My first proper watch was a 2531.80 I bought when I worked on a car magazine in the late 1990s. A couple of other people there had one and it looked significantly cooler than my older and much smaller TAG 200 diver. I bought my Seamaster second hand for £400 deposit and £400 interest-free for 10 months (car magazines don't pay much in wages!). Here it is in 2002 or so with me lapping the Nurburgring (I was en route to the Frankfurt motor show and thought I'd be silly and take a Citroen C3 diesel - an epic trip! It's also the only old photo I can find of the watch).



I wore the watch every day for 10 years until I wandered into a shop in 2008 and bought a Rolex GMT2c (that good old interest-free credit again!) and the Seamaster was relegated to a drawer. The Rolex went a few years later to pay a car restoration bill and I've had a fair few watches, now on 30 or so, mostly bought before vintage watch prices went nuts. I had the Seamaster serviced by Omega six years ago but haven't bothered finding a half link to make the bracelet fit properly. I suspect I can't be bothered because I know it's the one watch I could sell everything else and keep. I can wear it in water, the lume works (I wish it were Tritium but like the practicality of Superluminova although I have wondered about having it relumed by James Hyman with some aged but working lume - would that be a travesty if I'm never going to sell it?), the bezel times my coffee, and best of all, it looks great on a sand NATO worn with the hardware round the back.

Do you have a watch you already own you could sell everything else (assuming, that is, you have more than one watch!) and wear happily for the rest of your life?

 

For me it’s this one my wife bought me a few years ago. It’s special because it was a gift, it’s very legible, it has date and GMT functions.

I don’t ever ‘need’ a chrono so this one fits all my needs...

 

Wear just one watch happily for the rest of my life? Is this a trick question? Of course not. I don't have a big watch collection, but there are different watches for different occasions. Gold dress watches, less fancy watches for workdays, beater watches for hiking, watches with dual time zones for astronomy and travel. In case of dire financial straits I could give some up, but I wouldn't be happy about it.

 

Well if there was only one, it would be my Speedmaster. It’s been with me some nice 99 bought with some money my Grandmother left me. You can wear it with anything, you can go anywhere with it. Display back, beautifully finished movement......just great.
I’d be sad to give up the others though, but I don’t need them quite as much as I need my Speedy.

 

I believe its a great diver too ...

 

Oh no !!!!!!! Another one watch thread!

 

Yes, forgot to mention It’s a great “Accidental Diver” too, if you get a leak, you can see any “moisture” build up through the display back instantly.

 

If my speedmaster was more waterproof I think I could be a one watch guy. But why would I want to torture myself like that?

 

Sigh. Cue the Rolex love.

I simply don't have one watch that makes me wonder why I "bother" with anything else. If I did, it would probably be a Timex Ironman. But I bother with everything else, because mechanical watches make me tick.

 

This one!

 

Just another ugly watch no one wanted when it came out using a generic movement.

 

Ummm. So how do I go about getting my 3 minutes back?

 

For reading this thread or watching that video?

 

I had a Timex Ironman for a while. The buttons were stiff and annoying to push and failed after just a couple of years of occasional use. And I bought it for mountaineering, because I hoped the alarm would be loud enough to wake me up from a sound sleep at midnight on summit day (it wasn't).

 

That's probably the most in-depth Ironman review I've seen here on OF.

X-33 pushers and alarm for the win!



Turns out high-end quartz watches designed by astronauts make me tick too.

 

Hmm. Good point...
So how do I go about getting my 6 min back?

 

Do six Rolex sweeps, front to back, while driving the DeLorean at 88 miles an hour.