned the big arachnid to it's home and the party resumed their trek. Guy asked if the spider was poisonous and was told they were only deadly if they bit you.
As they progressed farther into the jungle, Guy shone his still dripping flash light on the Rado; it was half full of water but still running. He put it in his pocket hoping it would be ok until he returned to his lab and could possibly open it up and get it dried out.
After a further twenty minutes of hiking, the party came to the previously identified area of interest and quickly found the nearest orchids. They were up in the crooks of a couple of large trees about 25 feet from the ground. Previous searchers from the University of S'pore had installed a system of ropes and pulleys so that the investigators could raise themselves to within a few feet of the flowering orchids.
They knew that they might be lucky this night and witness an opening. Guy also knew that these plants were like preprogrammed clocks and would begin opening the flowers at approximately 11:00pm. He pulled the soggy watch from his soaking wet pants pocket and checked the time; they only had about 15 minutes to wait to see if tonight would be the night.
Sure enough, right on queue, the plant they were watching started to open up before their eyes. This is an event that very few ever get to witness and Guy was very excited; so much so that his Rado once again slipped from his grasp. This time, it only fell about 10 feet before lodging itself between the tree trunk and a black lump of some sort sticking out the side of the trunk. He could see the watch so decided to wait until they had all the photographs and other data from the flowering before descending to pick up is President.
By the time they were done with the orchid, which closed the blossom back up, it was almost dawn. As they descended on their rope lifts, Guy swung on his rope until he could reach out and grab his watch. Unfortunately, he over estimated the amount of swing he needed and launched himself smack up against the black lump on the tree which in turn knocked the watch loose. One of the other profs spotted the falling watch and easily grabbed it before it once again disappeared in the undergrowth.
Guy didn't fair so well; he had smashed into a wasp nest which was home to a nasty little stinger with attitude. The first few stings caused Guy some confusion until he realized what was happening. In his new found haste, he accidentally hit the rope release and promptly dropped the remaining 15 feet into a nasty Gunera plant(looks like giant rhubarb with spikey stalks). Needless to say his clothing was torn up pretty badly and his hide got some unwelcome scuffing.
The wasps weren't far behind and it only took a moment for the four intrepid hunters to figure out it was time to make a hasty retreat. With Guy in the lead; the wasps were mainly interested in reeking revenge upon the aggressor who smashed their house. The men produced a comical sight as they crashed through the jungle, waving their hands maniacally about their heads in attempts to dissuade the stinging horde.
The intrepid safariers managed to regain the road and their parked car in which they took refuge form their pursuers.
Once, safely inside the vehicle, Guy was presented with his lost watch; much to his surprise as he didn't know his comrade had managed to catch it. Guy took the watch and looked at it; it was still running and most of the water seemed to have drain from inside the dial.
Back at the lab, Guy managed to unscrew the back of the watch and carefully dab the movement with a soft absorbent cloth. He wasn't very knowledgable about watches and decided to take it back where he bought it for a proper drying out.
Once again at Alexander street, Guy was caught in a tropical downpour and had to wait for 15 minutes to cross the street to his watchmaker. When the rain abated, Guy quickly ducked across the road and stepped over the monsoon drain which was now full from the rain. As he was stepping over, he caught his toe on the edge of the raised sidewalk and momentarily lost his balance. As he attempted to correct his fall, he reached out with the hand that was holding his Rado and in the process dropped it again. This time it fell into the drain where it sank from site in the murky waters. He figured it was gone for sure this time as the rushing waters would eventually carry the poor watch out to sea.
Disappointed in his luck, Guy went into the watchmaker's store intending to buy a replacement. Chong Hua, the proprietor; after hearing the story; suggested waiting for about half an hour for the drains to empty the see if perhaps the watch had been captured in the catchment culvert at the end of the street. They had tea and waited( an old colonial thing).
It didn't take long for the drains to clear and the hot sun to turn the recently cooled air back into a sauna. Guy followed Chong down the steaming sidewalk to the end of the block where they stood looking down into the catchment. There was still a couple of inches of gray/brown coloured water in the bottom so nothing was visible. Chong knelt down, rolled up his sleeve, took off his Rolex then plunged his hand into the soup. He fished around for a few seconds then pulled his hand out and held up a bic lighter. Sticking his hand in for a second pass retrieved half a set of bamboo chop sticks. His third try was rewarded with a now very filthy and freshly filled Rado watch with only half the bracelet remaining. Chong was about to search for the rest of the bracelet when Guy reached down and lifted his friend up by the elbow and told him he wanted a new bracelet.
They took the watch back to Chong's store where Guy spent an hour looking at new watches while Chong's people did their best to repair and service the Rado.
It wasn't long before Guy's eye wandered to a cool looking divers watch; a 6306. Chong told him that if he insisted on swimming with Kaymans that he should at least have a watch rated for water resistance; which the Rado wasn't. Guy was sold and left the Rado as a trade in for the new handsome and rugged looking dive watch. Guy probably still wears that Seiko to this day, although he would be in his mid 90s by now.
The Rado President sat in Chong's display case for many years before a fellow from Bangkok stopped in and purchased it for a song. The episodes of daring and adventure that Guy had exposed the watch to had caused eventual corrosion of the dial and it needed to be redialled if it was going to fetch any reasonable price.
The Bangkok buyer was a watchmaker, collector and reseller. His wife was very artistic and they ran a successful business restoring and reselling watches. The Rado dial was removed, the raised markers pulled off and cleaned down to the bare metal then given a fresh paint job. The Bangkok buyer's wife reapplied the raised markers then hand painted the minute index markers. She used a miniature stencil she had fashioned and reapplied the Rado logo and the 'President' signature. The watch looked just like it had when it was new.
With it's new lease on life, the Rado was purchased by a young Thai soldier who wore it every day until about six years ago. He did a lot of training in the field and jungle survival was a big part of that. The Rado went through daily cycles of wet, dry and everything in between. It was even submerged a couple of times and the young soldier simply removed the back at his barracks and left it to dry out under a lamp.
Eventually the dial once again became pitted with rust spots and the crystal had suffered a close encounter with a concrete gun placement tower.
The soldier, by then a Major, traded the Rado in for something more befitting a man of his rank..an Omega.
The poor Rado was sold off as part of a large collection of used and abused watches to a young eBay seller known for being a source for hard to find parts.
The Rado President went to auction and was advertised as 'WILL RUN'. I took the BIN and purchased the watch for my collection. As can be seen from the pictures, it cleaned up well enough to be worn as a decent beater. While the case is badly pitted and the scratches in the crystal haven't all been removed yet; the movement is in excellent and uncorroded condition in spite of it's hard life.
I'm off to track down Guy Hourlichman's 6306 diver...