Hey folks.

I guess it's good to give abit of background before I ask my question. I'm a teacher in Asia. I don't make tons of money but I have enough for a place of my own. Wife and I are planning to raise a child in this expensive country of ours. (Singapore)

I started collecting watches about 2 years ago. I went from vintage seikos turtles (horrid time, bought wrong and paid premiums for it) to an Omega speedmaster 145.0022, Rolex Explorer 2, 116610Ln to my current collection of Tudor Black Bay 79220n, Seiko SLA017. Im saving up for a 2016 Omega speedmaster moonwatch.

Admittedly, my biggest influence has been Instagram, hodinkee, a blog to watch and wornandwound. Is it a bad vibe to mention these sites? Because Im aware of people who do not like the mentioned sites.

What's your biggest influence?

 

I blame the internet...

 

I'm going to say aviation

 

My fear of walking around in Hong Kong without a known brand/chronograph on my wrist

 

The fear that even a vintage Seiko chrono is out of reach in a few years

 

I blame my Montblanc fountain pen of 30 years. It's need for service brought me to the Montblanc boutique in Chicago ... that led to another pen and a Timewalker GMT. Then I blame the web and HODINKEE, Fratello, The Watch Snob, ABTW, JLC, Rolex, the dealer in Paris who showed me a UG Tri for the fist time and sold me my first Vintage speedmaster. Then I found OF........

 

Sounds like what I been through ahahaha

 

I would say the biggest influence for me is this dang forum. All jokes aside, probably history, when I purchase a watch I look into its historical value.

 

I blame OF mostly, and IG too. More recently podcasts have been a huge influence on my collection (Time4APint, TheGreyNato, WornAndWound, OnTime, TwoBrokeWatchSnobs). Oh and @ahartfie and @Kreindog24 .... our ongoing daily group chat is a huge influence/enabler.

 

Sometimes I have to stop going on watchrecon to stop myself from window shopping. Cause it never happens. Haha

 

Like @tyrantlizardrex I blame the Internet and more specifically you lot at OF and in the most recent case @Mad Dog specifically (and he probably doesn't even know why). Let me explain...

There we were me and @Mad Dog, having a nice little private battle; photo-juxtaposing unrestored late ‘60s Hot Wheels toy cars with restored vintage watches…and Mad Dog had just fired a near fatal shot with his Collector’s Race Case Hot Wheels box and story about being spanked with orange Hot Wheels track as a kid (whaaat?). I needed an idea and fast, a Bismarck vs Hood knockout idea. And then it came to me: Go to the Hamburg Omega Boutique and take a photo of the Limited Edition Trilogy ’57 watches (Seamaster, Railmaster, Speedmaster) next to a trilogy of unrestored ’67 Hot Wheels (Camaro, Mustang and Firebird).

However, I wasn’t sure if that demo Omega Trilogy was available, so I emailed the store manager and asked if they still had the ’57 Trilogy set and whether or not I could take some photos. The answer I received wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. “No, the Trilogy is no longer available. Only one set was allocated to Germany and it has already been sold, but we do have the Limited Edition Railmaster”. Damn; friendly fire: No Trilogy and a sales pitch to drop a cash deposit and sit on a waiting list for some indefinite period to boot. Time for a tactical withdrawal and re-think, i.e. go to bed.

Got up late on Saturday, threw on some scruffy clothes and decided to pop into the old town to grab some breakfast, armed only with an iPhone and a 20 Euro bank note. While pondering the photo dilemma over a rather tasty Zwiebelmett-brötchen (half a bread roll with pork tartare, onions, salt and pepper) it occurred to me that the assistant Boutique manageress might have meant that she actually had a Railmaster in the metal, in the shop. Haha, maybe I could rescue my concept after all with just a single Railmaster and the three Hot Wheels. So I called the manageress. Yes, she had a real live Railmaster in the Boutique, but if I wanted to see it I had better be quick, oh and come by train (somehow fitting) as the roads were jammed full of Hamburgers (locals, not Big Macs) celebrating the Christopher Street Party Respect/Gay Pride event. OK, game on! Bahnhoff here I come.

With my slightly depleted cash reserves I bought an S-Bahn ticket and headed off to Hamburg Neuer Wall. On arrival at the Boutique I was greeted as usual by name and with big smiles from the staff (they really are jolly nice there you know) and motioned to the assistant manageress…”and, do you have the Railmaster?” “Yes of course, I’ll just go and get it”.

Now, at this point I was expecting the Railmaster to be fished out of a display in the shop window, but the manageress disappeared off to the safe and came back with some surprisingly large packaging, containing, yes, gosh, the whole kit and caboodle. As she slowly unboxed everything I felt like I was in one of those YouTube 1st unboxing videos …. Mesmerising! The inner box is lovely, as too the leather watch roll with its hidden slots for the two extra straps.

I had already seen all three ’57 Trilogy watches at an OB Hamburg “Neuheiten” event some weeks earlier and, if I’m being totally honestly, was only moderately impressed back then, this time however was different. I guess that I made the decision to buy after about 30 seconds of seeing the Railmaster on its steel bracelet; but I strung things out a bit in an attempt to hide my enthusiasm and maybe negotiate a good deal (failed on all counts).

There was no use; I had to tell Regina “I want to buy it. Oh, and by the way, can I now see it with a properly sized bracelet, and on the Zulu, and leather straps please?” No going back now. Several enjoyable hours passed at the Boutique. Where did the time go? Probably lost with all the photos I uploaded to OmegaForums.net in real time (the Hamburg OB has a good free WiFi Hotspot).

Although the deal was done, the champagne was supped, the Railmaster and accessories were returned to the box with “sold to Nick ….” written all over it, three important things occurred to me at this point:-

1) I had no means of payment on me. 2 Euros, 20 Cents cash probably wouldn’t suffice.

2) I didn’t have my rucksack with me, so no chance to lug all that monster packaging back home incognito and worst of all

3) I didn’t even have the bloody Hot Wheels cars with me!!!!!

 

Lol u sound like a fun dude to hang with.

 

@Longbow repost the photo (or take a new one) for us to see!

 

Desmond's blog. Then, this forum.

 

@Longbow .... we have a winner!

 

OK, the sequence was something like this:-





Since I have lost this battle I will donate an unused Black Bremont NATO/velcro strap to the first OF member who can come up with an Omega '57 Trilogy (old or LE re-issue) vs a Hot Wheels '67 Trilogy photo. No Photoshopped fakes, must be the real-deal!

Just one of the Omega '57s won't suffice; you'll need all three.

 

My biggest influence came in the early 70s. Every day, walking to school, I would pass by a watchmakers shop. Little place, very neat and tidy. I would stop in from time to time and watch him making parts on his miniature lathe. He also sold watches. He let me buy a Hamilton chronograph, which at the time was $80 on time. I gave him $20 a month towards it. I then saw my first Speedmaster in the late 70s, and it took until 1992 to buy it. Just a great experience all the way around. I have been addicted to watches ever since.

 

1. Internet (IG, forums etc, blogs)
2. Friends with very nice watches (vintage & modern)
Yes, Singapore is expensive but count yourself lucky, we've got some pretty killer watch collectors here!

 

I was a one watch guy for nearly 15 years, then it needed service. in the 6 week absence I picked up 2 watches because my wrist was naked. Now after a year, I'm at 5 watches with three on the way. I blame it all on OF.