Watch journey

[toon10]

Just out of interest, what was your journey into collecting or appreciated timepieces?

I’ll kick off with mine. I was never really into watches until I walked past a boutique in Florida and saw a Breitling Navitimer in the window. As I stopped and stared, I remember feeling an urge to buy that watch. OK, once I saw the price tag was not a mistake I walked away but that feeling was the first time I appreciated a watch.

Fast forward to a trip to Thailand. (You can see where this is going…) Yup I bought a fake Navitimer. I wore it and loved the look but always felt stupid telling people it was a fake when they asked. I never lied about it. It died after a drunken fall but by this time, I had started to look into horology and had more of a knowledge around brands and the history of some watches.

I could not afford a nice watch but wanted something with a bit more quality. I have never been a Rolex fan but I stumbled on the Steinhart OVM and loved the look. I bought one (I know, a fake then a homage, kill me now…) I started to gather other watches. Nothing special. I bought a quartz Raymond Weil dress watch which is beautiful but rarely worn now and a vintage HMT from eBay. By now my other half noticed my interest and bought me a fashion watch (Fossil) which I never wear. She did also get me a nice Citizen Red Arrows World Time, which I use when travelling.

I coveted the Omega Speedmaster Professional for some time and was fortunate enough to blow some of this year’s bonus on one. The Steinhart gets the most attention and comments but I admit to feeling great when a German colleague noticed the Omega last week and complimented me on it. We had a good discussion on watches and it turns out he has a Seamaster at home.

Now I have the bug, I have a long list of watches that I would love to own but not being a powerfully built director that Lange will never happen. I might be able to get a used Navitimer at some point. Still, I plan to add a nice budget (around £1000) dress watch to my collection and will probably get a Tudor Black Bay Bronze in the not too distant future.

Anyone else care to share their watch story?

[Greendubber]

Mine started due to this website.

Seiko 5 in the under £50 watch thread about 10 years ago. Ordered one from Creation, liked the idea of a mechanical watch and then saw people posting pictures of gen 1 Seiko Monsters so got one of those.

Then saw the G Shock Prawn thread so had a couple of those.

I then picked up a few more as I got more and more interested in watches. I really appreciate what goes into them and love looking at the broad range of watches worn on here. I think the incoming and wrist check threads are my favourite threads on here.

My most premium watch is a new style Longines Hydroconquest, so relatively small fry compared to most here but I love it, it was my first 'Swiss Made' watch.

I'm after a Tudor next.

[Wadeski]

I worked with Seiko many, many years ago & briefly as a marketing consultant. It was an amazing experience - the company is run by watch-obsessive engineers who were wonderfully, charmingly, encouragingly awful at brand stuff.

In meetings with the senior leadership team from Japan, where the goal was to agree guff like target consumer, positioning insights, brand values, the agenda would quickly dissolve into someone dumping a box of watches onto the table for everyone to poke at, critique, and argue about the quality. At that point everyone in the watch industry was worried about the "fashion brands" (Armani, Diesel etc) coming in using cheap Chinese parts but at real-watch prices. The Seiko bosses were dumbfounded by the trend - why would someone choose an obviously poor product just because it had a shirt-makers name on it?

All they cared about was the watches, how to make them better, how to push the engineering. Knowing that, it makes sense why they don't just make their own movements, they make their own gaskets, lubricants, glass, straps...the lot.

I've been a loyal buyer ever since.

And would one day quite like to run their marketing department

[loquacious]

I was fascinated by my Grandfathers watch when I was about 3 years old: used to watch him wind it every morning while he waited for the kettle to boil. He stopped wearing that watch sometime in the 70s when he got a new one but I pestered and was given that original watch about 10 years ago (now at least 70 years old - the watch that is ) and had it serviced etc even though after a quick wind, it ran as if it had last been worn the day before, not 40 years before!

So I have always had an interest in watches. I worked in the jewellery trade in the 80's '90s and hated the fact that every watch was digital and as the dinosaur I am, I persisted in wearing the ancient automatic divers watch I'd bought with my own money when I was just into my teens. I'm sure (not sure) that it was a Mondaine but I have never been able to find a picture of one or even any mention of such a thing... The watch was sadly written off in a bike smash when I was young and stupid.

For years I wore the cheapest digital watches I could get: typically £1.99 from the petrol station as I just had no interest but when mechanical
watches made a resurgence, so did my interest. My first longings were for Seiko 5 models (manual or auto) as I considered Seiko to be 'jolly good!' then moved on to quartz watches with analogue displays and still have a Citizen eco-drive that was bought 20 odd years ago and abused to hell (and back!) and it still works perfectly!

Now I have about 30 watches (down from 60 odd) most of which are autos but a few quartz watches that I never wear. I fear it is an obsession that will never abate... along with cars/bikes.

[Wildfire]

I always liked watches as a kid and was enamored with my Casio FW and then my Timex Ironman.

When I was a bit older my dad got me a fake TAG 2000 series from abroad and I wore it everywhere until it died.

After that died I stopped wearing watches really, it wasn't until Uni that my housemate got a Seiko Kinetic Arctura which I thought was great. My parents bought me a Seiko kinetic for Christmas a few years later and I wore that from 20 for a good few years until I thought the capacitor had given up.

When I dug it out of a drawer I found it had revived one day and I began wearing it again.

I had a few novelty Tokyo Flash watches in between (which I still have) and an ex-girlfriend bought me one of the TVR Personal Posession watches, which was my "good watch" for about 8 years.

When I met my now boss, who was into watches, I began to look at a new time piece and after leaving the civil service, I managed to get myself a second hand TAG 2000 and a battered F1 Chrono.

As a present to myself I bought myself a newer F1 Chrono and shortly after I managed to get a great deal on a Hamilton Khaki King Navy Sub.

After losing the old F1 on holiday, I was surprised with the insurance payout and I got myself a Rado dress watch.

Last year I treated myself to the grail watch, a Speedmaster Professional from DomH on here and got a Undone Snoopy collaboration watch (big Snoopy fan) and there I was luck enough to win a competition for 1 of 3 unreleased watches.

I also seem to have picked up a few others (Breitling and Hamilton on the way too..)

Although I am about to thin it all down this year.

[mikeveal]

In my teens and 20's I was hard on watches. A lifestyle of caving, kayaking, paraglding, hillwalking and occasionally climbing saw many £20 casio watches fail catastrophically in many varied and often spectacular ways.

When I was about 26, on holiday in Canadia I decided to treat myself to something a little better, in the hope that it would last a bit longer. I bought a Titanium Tissot T660. A quartz dress watch waterproof to 200m. I think it cost me just under £200 in 1996.

The watch steadfastly refused to break. I wore it every day and for every activity for a good ten years. It didn't even look scratched. And then, one night I pushed a drink onto my messy bedside table and I heard the watch drop off the other side and fall in the bin. I was tired, so I thought "I'll get that in the morning." I rolled over and slept.

When I woke, my fiancee had already emptied the bins and the bin men had been. No more T660.

Being a creature of habit, I started trawling ebay for a replacement T660. It turns out the T660 isn't that common and it took me two years to find one. In that time, I came across several watches I couldn't refuse.

There was a very rare white gold (rgp) Hamilton Darwin. This was a 1965 watch in pristine condition. The Darwin is rare, white Darwins doubly so. I discovered that rare does not mean expensive. It's a vintage gents watch, it's only 1" square today that is considered small for a ladies watch. Here's a yellow gold one:


That was quickly followed by an Omega De Ville. A dress watch from 1972. Once again it was factory fresh. My fiancee bought it for me.


I was amazed at what you could get for £100. Sadly those days are gone.

Still the search went on for a T660. Still I wanted a day to day watch. On a weekend in Cardiff, I saw one of these in WoS's window:

It was second hand, but it was still four figures. Only just four figures granted, but that was a big leap. With a wedding looming and with a fiancee encouraging me I drove back the following weekend and bought it. This wasn't exactly a day to day beater, so I kept looking.

From there, I don't really remember what came next. The T660 was acquired, a T770 joined it. I mainly collect 60's and 70's watches, very few are quartz. I like to go for watches that are all original and are as new, which is challenging given the number of franken and restored watches on the market.

[AJB88]

Never wore watches at all, my father passed away last year an I inherited one of his 2 Rolex Datejust wore it everyday for about 2 months.

I was due to go on holiday at Greece for a mates wedding, I didn't want to take the Rolex as didn't want to leave it in the safe there but also didn't want to take it in the sea, I decided to pre-order a Tudor GMT instead. But I soon realised it wasn't going to be here in time for Greece so ended up buying a Omega Seamaster 300 as well!

So yeh in the space for 3 months went from 0 decent watches to 3.

[andy tims]

Liked watches as a kid. Bought several LED then LCD quartz when they first came out.
Go my first "proper" watch, a Tag Heuer 2000 series in the 90's as a pressie to myself after becoming Chartered.
Bought & sold a few in the early noughties via eBay, but in 2005 I discovered watch forums & it's been all downhill from there - 32 watches in the collection currently. Very nearly 130 more bought & sold.

[NDA]

My first watch was a Timex LED (?) with a red time display if you pressed a button. It cost £20 and I worked washing up in a fish and chip shop to be able to buy it. I loved it - it was gold coloured on a gold coloured bracelet.

Next that I remember was buying a Raymond Weil gold dress watch - very cool looking I thought at the time. I still have it somewhere - having said that, I moved house recently and I don't recall seeing it.

Then an Ebel steel 'wave' watch that got stolen in a burglary. I can't remember what I replaced it with.

And then the era of more expensive watches... JLC, Breguet and Patek.

Despite promising myself 'no more watches' I've never owned a GMT. I whittled my list down to a Seiko Spring Drive and the Omega Planet Ocean.... settling finally on the Omega. A big heavy watch, blue dial... the perfect contrast to my other more finely crafted watches. I like the fact it has the George Daniels co-axial movement and twin barrels - it's an interesting mechanism and extremely robust.

[vixen1700]

Never really bothered with watches until quite recently.

Only ever had quartz watches that seemed to last forever like a Raymond Weil, Mondaine Swiss Railway and a Bering that I had for years.

Then I bought my first mechanical watch, an SKX007 which got me into watches and now I've got about 16 or 17.

Really like investigating some of the up and coming microbrands.



One of my favourite watches as it's so unusual, the Orion Sylph from the States that was made in tiny numbers. Really like what Nick Harris is doing with his microbrand.

Next on my want list is an Oris Chronoris.