So you saved up for your first Rolex, and you decided to go the “vintage” route. But now, a problem — what the hell are all these weird terms and phrases being bandied about? “Frog foot” and “gilt” and “tropical” and “Bart Simpson”—it sounds like the frenzied mutterings of some drunken cartoon character in a contemporary production of Alice In Wonderland. How exactly does all this relate to watches, and to Rolex watches, more specifically? Here’s the thing: Rolex aficionados love this stuff. It’s like a secret, coded language that signals that someone else is an insider, that that person loves horological esoterica as much as the next nerd. But it’s also not that complicated, for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that we’ve compiled a cheat sheet for you. Now, the next time you see that vintage watch dealer, you can be sure that you’ll be on an..
