The Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith Wears a Casio Watch

The Movie

The Pursuit of Happyness is a 2006 American biographical drama film based on Chris Gardner's nearly one-year struggle with homelessness.

I have been watching this movie for three times, every time I see it, I found that the movie is so touching and could be a good lesson to learn for us being working as a Salesman.

Story of the Movie

In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invested the family savings in Ostelo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice more expensive than x-ray with practically the same resolution. The white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to the relationship with his wife that leaves him and moves to work in a New York restaurant herself. Without money and wife (Thandie Newton) but totally committed with his 5 years old son Christopher (Jaden Smith), Chris sees the chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, vying for one career in the end of six months training period without any pay with other twenty candidates. Meanwhile, homeless, he and his son are evicted from their apartment and have to sleep on the Metro rest room and homeless shelters. With confidence and love and trust of his son, Chris rises above the obstacles to become a Wall Street legend.

While watching this movie, my emotion went up and down just as the leading role-Chris’s experience and I’ve really benefited a lot from this movie. 

Some Touching Plots

There are several plots in the movie that touch me I can’t help welling up. In the metro station, Chris pretends that they’ve come back to a fancy world through the so-called “time machine” in order to console his son to have a good sleep. However, Chris himself has to endure someone knocking at the locked door angrily and shouting in a loud voice to prevent them from coming in to the rest room where his son is sleeping. In such a formidable difficult situation, strong-minded as he is, Chris simply can’t resist the feeling of loss and despair and sadly shed tears.

Lessons that we had learnt from the movie.

1. You are who you mix with

There are studies which determined that your income is the approximate weighted average of all your friends. Stick with the right people and you will rise with the tide. Stick with the wrong group and you will go under. Will Smith had a big break where he got into the exclusive box stand. There he got to know so many contacts that were much valuable than those that could be found on his cold calling list. The fact that he came with a CEO of a large pension fund also help gained him creditability. The internet age has made it very easy to network. Being a sales, the friends circle could explore more opportunity with you, as friend of your friends could possible looking for your support or your product directly. Try the business networking portal LinkedIn now.

2. Don't do a job that does not directly link reward to results

In the movie, we see Will Smith juggle a stock broking job and a medical equipment sales job together. He worked on the sales on the weekend and broking on weekdays. If the performance of your job has no strong direct link to the payout, think of ways to improve and get another second income stream. Jobs that pay you based on time as just taking away the most valuable resource of your life from you. Time is the only limited resource in the world. You cannot make time and worse still, you have no idea of how much you have left. So invest your time wisely.

3. 1 decision can make your life difficult or very good

Some decisions, like Will's decision to invest in the medical scanner, can make life more difficult than necessary. His decision to jump into stock broking however made his life much better. The point is not to avoid making big decisions in fear of making your life extremely bad, but to make sure that you always have a lifeline. Dumping your savings in something you do not understand is hardly a smart decision.

4. Determination, Motivation and Ambition are the same things

Action is the part separating thinker, dreamers from the successful.  Set goals and work for them.

If you are doing sales, apply will's mantra: "X calls=X meetings=X interested prospects= X closing=X money" Ask yourself: what is the X that you are aiming for?

5.  No luck at all

It seems to always have bad luck every day in the movie. But luck is statistically proven to be non existent. Flip a coin many times and you get even results. Work on your cold calling and you will get that X numbers of meetings. As long as in the short term you survive, there is nothing to blame on luck.

6. Money= Happiness?

With an income more than 20K, your happiness level does not increase with further increases in income. In this study, it is shown that everyone needs a decent standard of living. But once you attain that, happiness is less definable because it varies from everyone. Varied experiences and being in control of your life generally bring experiences. See Maslow hierarchy of needs if you need to know basic stuff have to be fulfilled first. Happiness means being in control of my life, having financial security and doing hard and meaningful work.  Happiness is relative, they say a happy man is one whom earns $100 more than his wife's sister's husband. Less comparison of status with other people make you content.

After all, What about myself!?

The strong will and determination can change a person's life.

Will Smith wears a Casio Data Bank Watch.

HK Snob
Watch Fever
LED Fever

What is Rolex "MacGersy"? How to Choose it!?

Who is most adorable!? Hard to make a Choice!?

Can you find the human Skull!? Where?

 How to choose my Rolex, WOW, too many! How!?

I always admire Patek Philippe, Roger Dubuis or Audemars Piguet Show room, they used to Display one or two watches as the window display!

Whereas Seiko or Rolex would display "hundred Watches" at the window.

Sometimes I think if we out too many Models on a window, customers would be difficult to make a choice.

Well, what should we do?

There are a few ways:

-  Close your eye and finger point to one model, just buy it!

-  Buy All;  Only Mr. Lee, Mr. Ho or Mr. Lau could do it!

-  Go and ask yourself what do you want!?

- Or Ask you how do you want your Rolex to be!?

I think Trend could be one way to decide, as nowadays everyone talks about GMT Master II Blue Ref 116710BLNR.  Well, there is no stock… So how!?

Just Pick up one that you like, or is there a simple way to choose!?

Some guide line:

Yellow gold- Hi profile

White gold- low profile

Pink gold- a bit too much for men

Platinum- Good taste and elegancy!

Size has to match with wrist, too large a watch in a small build body looks unpleasant, same for too small a watch on a big wrist- wired!

Two Tone Date just- Chinese Favourite, especially Pink Gold and Stainless steel, it is not the trend for HK

Date Just Stainless steel- most common practical watch for all kinds of occasions

How About "MacGersy”?  A terms created by HK Snob… that stands for Sport Series!

M- Milgauss
A-Air king
C-Cosmograph Daytona
G- GMT Master II
E-Explorer
R- Rolex DeepSea
S- Submariner
Y- Yacht master

Date Just, Day Date is classified another Series! Well, each of them represents a Model Series that comes with a story, amongst them I like Submariner and Daytona Most…

HK Snob

Die Hard Rolex

1-Batman Begins

Christian Bale wears a Jaeger Le Coultre Reverso Grande Taille

2-The Big Lebowski

Walter Sobchak wears Casio DW-5900

3-   Collateral

Vincent wears IWC Vintage Ingenieur Automatic IW3233

4-Drive

Gosling wears Patek Philippe with brown strap

5- Pulp Fiction

Christopher Walken talks about the watch: Lancet

6-Back to the Future

Michael Fox wears  Casio CA53W Twincept Databank

7-Argo

Ben Affleck wears Rolex Deepsea Sea-Dweller (DSSD)

8-  15 Minutes

Robert DeNiro wears Rolex Cosmograph Daytona

9- American Psycho

Christian Bale wears Rolex DateJust

10- Blood Diamond

Leonardo DiCarpio wears Breitling Chrono Avenger

11- Aliens

Sigourney Weaver wears a Seiko Speedtimer 7A28-7000

This futuristic timepiece is a Giorgio Giugiaro Seiko Speedmaster Chronograph.

12- Crazy Stupid Love

Gosling wears a Vintage Rolex Oyster

13-Ghostbusters

The watch: Seiko M516 'Voice Note' Watch

14-Get Carter.

Michael Caines The watch: Rolex Datejust

15- Le Mans

The watch: Steven McQueen wears The Monaco by Swiss Heuer, (before the company became Tag Heuer), The watch was sold for an impressive $799,500 at auction

16-L.A. Confidential- Spacey wears a Bulova

17- The Bourne Legacy

Jeremy wears an IWC Pilot's Watch Double Chronograph Edition

18- The Departed : Matt Damon wears TAG Heuer Link Quartz Watch

19- 2001: Space Odyssey : Hamilton

20- Casino Royale: Daniel Craig and his Omega Seamaster Professional & Seamaster Planet Ocean.

Vesper Lynd: "Rolex?"

James Bond: "Omega."

Data Analysis

Out of twenty movies, there are Five watches from Rolex, and two from IWC!

 

Die Hard 1988

It came to my mind that the very first Die Hard movie, McClane (Bruce Willis) even goes so far as to drop Gruber out a window by unfastening Holly’s Rolex Lady DateJust , and in this action solves two problems at once: he kills the bad guy, but he also unfastens Holly from her symbol of success, feminine independence, and occupational authority over her husband.

And he dropped the Rolex from the Top of the skyscraper… downwards! 

What do you think that Rolex could still be survived!?

Is that Die Hard Rolex!?

So in Short, Rolex is the internally most preferred brand of watch in action films. And might a consequence by Rolex Product marketing team to participate in the Hollywood most popular action films.

HK Snob

Watch Fever

LED Fever

Dress Watch

Sometimes in life, we usually avoid complications, less is more, a simple uncluttered dial is one of the timeless qualities that a dress watch should fulfill. The focus should ideally be on the essence of a watch. The time in hours and minutes, that is it!

A good dress watch also needs to be discrete enough to not distract from your attire - and preferably on a thin alligator or lizard leather strap that matches your belt and shoes. Slenderness, sl

im thin cases is inevitably to tell the technical challenge of the Swiss Watch Smith in designing and making such a Watch.

There is another virtue in a classic dress watch, being of a diminutive height so that it slides easily under a shirt cuff and gives a subtle wrist presence.  No one would appreciate that you wear a Panerai under the cuff Link!

While a dress watch that uses 18KT white gold or yellow gold is must, a fine mechanical movement is a good choice, especially since this will also add value to a style of watch that is typically an heirloom. However I don’t bother to have a quartz movement.

Best of it?

-Cartier Tank

-Universal Gold Shadow 1965

-Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso

-Omega De Ville

-Rolex Cellini

-Patek Philippe Calatrava

-Audemars Piguet ultra thin auto Watch

HK Watch Fever

HK Snob

LED Fever

LED Logo at HKIA Rolex AD

LED for Advertisement

This is no ordinary LED Display, not that the LED is not stuck on the glasses, they were embedded into the glass with almost transparent connecting wires.

There are roughly three hundred White mid power LEDs with approximately 0.3W each. That is a 90W powder rating and if that is driven by a 5V supply, the current is 18A.

How could a hidden conductor inside a glass to do that? Well, I will take a close look into it...

What I am trying to say that there is a lot of applications for LED on Advertisement. And there will be thousand ways to display the techniology in front of you!

That is the HKIA Rolex AD boutique, the Asian largest with 500 Sq metres shop at the main departure concourse in HK International Airport.

HKIA Snob
HK Snob
Watch Fever

Rolex Movement Cal. 3135

MBBS (medical degree) Final Exam question paper:

  Fill in the blanks . . .

     "If a woman faints, we must first check her pu_s_. "

       Only few students like me who wrote: 'Pulse' passed!

******************************************************************** 

How about Pulses of you watch?

Is Higher BPH (Beat Per Hour) necessarily keeps time more accurate!?

However, higher BPH would induce higher wear and tear rate. Which approach will you choose!?

More accurate movement or better watch movement reliability? I don’t mean that lower BPH the watch would be more reliable as there are still many factors to determine the watch reliability.

But Higher the BHP will inevitably cause higher wear and tear and likely more frequent watch overhaul.

So A Rolex Ref 1803 is likely one of the best movement as it has the optimum design of BHP and Serviceability.

Do you ever think of that Cal. 3135 is likely one of the most popular and reliable Workhorses for Rolex?

Rolex Caliber 3135

Rolex’s top of the line men’s movement, the caliber 3135.

Prior to the introduction of this movement Rolex used their caliber 3035 – which was in turn a replacement for their caliber 1575. Although caliber 3035 was a strong, reliable and very accurate movement.

Caliber 3035 was a radical departure from their previous movements in that the balance speed was increased from 19,800BPH to 28,800BPH,

Originally introduced around 1988 Rolex’s 3135 has been their workhorse movement since then. 

Basic technical info for the 3135

Diameter = 28.5mm

Casing diameter = 28.1mm

Height = 6mm – note that the non-date Cal. 3130 is the same height

Jewels = 31

Power Reserve = Approximately 50 hours

What movement your Rolex is running!?

HK Snob

Rolex Daytona Black Ref 116520 Immediately Available

I heard that there is ONE Rolex Daytona Black Dial Stainless Steel available at Airport Rolex AD.
Super good Price HKD$93,000!
Don't miss it while stock lasts!

HK Snob
Watch Fever

Watch Price at Lung Shing Watch and Jewelry

Lung Shing Watch and Jewelry , at 169 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon.

Today's Rolex Stock update

1. Rolex Ref 116520 Black stainless steel HKD$86,500
2. Rolex Ref 116520 Black Stainless steel HKD$78,000

3. Rolex Ref 116520 White Stainless steel HKD$75,000

4. Rolex Ref 16610LV Submariner Green bezel Black Dial, 50^th Anniversary HKD$49,500

5. Rolex Ref 116710LN  GMT master II Green Pointer HKD$50,800

6. Rolex Ref16610LN Submariner HKD$41,500

7. Rolex Ref 16613LB Submariner with date Two Tone a few pieces with from HKD$57,000 to HKD$89,000.

Sham Shui Po Snob

Fook Wood Watch Shop ( A Day Tour to Ap Liu Street)

Fook Wood Watch Shop

Right at the Sham Shui Po MTR Exit A

Running By Mr. Hui Shiu Cheung, an Old master for Watch.

His Service including selling Rolex Parts such as Strap, Buckles, dial, furbishing watch, trade and repair Rolex, Tudor and Omega.

Shop Address Shop D-1, 135 , Pei Ho Street, SSP, Kowloon  Telephone : 61973533

Highlight on his products  Ref 116520 Daytona White Dial Brand new HKD$3,500

A Small Rolex Logo Watch Strap and buckles, HKD$1,900.

Rolex 16mm Gold plated and Stainless steel Buckle HKD$980.00

Rolex 16mm Gold Plated and Stainless steel Buckle HKD$150.00 (local made!)

I just Bought a Rolex Desk top Note Book as shown, that Comes with two Rolex Buckles!!

Sham Shui Po Snob

Watch Strap: material, Design, Price, Maintenance

 Various Type of Watch Straps

Watch Strap

Often overlooked, a strap is perhaps the least expensive but most indispensable component of a wristwatch.

Straps can be easily changed to suit moods, styles or outfits, from tactical to tasteful. While they come in a countless variety of colors, materials and styles, straps can be broken down into a few main categories.

While thick leather straps with contrast stitching are often found on beefy sports watches, such as those from Panerai, Rolex Daytona, Roger Debuis, Whilst thinner, more exotic skins are still the choice for high-end dress watches Like Rolex Cellini, Omega De Ville… AP dress watch.

The first watch straps were made of leather, a natural material that was cheap and readily available. Early wristwatches were developed for foot soldiers in the First World War, who needed to be able to quickly check the time or time enemy artillery without fumbling in a pocket for their watches. They were nothing more than pocket watches with strap bars welded on each ends, the leather strap was wrapped and riveted.

Watches continued this way for decades, but as these “wristlets” replaced pocket watches as the predominant fashion, straps evolved. They became thinner and less crude, and removable spring bars allowed for changing of straps without rivets.

Most of the straps nowadays we see have not changed much from these mid-century leather ones.

Generally, leather is more preferable as it will not cause skin allergy like those Plastic.

Now straps can be made from animal skin as the main stream like cowhide, calf leather, horsehide, crocodile, lizard, Snake skin, horse tail*,  ostrich skin, more recently, satin (Cartier and Piaget), synthetic fibre, silicon Rubber are also being used for watch strap.

We’ll call all of these “leather” straps. While thick leather straps with contrast stitching are often found on beefy sports watches, such as AP T3!  Thinner, more exotic skins are still the choice for high-end dress watches, since they tend to complement a suit with leather shoes and a belt.

NATO Strap

At the other end of the strap spectrum is the humble nylon strap. These one-piece straps, which can be bought for little more USD$10-20, were first developed for the British military. Designed to run across the back of a watch and through the spring bars, nylon straps are cheap, but they may also be the best way to save your expensive watch since, if one spring bar breaks, the watch remains on your wrist thanks to the continuous one-piece loop. The straps are often known as NATO straps because they were given a stock number by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for use by soldiers and divers.

I used to make fun on some of the people as NATO, (No Action, Talk Only!)

Ironically, NATO straps have become hugely popular with hipsters and fashionists, and are sold in a rainbow of colors and striped patterns by everyone from J.Crew to J.Press. Most noticeable sample is James Bond 007 Submariner on NATO strap. And the latest Tudor coming with Orange Grey band Nato like strap for 2013 Tudor’s diver watch.

Rubber Strap

Rubber straps have a long association with sports watches, and they lend themselves well to this use. Supple, comfortable and resistant to water and sweat, rubber straps are most often found on dive watches. In the 1960s, the first rubber straps were called “Tropic” straps, and the rubber used was stiff and often became brittle. But at the time they were a better choice than leather for obvious reasons and were cheap and easy to replace when they wore out. Now, high-quality rubber straps can be found on even expensive dive watches and can cost hundreds of dollars on their own.

Metal Strap

The last main genre of watch strap is the metal bracelet. First popularized by Rolex for its early sports watches, metal bracelets have many obvious advantages. They are very durable, resistant to anything you expose them to and nonabsorbent. They tend to be cooler and more comfortable in hot weather and can be sized to very precise fit using micro-adjusting clasps. Typically rendered in stainless steel, but also in titanium or gold, metal bracelets are perhaps the most popular kind of band on most watches

sold today.

Single or double Fold  Deployant Clasp would be equipped for more higher end watch to prevent watch drop out.

Some of the expensive Double Fold Deployant Clasp and crocodile leather can be sold as expensive as HKD$30,000 like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Roger Dubuis. Rolex has never product the single or double Fold deployant Clasp, but I sued to customer made some like the one shown below.

Dimension

More expensive watch has safety buckle that prevents watch dropping out

In Short,  Rubber for lower cost watch, flexible, durable, water  and sweat friendly.

Silicon Rubber is the variety of Rubber, happened on latest  AP Royal Oak and Hublot Big Bang!

Leather, thicker and wider for bigger watch, while thinner for Dress watch.

Fine lizard leather is expensive to use as it will not last long, probably well taken care of, 1-2 years if you wear it every day.


Size
Size of a strap is measured in mm as the width between the two watch lugs.

Price

Genuine Rolex Crocodile strap price from HKD$1,500 onward. Some of the street shop selling Rolex leather Strap at 1/3 or ½ price but many of them are fake.

Genuine Rolex Solid 18 KT Gold Watch buckles HKD$5,000, there are a lot of fake one made of 18KT solid gold at much cheaper price.

There are also gold plated Rolex buckles selling at HKD$200. Of course Fake one, we can see a lot at SSP AP Liu Street.

Some of the branded genuine Crocodile strap selling HKD$5,000 , that is price of a Louis Vitton leather belt!

How to Choose the type of Crocodile Strap,

I always look for larger square pattern as that is more expensive area of the crocodile. And I think it can easily been told that is not Lizard which is not as durable n general as crocodile and usually cheaper.

I have seen also very expensive Lizard skin watch strap, very thin and elegant, matching with the World thinnest dress watch.

So in short the thicker the bigger works well with bigger thicker watch, while thinner one for dress watch.

Colour

Rolex Does not offer many colour other than Brown, Black, hopefully more would be offered by end of 2013 after the new BaselWorld Exposure of the latest Leather strap Rolex Day Date!

Many colour strap are now available for different size, however it has to be custom order, good quality Crocodile strap with 20mm price between HKD$600-900, three weeks delivery time.

The leather has been dipped with Water repellent liqueur and that could last longer comparing with ordinary watch strap.

Maintenance

After walking under Summer’s Sun, it would be good to use some tissues to absorb some of the sweat.

Leather loves to be cared and some of the leather nourish grease would be applied on the strap sparingly, especially on the thread and use some of the colon cloth to wipe off extra grease, then the leather will give you a shine of lustre for many years!

A Hi tech Bra would enhance your Balcony Construction with a Safe and Prominent look !

A elegant ultra thin Lizard Skin Watch Strap matches with a Dress watch profile properly.

Note.1

I still collect a NOS genuine Rolex Horse Hair watch strap, extremely Rare.

HK Snob

Roamer Watch, a kind of popular watch in the 60s

   Ip man taught "Wing Chun' at roof top of a building at Tai Nam Street appeared at Movie "Ip Man 2"

   Donnie Yeh and Sammo Hung in the movie "Ip Man 2", the fight was a qualification test for allowing Ip man to teach Martial Art in HK.

 a 1958 Roamer Vanguard Gold plated Watch

  Back side of The Roamer Vanguard

Roamer

Fritz Meyer opened a workshop in Solothurn with half a dozen employees producing cylinder escapements in 1888.

There have been numerous classic watch made by Roamer over the years.

2009

The Swiss Watch Group acquires 50% of Roamer. Together with the Chinese distribution partner and part owner Chung Nam Corp, the brand initializes its successful re-positioning on the international watch market.  Sammo Hng was appointed as the Watch ambassador in 2009.

2010 

The nostalgia ad of Roamer Watch was appeared on “ Ip man 2, legend of the grand master” movie” played by Donnie Yeh and Sammo!

in the 60s, Roamer, Milus, Tudor Longines, Tittoni, Ernest Eborel, Rado Sandoz were some of the popular brands for HKers

HK Snob

Watch Fever 

Tag Heuer 1/10 Second Men Chronometer Quartz

Tag Heuer Quartz Chronometer with 1/10 second timing device.

Excellent Plus condition. Selling is now asking for HKD$3,000

Complete with paper and Box.

HK Snob



Tag Heuer Tiger Woods Limited Automatic men's Watch for sale

2008 Special release limited with 5,000 peices.

Tiger Woods Automatic watch with guilloche dial, Watch Resistant to a level of 200 metres.

Comes with Box and warranty card, Asking for HKD$5,000 now

HK Snob

What Watches did Ip Man wear?

Ip Man is a legendary Fung Fu Grandmaster, that is no question about it.

Someone has asked me recently what watch Ip man was wearing when he was in Hong Kong?

I started to find friends of mine and someone who knows Ip Man.

Someone Said Omega Seamaster and someone said Ernest Borel, and from what I see on all his pictures, he seemed did not wear any watches at all.

And From all the recent five Ip man Movies I have seen including the Wong Kar Wai's latest "The Grandmasters" 

There is nothing on his wrist, may be a Real Fung Fu man needs a super tough watch and I believed his speed of straight Punch would damage any watch made at that time…

So if you know about him, or you are the student of Ip Chun, please tell me what watch Ip Man worn when he was in HK!

HK Snob
HK Watch Fever

Fantasy Rolex Watch Picture By Maxcarper

Photography Courtesy Picture of Fantasy Rolex Watch by Maxcarper.

This is a Rolex Day Date, with Logo of Rolex located at the 6 O'clock position as the early Audemars Piguet that The " AP " is situated at 6 O'clock position.

Rolex Has never made and drop Logo design so far, will it happen one day!? Who knows.

HK Snob

How Much Gold Rolex uses up a year!?

HK Snob's Collection of Gold and Silver Tie Clip, bracelet, Cuff Links...

This is the world longest word which is non chemical, non  technical word: Antidisestablishmentarianism.

I cannot understand this word, only after I look up from the dictionary.

Then do you know how many kilo of gold Rolex uses a year?

Base on the estimation, 200,000 watches is solid gold, and about 200,000 Two tone watches.

One Standard 36mm Day Date weighs about 145 gram in weight with 110 gram the weight of gold. Rolex Produces DD II 42mm, and various size of Two Tone carries 18 KT Gold...

With an estimation:  ..36,000 Kilogram of 24K solid gold. That is HKD$350 Million of gold.

HK Snob