I have this passion for gold and gold plated watches that, I'm sure, many of you don't share or even understand.
And among the bling-bling watches, my favorite one is the Carrera 73655 (yes, the cheap, gold plated, 3 register hand-wind Carrera - LOVE it!). I've had one since a couple of years, now.
Well, I was really enjoying this watch with a nice brown leather rally strap, until one day I saw the watch on an old catalog with its original band (see pic below), and immediately knew I had to put one like that on my Carrera.
The thing is: believe it or not this band, a 7-row NSA gold plated bracelet 18mm, is a very rare thing.
I've been searching for one for more than one year, asking around, checking on ebay and other auctions catalogs, going to shops I thought could help me find it, etc.
Nothing.
Then a couple of weeks ago, already in despair, I decided to play the last trump and wrote a post on here.
One of the forum members immediately answered suggesting to ask Squinky, the authority with respect to bands. I had already been checking his listings on ebay and had never seen that specific band. Notwithstanding, that suggestion gave me new hope and pushed me to write directly to him: if one of those bands still exists, I thought, he is the only person who can find it.
You can imagine how I felt when Bill answered "Yes, I saw your post on OTD that style is very rare I don't think I have ever had one in gold color."
And the pure desperation when he added: "Perhaps an option is to get one gold plated by a jeweler - otherwise I suspect you have a very long search ahead of you"
Asking a jeweler to make a copy of that bracelet and put it on my Carrera? No way. I just took the watch off my wrist and put it back into the storage.
The following morning my mood was as gloomy as the weather (I live in Chicago). That bracelet had ruined all the pleasure of wearing my Carrera.
Then, it was late afternoon, I get another email from Bill. Maybe he'll want to suggest an alternative to that bracelet, I think, and sadly open the email (I didn't want any other band than that). Well, this is the text of that email: "We spoke about your bracelet search from OTD. I found a nice one for you. How do you like this?" And in the attachments here below you can see what I saw at the end of that email: the original 7-row NSA gold plated 18mm! In just one day Bill had sourced that rare bracelet for my beloved Carrera. And the price? A BARGAIN!
So, let me sing once again the praises of Bill and thank him for his unbelievable kindness and passion.

Happy holidays to everyone,
Luis