I realized recently that I never did a proper new member introduction and since it's been just over 2 years and 200 posts, I'll do a brief one now.

I'm in my late 50s, and grew up in the 1960s/70s in Detroit. I always loved gadgets and the idea of a stopwatch you could wear. My dad's friend was a Seiko fan and always wore a Seiko chronograph when he visited, which I fell in love with. Eventually one of his Seiko flybacks made its way to my Dad, but I was a little young for it. Instead I got to wear a Cimier slide rule "chrono" in 2nd grade and couldn't be happier. I finally got to wear the Seiko later on through college. After that I started wearing various quartz watches, Swatch chronographs, but stopped wearing a watch altogether due to my job working with electronics.

Fast forward to about 2015, I'm now in the Chicago area, and have rekindled my interest in watches. I started with a Luminox diver, a Seiko quartz chrono, then the SKX007 reintroduced me to affordable mechanical watches. I always hoped I could one day afford an Omega, since I had always been a fan, though more for their Olympic timing history than James Bond. I came across the affordable, early Omega Dynamics on Ebay, and while researching them, found Omega Forums. My first Omega was a matte white dialed Dynamic with orange second hand. I've bought and sold a few Dynamics now, but due to this amazing forum, I've also been exposed to tons of Seamasters, Constellations, Speedmasters, Apneas, Rancheros, Railmasters, DeVilles, and more. The Dynamic was like a gateway drug, and now I'm truly hooked. Not to mention, discovering Universal Geneve through the Forum.

Here's just a sampling topics I've run across on OF in the past 2 years that I had never heard of before: unpolished vintage watches, avoiding redials, avoiding Frankens, vegamite, Ebay scams, magnetized movements, finding a competent watchmaker, radium dials, old and new Omega models I never knew existed, helium release valves, monocoque cases. And quite a few new abbreviations like BOR, DON, PLOPROF, DSOTM, CHF, LMVH, NOS, BNIB and TLDR. I'm in awe of the amount of information compiled here!

Research is one thing, but I also love the photos. And the varied conversations and humor have kept me checking in regularly, even before the pandemic.

So a sincere thanks to the creators and mods, and to all the contributors. I wish I had found it sooner!

Here are the watches that started it all:

 

Welcome- and hello again, and hey- it’s you.

And what’s- up Doug.

 

It would be fun if there was a quiz when we joined OF that would take measure of all (or in my case none) of the watch knowledge, abbreviations and even why we shouldn’t buy a watch from Iceland. It would be interesting to see how much we have changed every year

 

Hi,
A great introduction. I'll have to do something similar myself soon.
Les

 

Hello and enjoyed hearing about your watch story.

 

It's never too late for a proper introduction. Welcome

 

Nice introduction. This thread made me realize that you, @DaveK, @JwRosenthal, @phamti, and me all signed up around the same time. My story has been told elsewhere, but quartz was king when I was young. My dad had a pocket watch and Speedmaster that sat in his dresser drawer. Both were an inspiration for me, but especially the pocket watch. As a teenager I went through a pocket watch phase, I had a cheapo Soviet watch my dad picked up somewhere.

 

Dibs on that Dynamic. Suddenly these have become really appealing to me.

 

Thanks for the background! I was born in Detroit, and grew up in Evanston.

 

So many cool watches from the 70's, lovely Dynamic! Thanks for the intro (maybe I should feel the guilt ).

 

Nice introduction and that Dynamic is spectacular
Good way to start.

 

Love that Dynamic!