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?

 

The lume color in this ad is interesting, far from white, already heavily patinated.

 

If the said 105.012 in this ad retailed for $195, I would like to know which one retailed at $18K back in 1969?!

 

Something gold.

 

…similar ad, but for the Seamaster 300M with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in Goldeneye!!
I only managed to pull the trigger during the World is not enough times though.

 

Twice for me Bob. First time was in the early 90s. I bought a Tag Heuer Formula 1. The one with the luminous dial. I still have it (this is a WWW photo) and it glows bright for a short time and fades. When it was new, the tritium from the hands was extremely bright. I remember looking at it that first night. I could not understand why anyone would bother having anything but a Tag Heuer! The tritium was as bright as this example, again, photo from the World Wide Web. My most recent hook, many watches after, was very recently. I bought a flightmaster at auction. I took a chance. Would it look like a big goofy watch? When I picked it up at the auction house, the girl at the counter walked over with it. It was in a plastic bag. That dial jumped out at me. Photos do not illustrate how fantastic it looks. Out in the sunshine? The aged sub dials are incredible. Am hooked again, and like in the 90s, out of watch money! I will remember that first flightmaster meeting for as long as I live (I hope)!

 

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 think about that with the Longines ads from 1926 that have $1000 watch they speak about. It's more than the base model of the Chrysler Four ad on the back.

 

It was my uncle's fault. I was maybe in my mid 20s or so, and I had no idea and all of a sudden he was talking about how valuable the "First Watch on the Moon" was and how the ones that do NOT say that on the back are more valuable, and subdials and chronographs. I think he might have just gotten one.

 

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.

 

I still have what I consider my first watch that I got at about 12 years old while in Lucerne, Switzerland. I was fortunate to be in a youth orchestra that would tour Europe once in a while and got to travel a lot as a kid. I remember being in this beautiful place full of watches and knives and you didn’t even really have to exchange currency because the Swiss didn’t give a shit. I still have this watch and a very large Swiss Army knife that I got on that trip almost 25 years ago.


Then about 6 years ago out of nowhere this Minerva unexpectedly landed in my lap from my grandfather in-law. Despite liking watches I was completely ignorant at the time. I started researching trying to figure out what I had and got sucked down the rabbit hole. This watch is responsible for completely hooking me and I don’t think I would ever let it go.

 

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.

 

And then there was the Rolex GMT in the Star Trek episode Assignment Earth.

 

You might enjoy this

https://omegaforums.net/threads/deb...ge-watches-had-colored-lume-since-new.107400/

 

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.

 

Watching Pierce Brosnan in Golden Eye doing his thing with his SM300. Lusted after that particular watch for about 10-15 years till i was able to try it on at an AD. Didn't like how it felt on my wrist (to my utter disappointment) but was in the rabbit hole by then so got a speedy instead!