I would like to know some stories about what got you into the watch hobby. Personally I started from a young age to wearing watches mostly digital ones (casios etc), nobody in the family was a watch enthousiast so I had to do my own reasearch If I wanted to learn more. Later I discovered the world of mechanical watches that really got me hooked as I love engineering , my first watch was a skeleton fashion watch ( feeling ashamed ) but I remember staring at it for hours when I first got it , then I bought a few other mechanical timepieces and inherited some from my family.One day after a random pass in front of an antique shop I saw some beautiful vintage omegas that aroused my interest so I decided that that was it I have to learn about those magnificent timepieces so I can get one and from ever since I became a member of this forum ,still an amateur but trying to learn a few new things everyday from the hundreds of experienced members. I know not the most interesting story but I would like to hear yours !!

 

I had worn only digital as a teen and young adult and I was at a flea market where there were older watches... I got a couple because they were interesting and I had winding watches and alarm clocks as a kid, so why not?

After making some horrendous mistakes and bad redial experiences, I gradually learned to appreciate watches in better condition.

But for me, it was never a "hobby" and I never "collected". I actually have a few daily wearers I rotate, I have some special pieces I've had for a long time or they have a certain significance (love those 100-year old wristwatches), or it has special characteristics (rose gold Lemania).

I like mechanical watches because they're cool as hell. I also wear fedoras because they're cool as hell. Plus, I have a strong interest in the history of technology. There are times when listening to a vintage radio is just fun. Too bad the shortwave band is full of crap these days.

 

This watch started it all. Friend on mine told be about watches, he was quite passionate about it.

Especially the technique behind a mechanical movement had my interest, let alone a perpetual calendar.

After a lot of reading and visits to the shop, I purchased my first mechanical watch: an Orient Excursionist. Afterwards there was no stopping...

 

Nice story you have there! For me it was my father who got me into this. I can't say he's a watch enthusiast but he always appreciated watches and there's always something nice on his wrist. When I was 17 he noticed that i was developing an interest in watches so he gifted me a longines of his, which was my first mechanical watch
I haven't stopped wearing a watch since then and now I'm the proud owner of 2 Omegas

 

For some reason I decided to buy a quartz Tag Heuer on a trip to Hong Kong that my wife, a travel agent at the time, had won. I think it was like $250 Canadian, but when I went to sell it I sold it for $500+ US on eBay. It wasn't anything exceptional, but that's what started the ball rolling.

Moved on to an Omega Seamaster Chronograph Professional 300m in Titanium and a river of watches has followed since. The hobby has ebbed in recent years, but the passion remains!

The only watch in my stable is this Omega Speedy BA GMT and it's the 2nd time I have owned this model. It's the 1 watch that I decided to buy again. I could definitely do without the chronograph function, but I just love a GMT complication.

It provides a glimpse into a world of wonderment and escapism, wondering what's going on in lands far away, until we can travel again....

 

I’ve always liked watches. Always appreciated them. But I have to say the transition from liking to collecting took place when my brother ( who collected watches) and my father (Who didn’t collect but had a few niece watches) died one year apart from each other.

Somehow relating to watches helped me relate to them... or find a common ground with them that I could carry along while still making it my own.

Makes me a little sad to write about it now that I think it through so I’m going to take a nap.

s

 

My late father was a watchmaker/jeweller. He started me learning about his business when I was 8 years old. By the time I was 16, I was running his business and repairing watches and clocks while he, my mother, and my sister were away on vacation. In 1975, I intentionally collected a watch. I knew my father had an early 1930s vintage Rolex Prince Observatory duo-dial “doctors watch”. I asked him about it. He asked me if I wanted it, to which I answered in the affirmative. When he passed away 44 years ago, I inherited his small collection, and that was the trigger. I had worked on watches for about 30 years by then, but I wasn’t interested in them as a collectible. I joined a watch collector club, and began to gather books, and more and more watches. Today, I collect American and Swiss pocket and wrist watches, marine chronometers, antique and vintage tools, clocks, and books. Among other things. I still have a sizeable private local clientele which keeps me busy servicing watches, clocks, and tower clocks.

 

My Dad left me his old 1960's Omega Speedmaster. The chaps here said it was nice, so I did some research and developed an appreciation for these lovely old watches.

 

Growing up my siblings and I spent a lot of time, and have fantastic memories of, my grandparents. My grandfather had a flip perpetual calendar and every morning he would let me flip the date. My siblings had zero interest in this so every morning was my special bonding thing with him I would flip the date and we would talk about the days plans ahead of us.

Years later I saw this particular watch and was mesmerized.

Pics taken from web, not my own.

 

I think I was about 10 years old, back in the 1970s, and we had to run the 50 yard dash in school. I remember being fascinated with the gym teacher's stopwatch. It wasn't like any clock or watch, you could stop the second hand; stop time. Fast forward a short time later, my Dad's friend had this Seiko flyback chrono below, that my Dad eventually purchased from him. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, that you could actually wear a stopwatch. Though he wisely didn't let me wear it to school, my Dad did get me the Cimier slide rule "chrono" that seemed almost as good at the time.

 

Me getting into watches = getting into VINTAGE watches

I have very small wrists and generally was turned off by "modern" watches and never wore one, it just looked bad. At some point I stumbled upon vintage watches and was excited to learn that cases were not always 40+mm! Seeing incredibly designed pieces from the 40s-60s at sizes under 36mm was a revelation for me. Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off never knowing; my wallet would be a little fatter for sure.

The reason I like watches in general is because I like the simple utility of them. No need to pull a phone out of my pocket to check the time. And I never see myself not needing to check the time.

 

My father was a watch and mostly clock collector. You should have seen my parents house. Everywhere you would have looked there was a clock. So I grew up with it. As a kid I always had multiple watches. My brothers also. My oldest brother collect watches as well. He has a very nice collection.

 

My Uncle Jim who is a watchmaker, clockmaker, and collector.

He introduced me to watches in the early 1970s when I was about 8.

Pic from December of 2016 outside his shop...

 

My ex-girlfriend wanted to buy a Michael Kors watch at the time. I asked her why would she buy a watch when her phone could clearly tell the time.

A couple days later I started reading WUS and bought a Timex Weekender. The rest is history...

 

Unfortunately, I cannot serve with a great story, so I'll keep it short:

I've always wanted a Speedy, but of course I couldn't afford it as a teenager. Then at some point with a job I came up with it again and bought it.
And then I made the mistake of looking to see what other watches are available besides the Speedy ...

 

Shortest/too the point answer: all the men in my family. It was so bad that at kindergarten (round age 4/5) I was drawing watches on paper, cutting them out and wearing them on my wrist, held together with cello tape...

 

My story starts with my Grandfather who came to the United States from Prussia in the early 1900s. My Grandfather enjoyed going to flea markets and buying old wristwatches and pocket watches. He had a fascination with time. As a child I would often visit my Grandfather and many times I would spend the weekend with him and he'd take me with him to the flea markets. He always brought home watches and we'd sit in the living room and he'd remove the case backs and show me the movements and explain to me how a watch worked and sometimes he'd work on the watches, and thus, my fascination began. My Grandfather would always give me a few of the vintage watches... Bulova, Hamilton, Gruen, Wittnauer, Tavannes, etc. When I was a teenager and working odd jobs I'd go with my Grandfather and buy a few vintage watches and then take then to a watchmaker to have them serviced when I had enough money. I developed other avenues of acquiring watches... my father knew an elderly jeweler who would buy watches for their gold content and sell them to me for their gold content. Gold wasn't as expensive in the 1960s and 1970s.
Over time, I amassed a rather large collection of vintage watches from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s... nothing high end. The late 70s and the 1980s vintage watches became very fashionable and I was able to sell many of my watches and start buying higher end watches... Rolex, Vacheron Constantin, Patek, etc. I probably have more watches then I really need and it's impossible to wear them all, but, I consider watches to be art as well as a mechanical device and as I tell my wife, we don't wear all our art work on any given day.

Thanks Grandpa

 

My father was a watch smith back in the day, learned about watch mechanical since he was 13, teached to a lot of his students. I am not one of them but the love for watches always in me.

 

I've always been interested in watches, despite not getting the knack of telling the time with pointers right away, I wore for some weeks an old Ingersoll pocket watch on string around my neck until I could tell the time well enough.

Growing up, as many others Casio watches were the norm, with a few occasional Timex thrown in, and traded as a commodity in the playground.

Later it was whatever quartz analogue watches were to be found in my local Argos, which were replaced when the battery died, or they fell to bits.

I didn't get my first 'proper' watch until I turned 18, and even then it was a basic Seiko Kinetic, which I still have, and is working 20 years later, albeit in need of a new capacitor.

I didn't have many watch influences growing up, some extended family owned a jewellers, but I never visited them, that one side of my family is very much into watches, they often wore and extolled the virtue of Rolexes, and my uncle had a lovely double red Air King - the other side less so.

My immediate family all wear a nice watch, dad came into some money in the early 90's, and his success purchase was a 16700 Pepsi GMT, which he still owns, and wears daily (and has developed a lovely patina) replacing a Seiko 6138 Jumbo chrono - he treated my mum to a ladies datejust shortly after, and my brother has a lovely SMP 300m with the plain dial but whilst they can appreciate watches, none are what I'd call collectors, those watches are their only watch, well I suppose my dad has 2 pocket watches, and as a family they have a carriage clock and a longcase clock....

Me, I'm late to the game, I got my first nice watch almost 3 years back, a Speedmaster which is my daily wear, my modest collection includes the 6138 Seiko, and my kinetic and a Casio calculator watch (for purely nostalgic reasons) but I'm firmly in the belief it's not the value of your collection, it's about what you enjoy.

Something tells me the Speedmaster won't be the last, I'd like to add a BB58 to scratch that sub itch, that's assuming that I'm not bequeathed the GMT, and maybe something from Vacheron or similar - at least that's today's plan, next week it'll be something different!

Obligatory photo - not mine!

 

My dad. All of my "milestones" as a youngster have been celebrated by a gifted watch.
I will continue the tradition with my son / daughter