How Tastes Change Over Time

When I was 16 my dad and I bought a 1972 Firebird in its original Revere Silver; think about silver and mint green having a child - that’s Revere Silver. Initially, we discussed painting the car a different color. But as time wore on, I fell in love with the color. It’s unique, and I have only seen one other RS Firebird in person, with one other online in a forum.

A wise judge at a Concours d’Elegance once said that our taste in cars changes over time, much like our taste in alcohol: we start by drinking cheap beer in high school; by college, we’re into hard liquor; and eventually we learn to enjoy a fine wine. Just as my love of 1,000 horsepower muscle cars has evolved since I was twenty into a love for nimble European sports cars now that I’m in my thirties, I’m developing an evolving love for watches too.

A couple months ago my neighbor, Susan, gave me a few watches. She said they weren’t worth anything and she knows that I’m into watches.

Despite being double our age, my wife and I have a great relationship with Susan and Larry next door; for our first house I think we hit the neighbor lottery! We get along better with them than all the neighbors our age. Larry is a paid musician while in retirement, so my wife and I will often go with Susan to see him play. We’ll have them over for dinner, and they’ll reciprocate; to Larry, cooking good pizza is an art form. We love being outside and will have camp fires in the backyard while exchanging and enjoying rare craft beers that we’ve been able to find. Even our dogs love playing together…

So one of the watches that I received actually has a bit of value: a 1973 Hamilton Ocean Date. The quartz examples seem to be cheaper, while the automatics can go for upwards of $300 - which is quite a bit for me being a new watch collector - this one is a manual wind so it’s probably around $200 or so.

I brought it to the local watch shop recently to get cleaned and working, and then I’ve been posting it for sale in different groups along with some other watches as I’m also trying to slim down my collection. Even last night I posted the Hamilton with some other watches looking for a possible trade. But as I’ve been handling the watch, winding it, and even wearing it here and there, I’ve grown pretty fond of the old Ocean Date. This morning I’ve decided to keep it.

My core collection consists of both sentimental pieces - such as my grandfather’s Fossil, or my great Uncle’s Bambergers Hamilton, etc. - and pieces that I acquire to celebrate major business/career milestones - like my Seamaster 300 GMT. Our wonderful neighbors won’t be our neighbors forever… maybe this Hamilton can be added to the sentimental part of the collection; something to one day, hopefully far in the future, remember our awesome first neighbors.

I think I’ll wear the Hamilton the next time I drive my Firebird, as they’re only one year apart.

PS: the elastic band was bothering me, so during my lunch break I scored a nice leather strap from the local watch shop.