A Journey of Watch Rediscovery

I've recently got back from a short holiday with the wife's family, a trip down to the New Forest.

When packing my bags I decided (for fun) to ask her which watches I should bring from my collection; I find sometimes taking the choice away and giving it to someone else encourages weird combinations or forces you to look differently at your collection.

I told her that two watches would be ideal, one that is durable for days out canoeing and bike riding and one for evenings out at a pub/restaurant.

She chose my Luminox for day wear, which is fair enough, it's often my travel watch as it's tough and the tritium means I can set it up as a travel clock on my bedside table and read it in the dark of night.

For evenings however, she chose my Christopher Ward Trident C65.

The Christopher Ward in question was my first swiss watch, my first tip toe into the world of mechanical watches; a manual wind, no date, classically styled diver with the much discussed text placement at 9 on the dial.

Currently this watch often sits at the back of the watch box, not through any fault of its own, it was my number one special occasion watch for a while until inevitably my collection grew, my tastes changed and new watches flowed in, and it was usually left behind as other newer, more exciting watches were picked before it.

It has been months, perhaps even years since this watch has been worn for more than a few hours on occasional outings, but now it was with me, away for 5 days. No going back.

It was by about lunch time on day 2 that it dawned on me.

What a fantastic watch.

Removing the temptation of picking other more regular watches and forcing myself to spend quality time with other pieces in my collection really forced me to actually give it the wrist time it deserves.

The fit and finish is fantastic; typically as I've continued collecting I've handled more expensive watches and been unimpressed with the sometimes squeaky, rattly, jangly bracelets, the loose bezels or the general lack of perceivable quality for a more expensive item.

Little did I realise I already had a fantastic micro adjust bracelet at home gathering dust.

The bezel clicks very snappily and you'd need a micrometer to measure the back play, there is none.

The 'lightcatcher' case design means it wears very thin and truely gleams in the sun, the matte dial is very legible and it overall feels extremely solid.

The text isn't my favourite, but there are so many other things that I like about it that they outshine the questionable design choice.

Freshly charged lume next to the Luminox Tritium

The lume is great, the pip on the bezel glows so brightly you can still see it in bright daylight.

I ended up wearing it for the majority of the holiday and it has reignited my appreciation for the watch.

Has anyone else rediscovered a possibly neglected watch in their collection?

TL:dr Wore a watch I hadn't worn in a long time and had somewhat fallen out of love with, wore it for a decent amount of time on holiday and remembered why I bought it, wear your older watches people!