It may be better but with respects to Rolex I could buy a hundred G-shocks and just throw them away every six weeks and still be ahead money wise!

Speaking of renewing the luminous dials, I have a Seiko diver's watch that I have had for for almost 30 years. I have replaced the band several times, but the watch has held up to extreme abuse. It no longer glows in the dark, though. I would like to renew the dial, but have never explored the options for getting it done. Has anyone ever done this before? What new materials are out there?

Rolex etal have been overtaken by technology. If I need the official, precise time (as in opening or closing a polling place) I need look no further than the nearest cellphone or GPS. For convenience I still wear a venerable Casio which needs a battery about every two or three years.It's accuracy approaches chronometer grade, but I no longer use a sextant for navigation....

Check out this thread:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f21/dial-luminizing-photo-tutorial-519055.html

A Rolex is a very expensive peice of jewelry that happens to incorporate a clock. A Rolex is fine if you wish to make a fashion statement. As a survival item, I see no practical advantage of a Rolex over an ordinary digital watch that costs a tiny fraction.

In some situations, wearing a Rolex could have negative value for survival. Wearing a Rolex says "I have money" and/or "I am important". If you were a bad guy looking for a target to rob or kidnap, who would you select? The guy wearing the Timex watch? ..... Or the guy wearing the Rolex?

On the other hand (sorry) you might also be able to use the Rolex to buy yourself out of a situation. It could go either way depending on the circumstances.

And if they they don't like the deal you offer, they can just shoot you and take the watch.

If your in that bad a situation, just take the watch off. I've done that on just a couple occasions...situational awareness is key, after all.

The advantages over other watches that cost a tiny fraction, is the fact that the automatics take no batteries, their water resistance is usually greater than the cheap watches. If the watch says is 200M WR, and it costs $50, it probably isn't.
Rolex has a screw down crown usually. If they don't, they have a series of gaskets that keep the water out of the movement. I won't ket into all the features that make it the world's best selling watch brand. Look it up if your curious. PLUS the resell value is certainly there. Try reslling a $30 Casio.

With a Rolex you're buying jewelry as well as a timepiece. G-shocks are just timepieces with a lot of complications. There's no artistic value to them. Comparing the two isn't an apple to apple comparison. It's more like a kiwi to lime comparison.

Don't take this the wrong way, and for the record I don't care if you buy $1,000,000 watches- but I can't imagine any of these things being big pluses for most people. For instance, I'm not waterproof to 200m, so if my watch it at 200m it's gonna have to go without me and it'll have to stay there. And if I don't blow ten grand on the watch that's ten grand I'll still have, no need to pawn my Timex. A CD is still going to be a better investment than a watch.

But I suppose if I won the Powerball, once I had all the HK firearms, high end knives, sports cars and collectible comics I could find...well, maybe then I'd consider something "better" than a Timex Expedition.