The State of my Collection

Good afternoon members of WatchCrunch. I thought I'd post a few pictures of my collection as it stands today, and share a little about some of my watches and how I got to being here.

I really only started getting really into watches and other timepieces in the last 7-8 months. A Discord server that I'm a part of has a 'watches' channel and this ended up being my regular hang-out. I learnt about the difference between mechanical and quartz watches and slowly but surely, the desire to own more watches overcame me.

The First One

The first watch I remember owning is this quartz Citizen, nothing fancy, just a dress watch that I picked out with my grandparents for my 13th birthday. This is a special watch for obvious reasons, and I was pretty stoked to get it ticking again the other day.

At 34mm, it's pretty small on my wrist now (I usually wear 38-42mm) but it'll always be in the rotation just for the connection to my late grandfather.

Necessity and Practicality

When I joined the Army in 2015, we were ordered on the first day to hand over our watches immediately and told we would get them back when the instructors deemed us worthy of being allowed to tell the time.

I don't remember the watch I wore the day I enlisted, but when we were finally allowed the privilage of timekeeping, we all went to the post office on the base and purchased a G-Shock.

My Mudman has been a faithful companion for the last eight years, holding the place of my daily wear at work and home, until 2021 when I purchased an Apple Watch. It has survived being crushed in a car door, drowning in oil and a mauling by my dog.

Catching some shut eye with the Mudman.

The Mudman however still accompanied me on field exercises, standing up to the toughest of knocks and boasting only one battery change since its purchase almost a decade ago.

Rise of the Automatics

After purchasing my Apple watch two years ago, it became hard to justify wearing anything else and to be honest, it was a pretty handy tool to have on my wrist.

Watches like this Citizen and my AVI-8 Hurricane would adorn my wrist for events that demanded a little more class than an Apple Watch can provide.

I recently transitioned from the Army into a new job, one that doesn't allow me to wear a smart watch in the building. I'm not disappointed. It gives me an excuse to wear something beautiful and individual to work every day.

First I bought the A168 seen above. That wasn't enough for me though, and the Timex soon followed.

Enter the Seiko SSK GMT. Bought on impulse, and with the intention that it would kill the nagging in my brain to buy more, this was my first mechanical watch.

But as I've come to learn and as I'm sure many of you also know, there's always another watch around the corner. The Melbourne Watch Company Lonsdale soon followed.

Well this has turned into a much lengthier post than I originally intended. I'm looking forward to sharing my journey with you all and learning more and more about this fantastic, expensive and downright insane hobby.

tldr; I like watches.