How it Started vs How it's Going - SOTC

Sharing My Collection for the First Time

I've purchased my last watch for the year, so it seems fitting to share the state of my collection. This is the first time I've shared my complete collection and my journey, so I hope you all enjoy it!

This will be a long, rambling post - blog style. So here's the TL;DR for the disinterested and attentionally challenged:

I stopped wearing a watch around the advent of cellphones. Due to a work need, I accidentally rediscovered watches as an adult. I realized that many golden childhood memories had been accompanied by the wrist watches of the time, and I was hooked by fond nostalgia. I got a lot of unanticipated value from wearing a watch because it decoupled me from my phone. I bought too many watches to learn what watches I really wanted to buy, and am now finding peace and equilibrium in curating a smaller collection that can hold a lifetime of memories. I've enjoyed every single minute and every beat of the second hand along the way.

A Little Background: How it Started

It wasn't long before I graduated to a G Shock for work

I got interested in watches by accident. A few years ago I needed a watch for work. I didn't have any particular desire for one at the time - I hadn't worn a watch since I was a teenager. But it was a necessary tool for my job, so I did what any conscientious nerd would do: I asked Reddit. I told the watch addicts *ahem* enthusiasts there what I needed and how much I was willing to spend and they gave me their suggestions. Looking back, I can appreciate just how solid their advice was.

So, I placed an order for the top suggestions; one digital and one analog. I figured I'd see which one I liked better and return the other one and that would be the watch issue sorted. What a sweet, summer child I was then...

The Two Watches That Began Everything

My first watch purchases; Casio F105 and Timex Expedition Scout

I was now the owner of one Timex Expedition Scout 36mm and one Casio F-105 (I was advised to get the F-105 over the F-91w because I needed legibility in all light conditions). I thought I would settle on one of them and wear it only at work and then go back to my regular life.

But a strange thing happened. Once I started wearing the watches, I was filled with a sweet nostalgia and sense of rightness in the world. I hadn't realized at first, but these watches were actually familiar faces. I knew them, but had somehow forgotten them. It was like seeing a friend from high school that you haven't thought about in years and being delighted at the memories that come rushing back when you run into each other.

Kids on Bikes: The End of a Golden Era

The theme is "extinction events"

See, when I was a kid, cellphones didn't exist and dinosaurs roamed the earth. Almost every child old enough to read the time had a watch. I never bought one with my babysitting money. I don't remember ever asking for one specifically. But at some point, an adult was going to stop you about to ride off on your bike and slap a cheap, quartz watch on your wrist. Why? So that you knew when to leave to catch the school bus, and when to stop playing and come home for dinner. If you broke or lost that watch, in short order someone would give you another one so you had no excuses not be where you were supposed to be at the time you were supposed to be there.

I suddenly remembered that friendly Casio face sitting on my tiny wrist and how my friends and I would try to stop the stopwatch at 1 second exactly. How the teacher would take away a calculator watch for the day if they caught you using one during math lessons.

I remembered a plastic-y little Timex three-hander that, in retrospect, must have been a Camper – and how proud I was when I could reliably read the time at a glance. I felt so adult, casually announcing to all that it was ten past four or quarter to six.

I remembered the first of these obligatory watches that had Indiglo. I stayed up into the late hours with the covers over my head, mesmerized by the strange green luminescence until I ran the battery down, much to my dad's frustration.

I recalled the sporty neon Casios of the 90's, the unimpeachable cool factor of a white G Shock, and the colorful frenzy of the Swatch craze.

So many sweet memories of riding bikes, climbing trees, and motorcycle camping with my dad - of playing Monopoly, making friendship bracelets, and staying up to watch MTV - of junior high crushes, and after school sports, and delirious sleepovers hopped up on Pixie sticks and swapping Troll dolls - these recollections that had faded into dim and distant memory to be replaced by cell phones and power bills and car troubles - came seeping back in glorious Technicolor.

I had stopped wearing a watch around the time I got my first cellphone with money from my first proper job, but I had no idea at the time just what I had given up. Like many of us, I have often wished dearly to have just one of those childhood watches back.

Learning How to Wear a Watch (Again, the Adult Edition)

Am I doing it right?

I found myself wearing my cheap little watches not just at work, but everywhere, all of the time; and noticing little ways that it changed my life.

For one thing, it was fun! I've always loved playing dress-up, making outfits, and accessorizing. Watches brought a whole new palette to my wardrobe.

It was also a delightful trip down memory lane. Exploring the cheap and cheerful offerings from Casio and Timex brought back so many good times I had nearly forgotten, and it was a little bit of comfort for me in this busy, modern world - especially during the pandemic.

Chronos vs Kairos

Keeping time and keeping it fun

With a watch on my wrist again, I also noticed something new that I only could have appreciated by straying and then coming back into the fold: wearing a watch gave me a little bit of extra headspace in our frenetic society and helped me realign my relationship to time.

See, now that my smart phone was no longer doing extra duty as the world's most overbuilt pocket watch, it began to spend more time, well...in my pocket. Checking the time no longer sent me down a spiraling doom-hole of notifications, with all the flashy seduction of fast dopamine and instant gratification. It no longer exposed me to ridiculous demands on my attention, availability, and finances, leaving me to emerge an hour later with a sense of malaise and a social media headache.

My screen time dropped off a cliff and became much more intentional. I became comfortable with leaving notifications on silent most of the day. And it happened with no anxiety around being late or losing track of the hour. With my wrist watch faithfully keeping Chronos time, I was freed to slip into Kairos time.

Casting a Wide Net

Some of my many Casio acquisitions

I had a great time exploring the world of inexpensive watches and I learned a lot along the way about what complications I liked or disliked, about what made a watch fit well or poorly on me, and about what went into a good quality watch.

My favorite style emerged - the field watch - which made sense between my lifelong interest in WWII history and my love of the outdoors.

I delighted in learning about watchmaking history, as I love all history, and feeling like the curtain had been pulled back on a secret world.

I bought way more watches than was sensible, as most of us do at first, but I was later grateful that I stayed in the shallow end of the pricing pool as it saved me a lot of money and regret that would have come from trying to impress watch nerds or attain some nebulous, "real collector" status.

I thought deeply on watches, both their function in my life and their philosophical nature and relationship to time. I devised a personal ethos around the purchase and ownership of watches. And over time, a clear path emerged.

Wielding the Knife and the Constraints of Space

There's room for one more F91W, right?

I pumped the brakes on my watch buying because when I started to feel guilty about the way certain watches were looking at me, I knew I was getting ridiculous.

I took a long hiatus from buying and focused on evaluating and clarifying. A few of my watches were re-homed with friends and family (only partly as a way to tempt them to the dark side). Around the time my new collection guidelines really gelled and most of the desired watches were targeted, my partner did a wonderful, terrible thing: They gifted me a watch box. Before, I had all my watches stored in a couple of very large valet trays, but we had moved in together and I didn't really have a suitable space to lay out my behemoth trays anymore, so my watches were sort of living the life nomadic, a real source of annoyance for me.

The watch box was lovely, and it was presented with much excitement - "Here babe! This will hold your whole watch collection, right?" It was a 20 slot box. I was both pleased and dismayed. I briefly considered buying a second, matching box, but quickly realized that with 40 watches, even in equal rotation, I would only be able to wear each watch 9 days a year.

Now was the time to wield the knife I had been sharpening.

How It's Going

My collection, post-editing

My current criteria for any new watches is:

• Tough, quality materials and construction. Each watch should qualify as a "buy it for life" item.

• Solar movements.

• Less than 40mm in case diameter.

• Versatile, timeless styling.

• It should not cost more money than I'm comfortable with potentially losing. These are watches to wear and enjoy, not stick in a safe deposit box like a horological Scrooge McDuck.

There are one or two exceptions allowed to these rules if the exception is sensible. I'd eventually like to have only one watch in a given category. One everyday watch, one sports watch, one dress watch, etc. What many would call an "all GADAs" approach. I don't know if I'll get to just one each, but my watch box now sets the physical limit on the size of my collection.

The Current Active Collection

A new addition - Timex Marlin Hand-Wind Reissue

1. Timex MK1 Chronograph

2. Timex Expedition Scout 36mm

3. Timex South Street Sport 36mm (old model)

4. Timex Women's Waterbury Neon

5. Timex Marlin Hand-Wound Reissue

6. Vaer DS4 Meridian Solar Dive Watch 38mm

7. Vaer C3 Solar Korean Field Watch

8. Militado D12

9. Casio G Shock GWB5600BC-1B

10. Casio G Shock GMD-B800SC1B

11. Casio MQ-71

12. Casio W-217-H

13. Casio A700

14. Casio F91W in the following variants: Green Dial

15. Army green case

16. Navy blue case

17. Gunmetal case

18. Silver case - black face

19. Gold case

20. Black case w/ gold accents

21. Silver case - white face - clear strap

Yes, that is one more watch than I have slots in my watch box. But at this time I actually have 2 empty slots available.

Three of the Casio watches: the green dial F91W, the MQ71, and the W217H are on their original resin straps and simply hang from their buckles on little hooks by my bedside. The F91w and the MQ71 are "around the house, nightime" watches. The W217H is my "I don't care, I'm running errands in my sweatpants" watch because it's light and comfortable and has the biggest, most legible display in my collection.

Is that cheating? Maybe... but I can live with that. I've sacrificed 7 slots on the altar of the Casio God-tier, so cut me some slack!

Out of Rotation/On the Chopping Block

The first cut is the deepest...

These watches will be looking for new homes in the coming months. It's possible a couple could find their way back into rotation. It depends if I actually bother to dig any out to wear them or if they prove to be out of sight and therefore, out of mind.

1. Casio A158

2. Casio A168

3. Casio CA53

4. Casio AE1300

5. Casio AE1200 (the "Royale")

6. Casio W93H

7. Casio W94HF

8. Invicta Pro Diver - 38.5mm - quartz

9. Timex Women's Waterbury Classic

10. Timex Navi Harbor 38mm

Where Do We Go Now?

The Vaer C3 Korean Field, ready for new adventures

There is a little space left for a watch or two to be saved from oblivion and return to the box. There is a little space for one or two new watches. There is not space for both. So every watch in rotation is still justifying its presence in the box. I can't save much that's old or add much that's new without taking something out. And I'm ok with that.

I had so many memories attached to my childhood watches because I only really ever had one watch at a time, and it went everywhere with me. That's how they became infused with so much life. I want to have that relationship and connection with my grown-up watches, and that means owning fewer so that I can spend more quality time with each one. One day, I will look back, and my watches will return to me rich memories of my most vital years and most treasured experiences.

An old friend and a new friend

Wherever you are going with your own collection and wherever life takes you in 2024, I hope that you explore new places and try novel things, that you play a little harder and love a little bigger, and that your most beloved timepieces are by your side, taking it all in.

-Rei

December, 2023