The watch that got you into the hobby

The Seiko SARB017, was the first mechanical watch that kicked off this strange hobby for me.  About a year after that I got a Sinn 556A as an impulse buy, and that watch really locked me in.

For a number of years I worked as an estate jeweler and I would  buy and sell used watches.  I bought a Rolex Oyster and wore it for a number of months but I never felt anything for the watches.  It was business and they just represented inventory.  It wasn't until recently when I realized that thanks to the Chinese brand Sea-gull, I could afford to own a tourbillion that my love for watches began. 

The Apple Watch. When researching replacing my wife’s Apple Watch I came across Teddy’s video on the Casio A168 and that started me down the rabbit hole into mechanicals too. 

Was always into them as a kid, but could never afford one. My first fiancé at the time bought me a Movado Museum when I was 22 and I thought it was all that, till it wasn’t, but still remains a the watch I got the most compliments on, which is odd given my collection. A couple years later in the early 2000s fell for an early version of an orange Tissot T-Race. I love motor sports and cars and thought it was the coolest looking watch. Had no idea how it work it, but I had to have it. Then I got my first “grown-up” watch when I got married, a Xemex Avenue (which I need to get serviced). That one taught me about ETA and started me down the journey. Haven’t stopped buying since, that reminds me, I miss my T-Race, time to hit eBay.

An Invicta diver of very little repute was my first watch love at the age of 14.  I loved the clicky, coke colored bezel and the open caseback.

I frankly can't tell if it's been uphill or downhill since then.

I've shared this one in the past here and it's still in my collection today. My first watch purchased that put my in the rabbit hole was my 1979 Seiko 5 

My first watch was a manual Timex that I can no longer find - it was in a box of my childhood memories that has been misplaced somewhere a long time ago. Unfortunately, I don't even have a photo to remember which reference it was.

My next significant watch was a Fossil with the faceted crystal - I just loved the green dial and it popped beneath the crystal because of the faceting. I picked it up in a gift shop out in Southampton on Long Island.

Then my in-laws gifted me with, what was at the time, my favorite watch the Movado Museum Watch - I had just been admitted into the partnership at Deloitte and my in-laws wanted to acknowledge how well I was taking care of their daughter.

All of those watches kind of kept me at a simmer - I think I wore the Movado all the time including in the gym, etc.

It was when I started up my boutique record label (i.e. boutique means you never make money and, in fact, really should consider it a very expensive hobby), Golly Gee Records, which was focused on rockabilly and surf instrumental music, that I came across the 1950s Hamilton Ventura. I was instantly smitten, started collecting Hamilton electrics, and haven't looked back since.

I lusted after a Navitimer when I was in my teens and 20’s. I probably saw the watch in a magazine ad somewhere. In the early 2010’s I was sure my first luxury watch would be the Planet Ocean Good Planet GMT with the blue and orange bezel. But the watch that truly got me into the hobby, my first mechanical timepiece that I still own today, was the Seiko 5 Sea Urchin. I still do not own a Navitimer or a PO (although I do own an Omega, an AT).

Alpina Starpilot Auto.  I knew of more expensive watches, I walked past an IWC and Rolex window everyday but those were remote, hideously expensive and just not for me.  Then I saw the Alpina and it was both gorgeous and accessible.  It showed me watches were something I could be into.

Paradoxically, now I own one of those very IWCs I used to dream about, collect Breitlings and have gone far further getting a bespoke german independent all of which I would once would never have seen me getting - and without that Alpina I wouldn't have.

A Fossil my now fiancee got me. It conjured up a random question in my head one day (can’t even remember now) which led me to one of Teddy’s videos. After spending about the next 4 hours on Teddy’s channel, I came out of the rabbit hole as the watch nut I am now!

Believe it or not, a Sternglas Asthet. Minimalist Bauhaus design,  Miyota 9015, but I quickly sold it and upgraded to a pre-owned but near mint Junghans Max Bill Chronoscope 😂 (you can imagine how fast I fell into the rabbit hole… 🤦🏻‍♂️)

When I was a kid, it was the Casio G Shock. To me it was the coolest watch and all I wanted. I got a Baby-G at age 10 and then picked up a lot of Seikos and Citizens over time from there. 

The watch that got me interested in finer mechanical watches was my friend's Breitling Navitimer. Though my first automatic was a skeleton mall-Bulova. 

I've always liked the blue on Breitling's Navitimers and Super Ocean watches. 

For me it was a Baume & Mercier Clifton Baumatic. I started appreciating all of the small, subtle ways that a nice watch was a nice watch and got hooked. That led me down the wormhole. 

My granddad was into cars, motorcycles, watches. My cousin became the car addict, I became the watch addict. I had a few motorcycles, but not since the kids were born. The watch that started it all, I don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure it was a digital of some kind. I remember seeing Breitling ads here and there when I was young, but not any individual watch that hooked me. Now, I doubt I’d give Breitling the time of day. 😂 Then I discovered the Omega Speedmaster Professional and it’s tie to my love of all things space exploration. That was the biggest hook for me. I achieved that grail in 2017. My other grails are all way beyond my means, now. 

For me it was the watch shown in the movie Interstellar. I haven't ever bought it after it was made finally real, but this watch drove me to the Hamilton Khaki field 42mm I bought because it looked similar back at the day.

I later sold this one but the damage was done. 

The first watch I got in this new phase, so to speak, was the Seiko SKX009. While looking to buy a new diver like the Orient like the Mako I came across a watch reviews channel called The Urban Gentry and finally bought the SKX against my initial plans. 

My fate was sealed...

My first watch was a Timex Triathlon from the early 90’s. I remember seeing an ad like this in a magazine at like a docto’s office or something. 
 

I worked side jobs on the weekends to buy it and it was the coolest thing outside of a BMX with pegs for your bros. Don’t know what happened to that watch but I wish I would’ve kept it. 

Back in 1997,when I was still in the Royal Navy, I bought a 2000 Series Tag whilst ashore in Abu Dhabi. That was my first 'posh' watch, but quickly became my only watch and for almost 20 years hardly ever left my wrist. 

Then in 2015, almost on a whim, I bought an Oris dive watch and, when I saw them both together, I just wanted more. That was the point I dived head first into this hobby! 

What really got me collecting were Fosil character watches, like my George of the Jungle watch snd others including a Pinly and the Brain watch. All from the mid 1980’s. 
 

Well its got to be my dads steel omega that he had when I was a child (unfortunately doesn't have it any more) I promised myself one day to have one. Roll on many years casios when I was a kid,a rotary quartz for best,then a couple of seiko kinetics,but then 4 years ago I received a voucher for my 30 service award so I went and got a longines hydroconquest, Swiss,mechanical, history etc,felt a million dollars my first 'proper' watch, fast forward and ive got nearly 30 dive watches, but if it wasn't for that old omega to plant that seed in the back of my brain,well I probably wouldn't be writing this now.(I haven't got an omega yet,but one day)

I had a watch ever since I was in 3rd grade. And by force of habit they were all quartz Seikos. But they were watches to tell the time and match an outfit. I had a kinetic, and I messed it up during an attempt to change the battery. So I thought: Why not try a mechanical watch? And the SRPG27 started my further interest in watches.

For the longest time, I have not been wearing watches at all, most of the time I just did not like anything on my fingers or my wrist. Also, I have never bought or been gifted a watch for an occasion, I mostly stumbled over watches randomly.

I bought my first watch the at end of the 80s, namely this funny one which sadly does not work any more, the dial was also white at the time. I found the way of telling the time and the slight Moirée effect nice and unique:

The first "real" watch I bought was some year later the following Alpina which must have been too small for my wrist right from the start:

I bought a similarly sized bicolor Tissot Seastar some years later, then some fashion watch and that was it for a long time...

Until I saw this Seiko two years ago and then the madness set in:

I now need to consciously restrain myself from not buying more watches on impulse and I already compiled a list of watches I plan to sell. I now have a much better idea not only of which watches I like, but also which I will be wearing, which is not the same thing.

Glad I posted this.  I'm really loving reading the stories.  Thanks for sharing them.  

The Speedy. I grew up in Houston in the Apollo era and loved NASA and the astronauts so the Speedy was the only watch I wanted. By the time I had a job and enough money to afford the Speedy, LIFE happened with a wife, mortgage, kids, braces, tuition, etc. Since I had a nice two-toned Datejust from my in-laws that I wore daily, I forgot about the Speedy because who had more than one watch?

Fast forward to the hoopla around the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing and the desire for a Speedy suddenly came back with a vengeance. With my kids both out of the house and working, I thought the Speedy would be a great END OF LIFE type grail purchase so I purchased the Speedy (Hesalite of course) and love it. 

The problem was that in doing internet research to buy my Speedy, I caught the watch collecting bug and now just got an extra watch box as a present from my family because the watch box they bought for me not too long ago is full.

Back in 2015, I had been subscribed to a site called "Touch of Modern", which featured various products including watches. One of their offerings was from a brand called Slow Watches, which showed time using a single hand on a 24 hour scale. I was intrigued by the concept, and ordered a "Slow Mo".  That watch spurred me on to start casually looking into other watches, but nothing really grabbed me until I stumbled across the then new Tudor Black Bay Bronze, featured prominently on the cover of the Esquire "Big Watch Book".  Although I never did end up the BB bronze, it was the watch that really ignited my passion, and started me seriously researching watches. Given that I probably would never have discovered the BB  if the Slow Mo hadn't initially piqued my interest, I'm not really sure which watch to thank (or blame).

I have always liked watches since I was a little kid in the 60's.  I don't know what started it, but the first watch I can remember having was black rubber with a white dial, not unlike the Seiko Steve Jobs made famous, although before his time. I don't know what brand it was, but it would have been a cheapie.  The one that got me hooked on blue watches though was a beautiful Blue Seiko that my parents brought back from Aruba in the mid 70's.  Unfortunately some future felon stole it when I was in college, but my parents then replaced it with a digital quartz Seiko that I still have today, 40 years later.

Honestly my start into the hobby is a bit odd. I always had basic watches but at that point I didn’t even really think much about having them (mostly Walmart brand digital). 
 

Then one say I started getting into pocket watches. mind you they were cheap quartz no name brands but still. my first ever mechanical watch came in the form of a dan Henry pocket watch that was a Christmas gift from my grandma. still love and cherish that watch. but even at that point I didn’t really understand watches or anything about them. 

my first sign of truly getting into horology as a hobby came some years later. wasn’t in the best place overall life wise but was making it through. I always had the impression up to this point mechanical watches were expensive, and way out of my scope. but I did some research and found Vostok at a good price, and overall well recommended by most watch groups I searched. and that led me to buy my first mechanical wristwatch. a Vostok Komandirskie 811171. which to this day I count as the watch that brought me officially in. though I gave it to a friend a ways back. I still remember it in memory.

I don’t know what watch got me into the hobby but lately I’ve been having flashbacks of distant watch memories like my grandpa’s gold ani-digi Seiko during my childhood and how cool it felt to wear a silver tone Lorus in middle school. I was a weird kid. 

I always was a watch person last Labor Day week broke out with Covid. While staying at home was watching the Expendables couldn't help watching Stallone's watch he was wearing got on YouTube and there I went.The following two weeks got me a watch box and grew from there.

Odd to say but Islander first really pulled me into the rabbit hole with this. I saw someone reviewing it when I was on my hunt for my first mechanical watch (mostly considering aliexpress brands or seiko 5 at the time)

Prior to this I didn't understand the benefits of sapphire, didn't know other brands used seiko movements or miyota, didn't even know what a datejust was. This watch propelled me in several different directions of watch education at once without ever even trying one on.

Growing up as a kid of the late 70s and 80s, I always saw a lot of the cool digital Casio and Timex watches. Two in particular I remember having were the Timex Ironman, and the Casio F91W. After recently getting back into watches, I've rediscovered a love for the F91W and the different colors available. When I wear the F91s I smile and it brings me back to a simpler time of Superman, Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers, and just good looking digital function. I love how minimal the size is and that sometimes I barely even notice I'm wearing a watch. Thanks for asking this and I hope everyone enjoys their watches for a long time to come.