Do you remember when you were REALLY hooked?

I was sitting on the floor of my grandparents apartment in NYC, and came across this exact ad in National Geographic. I was, might we say, looking for something else..

Anyway, I remember it like it was yesterday: I thought this was about the coolest thing I had ever seen, and a wave of desire came over me that was like something I had never experienced. And, as a kid, looking at the price, I knew I could not get it until I was an adult with some money. I was so envious.

Years later, I still get a kick from them:



What was your defining watch moment?

Something gold.

Mid 1990s, Hamilton Ventura re-issue in rose.

But it really started in 2000 when I bought my first vintage Omega on eBay, a Seamaster Cosmic, still have it.

As they say, the rest is history. 😁

I had always been intrigued by watches as far back as I can remember, but I only aspired for the latest technology, which from 1980 onward simply meant the latest Timex Ironman. Sometime in the late 1990s I completed an especially challenging (and harrowing) job assignment that involved smoldering bomb craters and dudes with machine guns on the Colombia/Venezuela frontier, and which finally ended in the town of Zug, Switzerland where I delivered my final report. I walked into downtown Zug from my hotel and ducked into a jewelry shop. There, I spotted the perfect reward for my effort: a Tag Heuer (quartz) chronograph, which set me back a whopping $1,500. It was an incredibly extravagant purchase but I felt I deserved it. I wore that watch for about 10 years, until the chronograph stopped re-setting properly; I was put off by the estimated repair cost (about $300 as I recall) and let the watch lie dormant in a sock drawer.

Fast forward another 10 years (and a few Ironman-type watches), and something happened that completely rocked my world: out of the blue, Mrs.Jones gifted me a bi-colour Aqua Terra. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.



There are no adequate words to express precisely how that watch made me feel when I first began wearing it; I still feel a tinge of excitement each time I put it on. After that...well...I was bitten and smitten, probably forever.

Interestingly, I never knew that the Speedmaster even existed until a few trips to the local Omega boutique provided a cursory introduction. Initially, I found it difficult to understand the hype surrounding this watch and didn't find it particularly attractive. Now I own four Speedmasters.

Getting on of these as a 11yo when my dads boss came back from Hong Kong

This is what did it for me. Back in 1967 I was asked by my parents to find something good for my 21st birthday present, so I went off to a top jewellery store in Melbourne and locked onto one of these. This photo is not of mine, which unfortunately was stolen from one of my sons several decades later.

I wore that watch every day for over twenty years - surfing, bushwalking, Army service, and so on. It was superb, and felt part of me. And as much as I love my son, I wish I had not given it to him....

A few years after the watch was stolen I decided to buy something nice to replace it properly. And so began the long and thoroughly enjoyable journey into real watch collecting.

For me, it was the early 80s when Magnum switched to Rolex. I was: "WHAT????" - I NEED THAT WATCH!

It was the redfcar Tom Selleck was driving that I was digging back then.

Ummm…are we just gonna breeze past this one?

Seeing my dad's Hamilton each & everyday, and how he'd wind it in this totally nonchalant yet very direct way regardless of whether he was chatting with mom, me, my brother or a neighbor or reading the morning newspaper.
In tandem, going out to grandpa's farm and seeing his Railmaster that was given to him as a gift from my dad after dad had made senior partner in his accounting firm.