How I got into watch collecting, and how Stuhrling and Ben's Watch Club helped me find WatchCrunch!

So I was working on my "About" section today, and I thought: Why not make this into an actual post? People love good stories!

Plus, the "About" editor doesn't allow paragraph spacing, or text formatting of any kind. It just kinda' crams all the text together in one, tight block.

So I figured I would make a post, so that I (and others!) could see the stories as they were meant to be seen, with proper formatting.

So without further ado...

How did you first get into watch collecting?

I bought my first real watch (a Citizen Promaster 200m WR Model 5502) in the mid-1990s, because I wanted a nice, reliable, watch to wear, which would be of high quality, and last a lifetime, which I could hand down to future generations. (I was single at the time, marriage was still 10 years away, but I did eventually give that watch to my son, on his 13th birthday.)

When I first got married, my wife gave me a Marc Ecko watch for Christmas (2005), which was a real piece of jewelery; the bezel was completely encrusted with Cz, making the watch stunning to look at. (Years later, I found out that the movement in that watch was a SEIKO-Epson/Hattori Y121E. That's a really decent movement for a fashion watch!)

Since by that point, I didn't really wear the Citizen watch anymore, I began wearing the Ecko watch as my main, daily timepiece. I would say that at this point, having two nice watches in my jewelery box, I was officially a watch collector; in my mind, you just need to have more than one watch to be a collector.

The third watch was a Stuhrling Original, Concorso Raceway Model 564.02, which was another gift from my wife, this time, for Valentine's Day 2014.

I got a fourth watch for Christmas 2021 from my parents: a Tissot Classic Dream. At that point, I had already given the Citizen to my son the previous year, so the Tissot was really watch #3 in my collection.

Then, during the Christmas season of 2022-2023 (i.e., between Dec. 25, 2022, and Jan. 06, 2023) my son started asking me about watches, because his collection was starting to grow, and he wanted to really understand what he had. I had already given him a pocket watch (years before), in addition to the Citizen dive watch, and he also had a Casio "Arnie" that my dad had given him, and a Timex Ironman that his Taekwondo instructor had given to him (and all the other assistant instructors) so that they would all have watches with timers and stopwatch capabilities, which they needed during the course of training exercises.

Additionally, he had bought himself a G-Shock with his own money. He asked me if he should keep them all, or sell some of them; I told him that he should keep all of the ones that were gifts, for sentimental reasons (and in the case of the Timex, for practical reasons; his instructor expects all assistant instructors to wear that watch during every class) and that he could sell the G-Shock, since the Ironman was basically the same watch.

But he didn't want to sell the G-Shock, because he was proud of the fact that he had bought it himself, with money that he had worked hard to save. So he ended up keeping all the watches.

That's what gave me my inspiration; I figured that having a collection of watches was a neat thing. My son had twice as many watches as me, but when I looked at his collection, I found myself thinking: I can get him a couple more this year, for his birthday, and for when he finally gets his 3rd degree black belt.

And then, when I looked at my own, small collection, I thought: I should grow my watch collection as well. And BOOM! The bug had bitten! The lightning had struck! I suddenly found myself shopping for watches! I bought two watches for my son, two for myself, and two watches for my daughter as well. I even bought my wife a watch for Valentine's Day, a Stuhrling just like the one she got me, so that we could be matchy-matchy! And the craze has not waned, but rather, strengthened in its ferocity. Cheers! 🍻

Do you have a watch with a particularly interesting story behind it?

My Stuhrling Concorso Raceway (Daytona homage) was a gift from my wife, for Valentine's Day in 2014. Recently, during Christmas season of 2022-2023, while I was helping my son research and learn more about watch collecting in general (see above), we ran across a YouTube video from Ben's Watch Club (@benswatchclub) that was trashing the Stuhrling brand. 🤣

My son got upset, because he knew that I had a sentimental attachment to my Stuhrling, but I calmed him down, and said, "Look, we can agree to disagree. My watch looks great, has lasted 9 years, and has / still does keep extremely accurate time. Nothing he can say will ever change those facts. And besides, mom and I have a rule about never spending more than $75 on gifts for minor holidays, such as Valentine's Day. So he's probably right about the build quality, at least to some extent."

Upon hearing this, my son said, "Yeah, I guess I can see that." And that's when I said.... "Hey, change of subject, why don't we check out that watch forum he mentioned at the beginning of the video? What was it called....? Watch...club? No, WatchCrunch!"

AND THAT IS THE STORY OF HOW MY SON AND I FOUND AND JOINED WATCHCRUNCH BECAUSE OF A BAD REVIEW OF THE STUHRLING WATCH BRAND. Hahaha. 🤣😎