When I was a boy I passed the national academic test, known as the 11 plus. The purpose of it was to separate the future managers from the rest. By passing I was given the privilege of attending one of the more academic schools. By that time, streaming of children at the age of 11 was going out of fashion. The comprehensive school system had been introduced some ten years earlier and most left wing areas had completely done away with the old system of academic segregation. Where I lived that wasn't the case, and my parents were delighted that I'd be going to the nice middle-class school with the nice boys from good families and they rewarded me with a space-age looking digital watch. I was very proud of myself and loved the watch. Time passed and the watch disappeared. Maybe I stopped wearing it because I broke it and getting things repaired wasn't a thing. I probably acquired another cheap watch or stopped wearing a watch at all. At that age we don't need a watch. Time is governed for us. The school bell was all we needed to know where we had to be or go. I forgot about that digital watch for many years, and then I got into watches, and started obsessing about them, and then one day I saw a jump-hour watch, and in an almost Proustian way, I was transported back to my 11 year old self. I remembered that watch, and what it represented, how proud my parents were of me, and how proud of myself I was. Trying to track down the particular model wasn't easy at first. I had a vague memory of the shape and colours but some of those watches look very similar to each other after nearly 50 years. Then one day I saw it and I knew that was the exact model I had been given all those years ago.The Sicura manual wind jump-hour. I put it on my want list. Actually there were plenty around but asking prices are ridiculously high for a fairly ordinary 17 jewel Baumgartner. Why? Because several years after these watches came out the Sicura people rescued Breitling and, as if by magic, old Securas became imbued with the quality of the Breitling name. Asking prices are stupidly high, and as these are chrome plated cases, condition is often poor. As I knew I would service a watch if I bought one, I decide to look for good condition cases and not worry about the works. BFG 866 movements are easy to maintain but cases are more of an issue. Also, the chrome versions are far more desirable than the gold plate versions, so I figured, if I needed to, a good chrome case and a donor movement from a gold plate case could be put together. In the end I found a reasonably priced watch that needed a repair with a case that had little wear, no rubbed off chrome, but a little bit of light scratching. The seller was a little tricky with the images, but in the end I decided the watch was in acceptable condition. I sent it away to be serviced and it came back today. The cost of the watch and service far outweighs its resale value but that's not why we collect watches, right? I wouldn't have bought this watch if not for the sentimental reason. I am certainly getting into 70s style and it could have a place in my collection for that reason, but the real reason I have it is because it reminds me of a very particular moment in my life.
I can't imagine how cool you must've felt as an 11 year old wearing that around! Did you become a manager in the end?
I did feel cool for a while, although this was just around the time when LED watches were coming in and those were way cooler even though one needed two hands to tell the time. My life in the corporate world was short-lived. Ironically, I worked for companies until my late 20s when I went off to do my MBA, which was when I realised I didn’t like corporate life. For all but about five years since then when I was with a boutique recruitment consultancy, I have worked alone as a consultant/freelance coach and psychotherapist. My management experience is pretty much limited to chairing a couple of charities.
Great story, I think we all do things like that from time to time. I bought a digital Mickey Mouse watch last year because I had had one as a kid. Lucky for me I didn't have to spend much on my slice of childhood.
I joined here originally because I wanted more information on the Omega my father gave me when I was 9 (yes, 9) that he had in his junk drawer after I asked for a big-boy watch. I lost it shortly thereafter because I was 9 -who gives an Omega to a 9 year old?!!! I bought my Speedy after he died in 2002 because I remember him saying as he put the gold Omega on my 9-year old wrist “Omega was the watch worn on the moon”. Since, I have purchase at least 8 Omegas and not one of them is similar to my recollection of the watch he gave me (which I believe was a gold capped Seamaster on factory brown strap). Sentiment is what drives most collector’s hobbies, a longing to fill a void, making oneself whole from loss (be it a person, opportunity or place in time), a reminder of what was or could have been.
How spooky, just read your lovely story whilst watching online auction in UK. Guess what was for sale !!
My first watch is a Disney ZORRO watch I was given in the second grade. It was soon smashed in a dust up with a bully. Among the white trash that made up most of the population here wearing a watch was a sign you thought you were better than everybody else. The movement and dial were still sound only the expansion band and crystal were destroyed. I kept this watch for around half a century before finding a donor watch. Since the crystals were pressed in place permanently I just transferred the old movement to the donor case. The donor had a similar child size expansion band. Results below. Unfortunately the original box disintegrated . Too bad, it had a small Zorro type hat that the watch band fit around like a hatband. Most of these had a nice leather band with western style buckle. I have no idea whether my metal band was OEM.