SOTC ‘22

Prior to May of 2022, I had 5 watches. A Tag 6000 (anniversary gift from the wife in 1998), a Swiss Army 1884 Officer’s watch (I gave these to my groomsmen in 1994 and picked one up for myself while I was at it 😎), a Movado Museum (a law school grad gift from my parents in 1987) , a vintage VC/J-L Mystery Dial watch (it was my wife’s grandfather’s watch which my in-laws gifted to me when I turned 50) and a Timex Weekender which I picked up with some Amazon points to serve as the beater.  
 

And that was it.  For over 30 years, this was the state of my “watch collection”.  Watch collecting wasn’t even a thing for me.   As I developed my sense of business-style as a young professional, I had a few watches that covered most any occasion.  But my focus then was tailored-suits, ties, custom-shirtings, shoes (with a vengeance 🙄) and accessories.  Oh… and retro sneakers.  😳👟

During the pandemic and the cataclysmic shift from dress-up to dress-down, my interests changed.  I sold off a good portion of my ”business” shoe collection (replacing them with more casual footwear) and overhauled the work-wardrobe to a fit a more casual style.  

Cut to May of 2022.  The Casio Mudmaster GG B100 1A had caught my eye.  I wanted to have a kind of fun, bit over-the-top, tool watch and hey… it counted my steps too.  😀

So… I picked one up at a good price.  While looking at the Casio line and doing a bit of research, the Duro kept popping up and I thought it was a nice-looking dive watch at a ridiculously low price so I thought, heck, I’ll get that one too.  

Then I saw an open caseback Seiko Recraft and thought that it looked like a cool, retro-styled, watch and it was under $130 so what the heck, I’ll get that one too.   
 

Now… I’m reading about watches, watching videos and learning about watches.  I picked up the obligatory copy of “A Man & His Watch” and that was it.  I joined WatchCrunch this month and my very first post in @Max ’s 50K Subscriber Giveaway resulted in my winning the Timex Q Chronograph.  Wait… What?… Really?… Thanks!!
 

All the watches in the box were obtained over the last 7 months, along with a bevy of bands, straps, bracelets, loupes and a toolkit. Modded some of the Casios (oil filled both the Duro and the MRW-200).

I think with the final acquisition for 2022, the Seiko 5 GMT SSK003 (Blueberry), the initial frenzy has been abated somewhat. 
 

For 2023, I have more of a plan, perhaps a bit more focused.  I’m sure something will strike me from out of the blue (probably a blue dial 😉) over the course of the next year but I am currently focused on adding some of these watches to the collection in 2023:

Seiko Sarb017, Tissot PRX Chronograph, Longines Spirit Zulu Time GMT, Hamilton Intra-Matic Chrono.
 

Eventually, the Speedy, maybe the Rolex Explorer, maybe a Tag Monaco, maybe the Zenith El Primero. Who knows? 

Hopefully, time is on my side.