Hello Omega Forums!

Well the title says it all. I’ve officially been here a year, but it feels like longer. As I reach this horological milestone I wanted to take a quick look back at my journey so far, and share my plan for the future.

First I would just like to thank our creators and moderators for their never-ending commitment to make this forum the best forum out there. This community surprises me everyday with it's vast knowledge, extreme generosity, and incredible ability to carry out deep thought provoking conversations with hilarious amounts of thread drift.

I first came to OF 8 months after my grandfather passed away. I was doing research on his Constellation (168.010) and I wanted to get it fixed up for my father but did not want to do it incorrectly. I very quickly learned a few lessons. Here is my first thread ever https://omegaforums.net/threads/followed-up-constellation-168-010-looking-for-advice.44400/

Amidst trying to figure out how to revive the Constellation I got sucked toward the OF rabbit hole of "WRUW Today?” Naturally I fell in love with everything and anything and suddenly needed a vintage time piece… or pieces. So I went to eBay and estate sales, bought some stuff and realized it was total crap and sold it on eBay. I consumed more watch knowledge than I knew was out there, and I loved every second of it.

I started to realize I needed a plan, and needed to do more research about the pieces I wanted. I also had to be somewhat rational about the costs. So I sold pieces I wasn’t wearing in order to free up funds for other watches. I had my eyes set on an Omega f300 hummer, because it was an accessible and affordable Omega. Then luck struck and I found one at a thrift store! https://omegaforums.net/threads/with-all-these-goodwill-threads-i-decided-to-visit-one.50098/ As much as this incredible find satiated me, it also fueled the obsession.

Around this time I decided to take my old defunct “photography” instagram and use it for watches. I thought WRUW Today was a bad influence, this was a whole other game. IG showed me more modern watches, which lead to making spending decisions a bit more difficult due to a myriad of other options. Now I have come up with a plan for the future of my collection. So here it is… my master plan(for the next few years).

I would like to have a “Core Collection” of 8 watches. This collection will consist of 4 vintage and 4 modern watches, each filling a specific category. Those categories are; Dive, Dress, Chronograph, and Field/Military. With these bases covered I can have a handful of great watches to wear through the next few years while I attend medical school. The watches I currently have in mind are:

Vintage:
-Doxa Sub 300T (orange dial)
-Universal Geneve Polerouter (cream dial with cross hairs)
-Tritium Dial Speedy
-Cyma WWW

Modern:
-Squale 1521
-Nomos Club (got it!)
-Sinn 356 Flieger (next on the buy list)
-Tudor Ranger

Some of these choices are subject to change, according to budget and influences. In fact I am considering other less expensive options than a Speedy for my vintage chronograph. I am considering this change because I would like to buy an Apollo XI 25th anniversary Speedy as a 25th birthday gift to myself. And naturally I cannot have the same watch fill two slots in my want list (birth year & vintage chrono)... that would be too rational!

I've met some awesome people throughout my first year of watch collecting, and these friendships have only grown stronger over time. I look forward to meeting more OF members in the coming years. This is just the beginning of what will be a lifelong hobby, and I find that incredibly exciting, and I am happy to share it with the wonderful community of Omega Forums.

Thank you all for reading! And of course... photos in somewhat chronological order. Some of these watches have moved onto new homes.

-Jake

 

Cool stuff!

 

What a year, talk obout jumping in the deep end.

Enjoyed having you here

I believe you need a constellation ( just one )

 

^ I thought I saw a black dialed one up there, and a hummer.


Nice "start"

 

The Cyma WWWs age beautifully. Great vintage choice for time only military. And I thought you'd been a fixture on OF for much longer, I should pay more attention.

 

Fantastic collection and post!
I'm in love with the NOMOS club as well!

 

Interesting, your one year anniversary here coincides with my one-year anniversary of moving to California. It's been a fun year on OF to be sure, but I wish I could get back the hours of my life wasted sitting in traffic every weekend.

 

Jake your a fast learner and a prolific writer..at least on watch forums!! Keep it going and here's to an even better second year!!

 

Great post. An enjoyable read and appreciate the honesty in your initiation, your watches and strategy to build the perfect collection. I am not to dissimilar....some successes, some failure, some mistakes, and some rash decisions. Never made any money but have and continue to enjoy this wonderful addiction of ours.

 

"I’ve officially been here a year, but it feels like longer."
Well good thing you have a cadre of beautiful watches to measure how fast time actually passes!

 

Nice post. You've sure posted a LOT in 12 short months. I'm at 18 months and only low 200s in posts. You are definitely prolific. It does seem like you have been here longer. It must be the post count.

I enjoyed reading about your beginnings. I felt the same way when I started. WRUW is very dangerous for a new collector!! Everything posted is SO NICE. The members here have such nice pieces. It makes you want one of them all. Like you said though, you can't have everything. Besides, after some time tastes seem to refine somewhat.

It's amazing how similar we are in collecting strategy. For a while I've thought a lot along the lines of your collection strategy. Originally it was dive, dress and sport for me. Following your line of thinking, I have a dive, chrono, field and 3 dress. I haven't added the vintage and modern sub categories though.

Thanks for the reminiscent post.

Mike

 

I have two... but I certainly need one with dog leg lugs and piepan dial.

Dials and lume in nice beefy cases like that are what drew me towards the Cyma out of all the WWWs. Oh and dibs

Yupp only a year, I suppose I just enjoy posting here rather than the world of Facebook & twitter. Less complaining and more watches here.

I'll keep this anniversary in mind and remind you next year as well!

Thank you Justin! It was your 1 year thread that inspired me to write my own

Thank you! We all pay our noob taxes I suppose. And it's an unfortunate realization that this hobby can rarely/barely fund itself, but there is significant satisfaction gained from it to compensate.

And more watches to come! You just reminded me of someone saying something along the lines of "We are creating machines to measure time, and we aren't even doing it accurately!"

Thank you for your kind words! I suppose we all need to be somewhat rational in this irrational hobby. I made a list of watches I really liked and could see myself actually affording, and from that I waited to see if my tastes changed, and then I filled my categories. However it started as a collection of 6 (3 modern/3 vintage) but I wanted to fit the Cyma WWW in. So I made it military, then changed to field to I could get a Tudor Ranger. I'm my own enabler! Now I'm considering worldtime/GMT category... but that's too much

 

Nice one J! Looking forward for your new Sinn soon!

 

Nice post Thank you for sharing those pictures.