Excellent thread
@JwRosenthal 👍 Some great stories. I have flaunted my father’s watches on several occasions but don’t believe I have ever told about him. I will also include a little bit about my grandfathers on both my mother and fathers side, since the two watches I have from my father has been worn by them as well.
My father died almost exactly three years ago after a long period with Alzheimers. I remember when he was diagnosed, how sad he was and then how he slowly began to accept it and then at one point years later completely forgot he was sick. My father was born in 1943 in a small provincial/rural town of Denmark. His father was an accountant/book keeper of various businesses in the town. In World War 2, where Denmark was occupied by Germany, he was in the Danish resistance. Up until the 1960's he still had crates full of rifles, pistols and grenades in the attic. When he remarried however his new wife wouldn't have it, as she though it was too dangerous (and pretty illegal too), so he threw it all in a remote bog somewhere in Denmark. I remember sometimes my father would pull out the box with my grandfathers resistance armband and letters from that time an he would tell about the war.
Oh well, back to my father. He was in the army in 1961-1963 as I recall and won the national military rifle marksman competition. He loved shooting and my mother has a box with prizes and stuff he won. He was approached by the special forces at the end of his service but declined going that route. Instead he began working in a bank and spent 7 years in Greenland from the mid 1960's to the early 1970's doing book keeping for a large fishing company. After that he began working for the Danish Medical Association where he worked until he retired. Even though my father never went to university or got a degree he was probably what you would call a true intellectual. He was very politically interested and kept five or six newspapers, a HUGE jazz lover with an extensive vinyl collection, a great lover of poetry and art and knew several brilliant and famous painters and had quite an extensive art collection. He was also a great writer and gave the best speeches I have ever heard and he loved books. He had thousands and thousands in their basement and he would read several hours a day. A very impressive man with so many facets whom I greatly admired and loved. A 100 percent awesome dad
😀 He would also throw some mean snow balls at winter and we would fight out on the street. It was great fun.
He wasn't into watches as such but often wore his father's old Omega from 1950 or 1951, which my grandfather bought back then. My grandfather loved the watch and I remember my father telling me about it at one point and how it had been very expensive. My fathers inherited it about 1980, when my grandfather died.
Here is the Omega along with my father's old military papers and dogtags
And here I am wearing it. I also have some great photos of him where you can clearly see him wearing it. Love looking at them.
Besides his father's Omega he also wore a Nivada, which he inherited from his father in law (my grandfather on my mother's side), when he passed in 2007. My grandfather on my mother's side worked in a bank his entire life and was a very traditional man, where there was to be silence when eating dinner and when he was watching the news
😀 He got the Nivada in 25th anniversary present at his bank sometime in the 1960's. When my father inherited it in 2007 my father would switch between the Nivada and the Omega and a Braun Bauhaus'ish quartz, which is now broken. Here is the Nivada on my wrist
😀
Here is a photo from around 2010, when I was with my girlfriend, mother and father on holiday to the US. Here he is in Utah wearing his father-in-law's Nivada. It looks so small on him. He had MASSIVE hands
😀
Looking forward to more stories about dads!
