A manifesto

Every so often people accuse me of things, reading my posts with their attitudes and not mine.

So, let me help.

There are collectors on this forum, people who are not collectors on this forum, and people who just have a nice watch they want to learn more about it and they stumble on this forum.

There is no one position that is 100% right for everyone. Many of you adore Constellations, for example, and a significant number of you people like C-cased Constellations. When you find one you like, I am happy for you. For me? Meh.

There are some of you who have definite opinions. One you seem to have is "DON'T SEND YOUR WATCH TO OMEGA!"

Just who do you think you are, anyways? What really torques me is when one of you new people with fewer than a hundred posts "shouts" that same thing.

That is no way to educate someone. All you do is produce little clones of yourselves. If that's your goal, I can't say I have any respect for it.

Many postings I've made are to give the alternatives the best I can in a particular situation so the person who owns the watch can make her own decision.

I actually do take "collectability" into account, not that the opinions here are the only ones online. There are plenty of other watch forums. I swear some of you don't want people to change their watches because you want to make sure the pool of candidates are greater for yourselves.

Yes, factory service is an alternative. If that's what someone wants to do with her property, it is none of your damned business. You may have seen me mentioning I've been sending my modern watches to Nesbit's, because Omega's Miami service center can't find their collective asses with both hands.

I have also just been accused of not caring for originality or whatever you consider collectibility for my own small accumulation, which is a steaming load of crap. It is true that I do not care for damage; I have passed on plenty of watches for multiple reasons. None of my vintage Omega watches have refinished dials. I have one with a refinished case; my watchmaker is very talented in that way. I preserve crowns when I have been able to, because my watchmaker is very good at replacing crown gaskets.

You also know what I care about? Function. When I buy a vintage watch, it is my intent to have it restored to as-delivered function as often as possible. New mainspring? All for it. New balance staff? No objection here! I've replaced significant movement components if they could not be repaired. Most of my vintage watches run inside five seconds a day, because I pay more to have the movement restored to as close to as-new as is reasonably possible.

So before you jerk your knee at something I write, just remember these few things:

- That person's watch isn't yours. By all means recommend, and give reasons. If you can't give reasons, STFU.
- I'm agreeing with you more often than not.
- I do care about many of the same things you do, whether you realize it or not. You've seen my watches. Look again if you need to.

And, by all means, have fun and relax a bit. You'll be happier in the long run. I'm sorry I missed the IBM Model M digression, I have a Model M Space Saver of my own with a factory USB cable that I use for my technical writing job!

Might be time for a nice walk outside.

In fairness to SP I think he is suggesting one should give a reason if you're going to advise one course of action over another. I'm a newbie myself, and I would suggest not going to Omega for a service. But coming from me it would be second-hand advice picked up from reading regulars here. So I'd feel obligated to mention that, and why I learned it was a bad idea. SP is right on this.

There are plenty of "contributors" on any given thread who declare things in the shortest, bluntest sentence possible because they think it makes them sound authoritive. It doesn't. It makes them sound like they're parroting a meaningless meme.

That said, SP should probably call people out directly when he sees it. That kind of in-thread argy-bargy is much more entertaining for the rest of us than a rant or "manifesto" given out of context.

I volunteered to write such a sticky and was rudely rebuffed, that it was not necessary.

+1 for sticky re service/restoration of older pieces, for new collectors.

I was on the fence of Botoxing this gal back 50 years, but JwR said "wtf yo".
Lets just say I ain't never taking this gal to the club.

(That's knitting club, soffiticatded gentleman and all.)

Doesn't like when members tell newbies with vintage watches