Shawn J. Kolitch is many things: a passionate cyclist, a jazz fan, a former physics professor, a dad, a husband and a successful intellectual property attorney and partner at Portland-based Kolitch Romano Dascenzo Gates, where he currently focuses his practice on ‘intellectual property litigation, opinion work, and patent prosecution strategy relating to high-tech industries and emerging technologies.’ What he wouldn’t call himself, however, is being a watch collector. In fact, he’d been wearing the same watch constantly for over 25 years, his late dad’s AAA UK replica Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner watches, no-date Ref. 5512 with matte black dial: “When I was growing up in the 1970s, my father always wore a Rolex Submariner — I don’t remember ever seeing him without it.” The 40-mm dive watch had been a gift to his dad from his close friend Ralph Lia, who ran Sandolino’s, a then well-known restaurant in Greenwich Village. “When my father died, which was very sudden in early 1980, my mother was in a state of shock, she was only 37 years old and suddenly a widow with two young kids; she decided to give the watch back to Ralph.”
Shawn continued to visit his aunt and uncle, and Ralph and his family and other friends, every time he would return to New York: “I used to go to Ralph’s restaurant all the time, really, whenever I had a chance. And there were always movie stars there. I remember being introduced and actually sitting down, I think, having a sandwich with Matthew Broderick when we were both about 15 years old.” He obviously also got to spend time with his dad’s best friend. On one of those trips, when he was about 11 or 12 years old, Ralph took him out on Long Island Sound on his Zodiac, far out into the Sound, almost in the shipping lane: “I remember looking up at all these gigantic ocean freight liners. And while we were out there, he had the talk with me and he said, ‘I’ve been thinking about your father. I think about him all the time, and I just know that he would want you to have this best copy watches.’ And he gave it back to me, there on the boat. And as far as I remember, and I’m actually quite sure, Ralph had a matching one. He had bought two, kept one and gave my dad the other.” From that moment on, Kolitch would wear the luxury replica watches constantly for over 25 years — until that fateful day in Idaho in July 2008.
In the spring of that year, at an auction in Portland, Oregon, Kolitch won a rafting trip down the middle fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, considered one of the premier wilderness rafting trips, known well beyond the United States. He went on to schedule the trip with his then girlfriend Leah (and now his wife) for the summer of the same year. And even though his trusted 5512 came with a 200-meter water resistance rating, a triplock crown and crown guards (a first for the model), Idaho’s famous ‘River of No Return’ was definitely no place for a family heirloom like this: “I meant to leave my high quality replica Rolex watces at home, but forgot to take it off, so I had it with me when we arrived at the river to start the trip. There was nowhere to leave the watch, so I had to take it with me on the trip.” The lead guide’s answer to where the safest place would be to keep it, was to put it in a dry bag on the gear boat. The idea was that even if the dry bag somehow fell into the river, it would just float away and be recovered later. “Reassured, I put my shop fake watches, my wallet and my keys inside a small yellow nylon bag, which I stowed inside my dry bag to be carried on the gear boat.” On his raft were Leah, a guide, and four former Notre Dame University football players on a reunion trip.
Over its length of 425 miles, the Salmon River drops more than 7,000 feet from its headwaters, near Galena Summit above the Sawtooth Valley in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, to its confluence with the Snake River, so, within a few hours of launching, the group hit the first Class IV (4) or ‘Advanced’ rapids: “Our boat made it through, and we waited in an eddy for the other boats to arrive.” After a few minutes, the radios around them started crackling — there apparently was a problem with the gear boat, and all the guides started running up the riverbank to help.
“While we were waiting, one of the guys from our boat started fly fishing to pass the time. Suddenly, he waded out into the river, snagged something from the current, and held it up for everyone to see. To our great surprise, it was a pair of Leah’s underwear. Before we even had time to process this bizarre fact, we started to see other clothing flashing by in the current, and we realized that things from the gear boat had fallen into the river.” As it turned out, an inexperienced guide had tied Shawn’s and Leah’s bags to the gear boat only by their handles. The same guide then promptly flipped the gear boat over in the rapids. While upside down, the tension on the rope ripped open their bags, and everything inside was lost in the river. “With a week of rafting still ahead of us, we were left with just the clothes on our backs, and one soaking wet pair of Leah’s underwear.”
The guides and other clients generously shared their clothing and gear with the pair to make up for what they had lost in the river, and the rest of the trip turned out to be as spectacular as they had hoped. Still, the precious watch couldn’t be replaced: “I was despondent over the loss of my Swiss replica Rolex watches, which was dumped into the river along with everything else in my dry bag.” For months, Kolitch felt resigned, sad, and also angry with himself for losing his dad’s Rolex in the river. “I tried to think of a way to explain what had happened to my mother and sister, both of whom valued the watch as much as I did, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell them I had lost this family heirloom.”
Fortunately, the story of this cheap super clone watches don’t end here, because much to his surprise, in November 2009, 16 months after they had returned from their rafting trip, Kolitch got a phone call from someone who introduced himself as a guide for a different rafting company in Idaho.
And he had some remarkably good news to share: “He told me that he had just finished guiding a late-season trip down the middle fork of the Salmon, when the water was relatively low, and retrieved a small yellow bag from the bottom of the river. In the bag was my wallet, a set of keys, and, in his words, a ‘beat up old 1:1 fake watches.’ He had been able to track me down because my waterlogged driver’s license was still readable.” The guide kindly sent him the yellow bag, full of river sand but with his wallet, keys and watch still intact. “To my absolute amazement, after spending more than a full year at the bottom of the Salmon River, including an entire winter under the freezing water, my UK perfect replica Rolex watches were still ticking. Although the crystal was scratched, it hadn’t broken, and there was no sign that water or sand had reached the movement.” By the time he got the watch back in late 2009, the couple had an infant at home, Kolitch had a lot of responsibility at work, and not much time or money, so he put the Rolex away with the idea of someday getting it fixed. “The infant is now a teenager, and I recently took the watch to a certified Rolex repair shop in Portland, which brought it back to good working condition with a new crystal and an overhaul. Although I was told there was sand packed up against every gasket, the mechanism, the case and the bracelet, all original, are fine.” Which means that after having been brought back from the proverbial ‘basement of time,’ this 5512 is now finally back on the wrist where it was always meant to be.
