hi everyone... I have been reading, watch on you tube , people say what you should collect, how to collect, when to collect etc...... Let's start with an easy question... How long have you been collecting watches ? Looking forwards to everyone's answers .... I have been collecting since about 1985 .... then a break due to a burglary and then back at it in 92. Good Hunting Bill Sohne
Started sometime in the late 80’s. Oris, first mechanical Swatch, Sinn, and the last 8 years bit hard.
February of 2017 joined here. Bought my first seamaster in April 2017. Just bought my third constellation last week
Summer of 2014. Started with automatic Seikos, wandered aimlessly until I picked up my first vintage Seamaster.
High end mechanical - over 10 years. Low end mechanical - 5 or 6 years before that. (no internet forum presence) Quartz fashion watches - since my late twenties (about 25 years ago, stopped when I found manual wind US manufacturers)
1983 when a 18kt gold Glycine watch turned up in an ammo box full of shooting and handloading supplies. Was intrigued when it ran ... and ran, and ran. Wore it fairly regularly to the office for years with no service. It did finally stop and I missed it so badly that I both sent it along to be serviced and began scouring pawn shops and Ebay by the late 1990s for "deals" on watches I fancied.
I kid you not, my first words were “tick tock”. My grandparents had wallpaper with various clocks on it in their kitchen - I loved staring at the wallpaper and saying “tick tock” whenever I saw a clock or watch out in the wild. I started “collecting” in law school with a vintage Heuer Diver around 2006 - been chugging along ever since.
May 21, 2014 - first purchase of entry level auto / mechanical watches, couldn’t choose 1 so I got 2 at the same time. (I’m assuming a ‘collection’ begins with the second one). Fall of 2015 - first mid-level ‘luxury’ watch with my ExpII, this led to searching online and eventually signing up for OF March 29, 2016. Since then 2 Modern Omega’s, a vintage Bulova and vintage Gruen. This rabbit hole takes you down quick, and while I am still not even close to being a ‘serious collector’ by the standards here, if the trend continues it’s only a matter of time...
Started in 2003, when we bought a vintage gold manual wind LeCoultre for my father’s 70th birthday. Started buying for myself soon after and now have a dozen each of Omega, LeCoultre and Hamilton among many others. gatorcpa
Bought my first nice watch (IWC my XV) back in 2002. That was meant to be a watch for life. Then around 2011 I spotted an old Bombe lugged gold Rolex (6090) in a pawnbrokers for around scrap value. Bought that and then things went rapidly down hill, especially in the last 3 years which have been manic. Edit to add: just dug around and found a picture of the 6090. Dam I wish I hadn’t sold it on
Late 90s. I've never been a fan of the trends or followed other's advices about what to buy and when to do it. Buy what you like is the way to go for me.
In high school I got a Casio watch that could store phone numbers (late 90's). My junior or senior year my Mom bought me a analogue Fossil watch. In 2000 I picked up a solar powered, radio controlled G-Shock and that watch turned me into a watch enthusiast.
I've been working on the railroad All the live long day I've been working on the railroad Just to pass the time away…