So I just spent a week with my extended family down in Mexico, and it was beautiful.
I will never forget it, and when we said our goodbyes I was wistful that I may never see some of these people again (they live far away, some very old). I hope that my young boys will have some recollection of this trip.

On to watches:
After thinking a bit about what watch to bring, I picked my Seiko 5 on a black/grey NATO - wore it everywhere, in the pool, at the beach, snorkeling, wrestling with my boys - and it performed spectacularly. The Seiko will probably be the first watch I pass down to whichever of my boys shows interest in mechanical things - my two year-old already is tinkering with my watches - and I thought "how great it is that I can let him know that this watch went to Cancun with us, carries with it wonderful memories of our family (I wore it in every photo that was taken of me) and I can pass it down to my kids..."

And so that got me thinking (and I am sure this is not a unique thought):
I bought this Seiko brand new...and whatever memories are associated with it are mine, and mine only. There is something nice about that. And when I pass it down to my kids (or my Speedy 60th which I also bought new), they will know the person who bought and wore the watch: ME. They know me, my values, what I am, what I stand for...and they could choose to take it or leave it, depending on whether they like me or not, share my values or not.

Now, I love my old, vintage watches. Something about watches from the 50s, 60s, 70s, (now, even 80s, I guess) that speak to me about times long ago...I always thought I was born about 2-3 decades too late. But then I got this thought - what if the watch was owned by...someone truly terrible? If I knew that (or somehow found out) I would get rid of it immediately - I would not want to be associated with such a watch.

But what if it wasn't so extreme? What if the person or people who owned the watch before me was just someone who didn't share my values? Maybe s/he was a bigot? Didn't like people with certain skin colors? Believed that some people were beneath them? Would I want that watch? Would I want to pass that watch down to my kids? What if it was less than that? Maybe the person was just selfish? Didn't share my political or religious views? Once stole gum from a store? Are those things so bad? Where does one draw the line? If I am so worried about all this then maybe vintage is not my game?

Not that I am about to go sell all of my old tickers (not yet anyway, and if I do y'all will be the first to know), but I was just thinking. Maybe it's just the Monday blues.

Anyway, some tropical pictures:

 

This is an interesting topic. I love vintage watches and I love the personal connections. Once I bought a WW-1 trench watch from an old watchmaker in LA. The watch had a name and a date engraved on the back. When I googled it up came a Hollywood songwriter. The dates were right. As I read on about the guy it turned out that he had gotten divorced...went broke and went on to be one of the first people to commit suicide by jumping off of the Golden Gate bridge. The name was not a common name and everything fit so perfectly. It had to be the same guy. Anyway, I felt a little weird about it but I guess I thought the connection was interesting. A few years later I decided to sell the watch...just to thin the herd. Lots of people who looked at it and heard the story were way more freaked out than I was. Eventually somebody who wasn't freaked out bought it.

I guess the moral of the story is that this stuff matters to some people and not to others.

JohnCote

 

The way I see it: if the watch was owned by some nasty person, it deserves better - and now it's on your wrist, to go on all of the adventures it was meant for. Now that it's on your wrist, it can bear witness to whatever you do to make the world a better place, to hopefully balance out whatever ugly things its previous wearer might have done

 

Interesting topic.

I love the concept of make your own vintage - I.e. buy new or used, but don’t baby them, wear them as intended (and sometimes not as intended), experience life in them, your personal connections and experiences are what make yiur Watch important to you. Your personality will become a part of your watch and vice versa to those around you - pass on your watch to those you love.
The watches that resonate most with me are those that I’ve experienced life the most in, not those that are the most aesthetically pleasing, valuable or collectible.
My favourites on this basis are Watches I’ve owned for the past couple of decades
Omega Speedmaster Hesalite Sandwich
IWC Fliegerchronograph
Each time I wear these they come with so many memories of my life, my family and my friendships.

 

Ya never know do you? I suppose we have to not believe in cursed objects. Bottom line there are far more good hardworking people in the world than there are a-holes. Odds are in our favor.

 

When I was younger (true story), I babysat for a kid that later grew up and murdered both his parents, and later hung himself in a mental hospital. My brother, always a soft touch, said, when he heard the news, "Robert, what the fuck did you do to that kid?"

But on to the point of the story: I oftened wondered, years later, how someone would feel comfortable living in the house where these murders were committed.

I guess people have different sensibilities about whether inanimate objects hold any spirit or karma.

 

I remember that story. Geez.
I tell ya - you run into many interesting people (and stories) in this hobby.
W

 

The first 'proper' watch I bought was a quartz PRS-516 Tissot chronograph. I bought it based on ads I'd seen of it's ambassador (some basketball guy) and it was a nice looking piece, especially for a young 19 year old me.

Fast forward a few years, I'd lost my PRS-516 and was getting by with a G-Shock; I'd dropped out of uni and was working in a new sector, dealing with having the family home sold and moving with my dad into a new place...we went to Hong Kong after all the dust settled, where I was gifted a Seiko quartz 7T62 chronograph. That watch was my daily wearer up till a couple of years ago.

As I struggle to get my head back into study, with periods of selling watches I don't wear and other ends (due to buying more watches,) that 7T62 will never be sold, and it's been on my wrist in old photos.

 

Four years ago I bought myself a new Rolex and it's already my son's, even though he's only two-and-a-half. I intend to keep it unpolished and give it to him one day, I'll ask him to look after it and keep it unpolished too. Maybe he'll have a kid he can pass it on to.

I have a load of vintage watches and the history never bothers me.

I'm insured on my friend's XK120, he rebuilt it from a wreck from a racing accident that killed its driver. Again, I have no issue with this. It's a good car, well maintained and very easy to drive.

 

I'm more superstitious than anything.. If an old watch gave me a bad feeling, or any sense of a change in perception of luck or happiness I'd probably try to get rid of it. Hasn't happened yet, but that's usually what I think about when I put on an old watch for the first time.

 

This is crazy! When I was house shopping the first thing I did was research for any murders or anything. There's a website that produces a report on any specific address for a fee, whether or not someone died there (not sure how legit it is). But also, there was a house in my city where someone killed his wife and mother in law and kept them in a downstairs bathtub on ice, crazy thing was they had kids and they only noticed a week or so later when the smell of decomposition started to emerge..

 

Haunted watches.......nah.
On the other hand, my grail is a watch with a genie inside. Just rub it three times, the right way, & my wish will be granted. La La Land, here I come.

 

A little off subject, but along the same lines, I have two stories, but with firearms. The first is I have a Winchester rifle my Great Grandfather purchased brand new. He left it to his son a Great Uncle of mine. Then it was passed to my father and from there to me. The rifle is by no means pristine. It is well used, carried for 90 yrs now in the Maine woods. The bluing on the magazine is long gone, there are marks on the stock and the forearm from being leaned against a tree while a deer was dressed off or a sandwich eaten or where it bounced along a wood's road, muzzle on the truck floor, stock rubbing on the seat, and lever open to feed a cartridge if a deer was seen in a field. Last year I took it to my favorite gunsmith, a man I trust very much and asked him to take the Winchester down, pin by pin, screw by screw and clean it thoroughly. I asked him not to do anything else to it. No bluing touched up, no scratch on the stock touched up, nothing. Every mark on that rifle was made by a member of my family. Every mark has our family name on it. I don't know which are Grampa John's marks and which are Great Uncle Leighton's, but I do know I was there for some of the ones my father added to it while I was out hunting with him carrying a different Winchester myself. The gun will never be a collector's item. It has lived a full life though. And since I come from a long line of poachers, I would bet money it has taken more game than most firearms. LOL I wouldn't change a mark on it, or trade it for a pristine collector's piece. My other gun story is a bit darker. I purchased a WW2 "bring home" German .25 semi-auto from a yard sale. I was happy with having a piece of history, or so I thought until a couple of days later a shooting buddy of mine said, "Just think, that probably belonged to a German officer and it may have been used to murder Jews and maybe shoot Americans.". That sucked all the fun out of owning a piece of history and I sold the pistol just a few days later without ever having fired it myself. I do wonder about the vintage watches I wear and the men who owned them before me. I have a couple with engraved backs and it doesn't bother me at all. It lends some credence to the fact that someone found them worthy of a rather expensive watch. So, hopefully they were good people. I have often thought that if I do buy a modern watch for myself and leave it to my daughter she will know that every ding and bump on it was mine and if she wore it, and added to the marks, it could be a family heirloom, just like that old Winchester rifle.

Mck

 

That's a good point, and I'll walk back my previous comments with regard to military watches, since I wasn't really thinking about them. I know there are collectors who love their Luftwaffe fliegers and Argentinian (Dirty War) Air Force Autavias etc, but I would never purchase or wear those watches as they were used in service of some seriously inhuman activities.

 

Works for many hobbies!

 

I was contacted by a fellow whom I knew only remotely, about 20 years ago. I had met him when he was clearing his deceased watchmaker father’s repair shop at a garage sale. He phoned me one day to tell me he had a valuable watch he wanted to sell. I said I’d look at it, so he brought it over. It was an 18-size Illinois hunter movement in a nickel silver open-faced case, 15 jewels. Pretty ordinary. I offered him more than I should have, but it was less than he was asking. He accepted my offer. This happened on a Wednesday. In the morning newspaper on the Friday following, there was a report of a murder/suicide. He did his wife in, then killed himself! Shoulda give him a cheque! Still have the watch.

 

Thanks for sharing the great story about the Winchester.
I share the same outlook you have about the watches (and other things) I hope to pass down to my kids.
W

 

Well if anyone has a cursed NAZI Bomber or Fighter pilot's Chronometer mail it to me in a plain brown wrapper and I'll have it exorcised encased in concrete and sunk in the Marianas Trench. No charge, happy to be of service. I guarantee you'll never see it again.

 

I think this one is haunted