A Rolex is nice as the ladies associate it with luxury.
Not so sure nowadays since many "sophisticated", materialistic, extremely high maintenance ladies prefer Cartier to Rolex. Rolex is too "middle class" and not exclusive.
I wore mine to an incall once and the SP was checking it out on the nightstand and said "I knew from your personality/clothes you had good taste so I wanted to see what watch you wore".
First, WTF do you wear one to an incall in the first place?
Not a bright idea to get the attention and ask to be mugged.
WRT the SP giving the "compliment" on the Rolex, she doesn't sound like an Oriental/FOB and her "knowledge" on expensive watches is quite limited.
Any seasoned and loaded Chinese ladies over there could tell you Rolex watches are
not their preferred choice. They want something more exclusive, expensive and definitely not reminding them of "old man's" watch like Rolex.
Simply put, at best Rolex watches for them are for "everyday" use like Timex or Swatch for that matter.
A Rolex is good for that. Watch collectors often hate them, but Rolex makes a good watch movement.
Hardcore watch collectors "hate" the Rolex have to do with prevalent Rolex counterfeits/replica compared to other high end watches.
Rolex makes a good watch movement but there are plenty of Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Breguet and Audemars Piguet that have better movements than Rolex.
They are overpriced for what you get, sure. $5,500 for a steel bracelet men's auto-winding watch is a lot of $. They hold their value well, as even used you'd pay $1,500 - $2,000 for one 25 years old. If you are a gambler and have to pawn your watch often, a Rolex is the way to go as it has a firm used value by model, so you know what you'll get.
$5K Rolex is "cheap" since this is just an entry level but it seems Omega is stealing those market from Rolex nowadays. You probably get decent Rolex watches starting $8K USD.
In terms of pawning your Rolex watch, that has everything to do with Rolex watches being considered liquid like buying and selling blue-chip mega cap equities, something other expensive watches lack.
BTW, Rolex spends a fortune on marketing
and budgets to allocate enough spares, train watchmakers and bulk up service centers worldwide necessary to sustain routine maintenance on the Rolex watches for decades to come. This is something that some of Rolex competitors find it too late to cope with the spiked up demand of their watches servicing.