Thanks for sharing this piece of history.
I went the same way, almost the same way. My first one was a Rolex submariner which costed me 2 years of work LOL. I still went to school and earned some money during weekends ( working as dishwasher in a restaurant) So it really took me almost 2 years because I wanted the Sub new from the AD.
Years later I hade quite some watches, AP, Rolex, Panerai ... (AP was second hand) but my dreamwatch was the Patek 5070R. I thought about it several times but it was just too expensive ... or I had to sell almost every watch I had.
Finally I did the same thing. Bought the 5070 and I kept only 1 Rolex.
This was in 2006 so taody I could save up for some extra watches