A trip down memory lane, and meeting a childhood icon.
Remember him my fellow 70s kids (don't remember the leafy guy though, maybe tree man????.
Now they do say never meet your hero's/icons because they never match your expectations, they are generally smaller than you expect (Tom Cruise 5'4" in heels) or not the cool,sauve towering giant from childhood memory. Now most of mine have succumbed to the ravishes of time, popped off this mortal toil due to enjoying themselves too much or are spending the rest of their days languishing in a cell due to getting a bit too friendly with their fans.
Well what's this got to do with watches, well I'm going on about watches from childhood, your 1st watch to be precise an icon from your childhood. If you are like me were a child in the 70s you probably didn't have a quartz or digital, you had a mechanical. And what was the watch you had, well something cheap n cheerful. Yes the LBT little black timex.
Now it's been on the collection radar for a few years to get my 1st watch. 'The 1st Watch' long gone, probably taken apart 'to see how it worked'. But I've always resisted the urge because I know it will be smaller than I remember, probably ravaged by time and not the iconic hero that memory dictates.
A couple of weeks ago early one morning I was flicking through the posts on here whilst having the 1st brew of the day and there was a post on someone's 1st watch the LBT. Now me being the careful and considering type in the time it took to overcook the porridge in the microwave (and make a mess, again😖) I'd entered ebay sorted the best out of the three on offer and pulled the trigger(and here's me trying to downsize the collection😄)
And yes it's small, tiny in fact and looks ,well a bit crap,and they do say meeting your hero's can be a disappointment, and they're right, especially on that horrible nato. I thought what have I done (again) wasted money on something that's going to laguish in the box unworn. But hold on, it's in great condition (maybe a bit too great case wise) no lume rot, no corrosion, unmarked crystal, great condition dial and case. It deserves a chance and definitely some better straps. Now even my huge strap collection hadn't got any to suit (tiny watch, tiny strap 16mm) so another ebay session was called for.
Now that's better, in fact very much so, a nice vintage tissot rally very much like the one on my watch.
And an unusual but very fitting Apollo strap. Now it's cool and wearable 'just' what with my eyes not being quite as sharp as they once were I have to look like this chap to tell the time
Now I've got options
The rally for when I'm out playing Barry Sheen (and that's an image of my 1st bike a raleigh chico)
And the apollo for playing with action man in my den.
So yes hero's of memory aren't what they were. But with a bit of complimentary surgery, clean living, not getting too friendly with the fans and of course a couple of fantastic straps meeting a hero of yesteryear can be great.
Now I never prescribe to the "you've got to have this or that" to make a complete collection but I will say this will make a worthy addition, bring back some childhood memories and would be a great gift to a younger member of your family. So go on get your 1st ever watch. Cheers everybody.
Love dive watches,practical,stylish and sometimes beautiful. In my collection seikos, a couple of longines and an alpina
Some good memories there.
Ah, was my first too. Popped my horological cherry with a very similar Timex, & yes, mine was "disassembled" to see how it worked ......
And once I'm on my bike I think I'm Barry Sheene too 😎🤣
People, this is what a proper sized watch looks like! Notice how it doesn't cover the entire wrist but merely sits atop it?
Anyway, my tastes have strayed so little that I don't feel the need to track down a very similar watch.
Great story, and looks perfect on you! 👌
I do believe that was my first watch also; all I remember is that it was smaller than my Dad's Timex but a Times, it was a Mechanical, it was Blue, it had Numbers on the Dial (not just indexes), and it was the 70s.
I also remember my mom bought me the Oscar Goldman action figure and not the Steve Austin action figure. I hated it but my god if I had kept it mint I'd be happy now. Oscar is worth far more than Steve to collectors apparently.
My first watch was also a Timex mechanical that my grandfather gave me in the mid 1970s. I don't remember exactly which year, but it was well before my grandparents moved to a new house in 1978. (I was 7 in 1978.) I remember getting it while visiting them at their old house.
I still have the watch, and it still ticks when I wind it. I haven't checked to see how accurately it keeps time. It's TINY. I just keep it in the watch box as a memento of both my childhood and my grandfather. It's a little different from yours. It has a friction-fit, dive style bezel.
And, heck yeah! I remember Steve Austin. I loved The Six Million Dollar Man. That was my favorite TV show.
Love it. I had something similar happen a while back, perhaps a story for another time.
There are sort of 2 first watches for me, but finding a citron that is just right and not dead is impossible, and the Casio Football Timer is now just too expensive (I was bought one for my first day at secondary school) It was interesting seeing the @MWC2020 lay his hands on one NOS in a recent video. One of the few times I get jealous watching YouTube lol. (Think mine had a yellow tinted screen, and if I am honest, a timer permanently stuck on 45 mins isn’t that useful. But memories. I didn’t even like football, it just had a real James Bond — Moore, Dalton hadn’t made an impression yet — feel.)
That, the afore mentioned citron digital, a tikkers teaching watch, a battle droid flip watch (that broke) and a five quid Burger King ‘Peter Jacksons King Kong’ watch are the only watches from my life I haven’t managed to keep ahold of/find tucked away somewhere in my junk. I think there may have been some kind of Casio F91 variant I had to set with a paperclip poked in the top right too. Dim as the yellow backlight memory. But that may have been the Citron. (I also inherited an old Pulsar ‘Bug’ LED watch at far too young an age, and think I lost that in another family members house. It’s somewhere. Goodness knows where.) All essentially irreplaceable. Apart from maybe the battle droid.
Oh for Christ's sake, let the nostalgia go. I thought you'd met Lee Majors when I clicked on this and yes, we all had the Six Million Dollar Man dolly with the ratcheted arm and see through bionic eye which made his action figure look disfigured. And as for Action Man, don't even get me started on how many of those pieces of Hasbro-licenced nonsense I bought into, and then sold for next to nothing in the '90s.
Yeah, I have the Timex too. It was too big for me to wear at the time, and it's now far too small and looks stupid. In America, it was called the "Sprite" because it was a kid's watch. We had it here at the Green Shields Stamps shop, along with Little Big Man and Clark's Commandos. It's an awful, horrible, cheap mechanical watch. Let it go, dude, let it go!
Life is shorter than you think it will be, don't dwell on the past. Live in the here and now, it's all we have.
Buy an Timex Expedition Scout, it's the same thing only better. 😀
I get your point, no problem. But i had to scratch the itch, and of course its a rubbish watch, but it was the first (of a long line of rubbish watches) so deserves a bit of limelight. We made a car over here called the sprite (also small n a bit rubbish) and the Steve Austin doll was also rubbish (far more fragile than action man, head kept coming off) not to worry the only way now is forward. So no more nostalgic from me (do retro re introduced divers count, hope not) 😉👍
There are sort of 2 first watches for me, but finding a citron that is just right and not dead is impossible, and the Casio Football Timer is now just too expensive (I was bought one for my first day at secondary school) It was interesting seeing the @MWC2020 lay his hands on one NOS in a recent video. One of the few times I get jealous watching YouTube lol. (Think mine had a yellow tinted screen, and if I am honest, a timer permanently stuck on 45 mins isn’t that useful. But memories. I didn’t even like football, it just had a real James Bond — Moore, Dalton hadn’t made an impression yet — feel.)
That, the afore mentioned citron digital, a tikkers teaching watch, a battle droid flip watch (that broke) and a five quid Burger King ‘Peter Jacksons King Kong’ watch are the only watches from my life I haven’t managed to keep ahold of/find tucked away somewhere in my junk. I think there may have been some kind of Casio F91 variant I had to set with a paperclip poked in the top right too. Dim as the yellow backlight memory. But that may have been the Citron. (I also inherited an old Pulsar ‘Bug’ LED watch at far too young an age, and think I lost that in another family members house. It’s somewhere. Goodness knows where.) All essentially irreplaceable. Apart from maybe the battle droid.
And that's the trouble with trying to find the next gen 1st watches ie your generation as are a lot less serviceable than a mechanical (mind you the timex movement is basically once its done its fubar) and are rarer in some sort working condition than mine, and chuck in the start of the throw away age makes it doubly hard to get one.
S'okay, I was just prodding you for fun. I wish you had met Lee Majors though.
No worries, I took it as. Nothing like a good prodding 😄🥳😱. Loved to have met the man, that would have been an awesome experience
And that's the trouble with trying to find the next gen 1st watches ie your generation as are a lot less serviceable than a mechanical (mind you the timex movement is basically once its done its fubar) and are rarer in some sort working condition than mine, and chuck in the start of the throw away age makes it doubly hard to get one.
Yup (though officially I am tail end of same Gen as you I think. X.) it’s a big problem. I went and looked for the King Kong watch I used through my brief abortive stint at art school — it’s thirty quid NOS, at current bid, and that’s an American one and frankly it isn’t worth that even for nostalgia lol.
The Casio football timer would be a sentimental goal, again, it’s really not worth the three of four hundred it goes for in battered condition.
Yup (though officially I am tail end of same Gen as you I think. X.) it’s a big problem. I went and looked for the King Kong watch I used through my brief abortive stint at art school — it’s thirty quid NOS, at current bid, and that’s an American one and frankly it isn’t worth that even for nostalgia lol.
The Casio football timer would be a sentimental goal, again, it’s really not worth the three of four hundred it goes for in battered condition.
Wow, that's a hell of a lot of money. Will have to rethink my car booting searches as anything watch related mechanical wise is a busted flush as they want ridiculous prices for the worst broken rubbish, but there's boxes of digitals that go for pennies, so I'll have to get rummaging.
Wow, that's a hell of a lot of money. Will have to rethink my car booting searches as anything watch related mechanical wise is a busted flush as they want ridiculous prices for the worst broken rubbish, but there's boxes of digitals that go for pennies, so I'll have to get rummaging.
It’s an increase close to a Rolex percentage wise lol. Casino CMD watch like mine (the TV remote one I still have) was about 50/60 quid new in ‘95 and now turns up on eBay at up to 6 times that depending on condition lol.
It’s an increase close to a Rolex percentage wise lol. Casino CMD watch like mine (the TV remote one I still have) was about 50/60 quid new in ‘95 and now turns up on eBay at up to 6 times that depending on condition lol.
You got one of those,well cool. Remember when they came out, I did think whatever next.
You got one of those,well cool. Remember when they came out, I did think whatever next.
A step backwards, as I can’t control my telly from any smart watches, and certainly can’t take control of the one in the pub with it.