What was your watch 'progression'?

Yeah, I got to that point too, as did most veterans. Some are still there, others (like me) have had their 'aha' moment and have regained some sanity.

Forgot to mention my first watch was a Texas Instruments quartz with the push-button red LED display.

When I was in, maybe, fourth grade I saw my dad shaking his watch back and forth to wind it. I think it was a Seiko that didn't hand wind. For some reason, I was fascinated by that idea.

Fast forward about sixteen years later to halfway through graduate school. I'd just finished my masters degree and wanted to buy myself something nice. I settled on a d.freemont Rockefeller Center. It was, what I thought, a reasonably unique looking piece with a neat guilloche dial, an ETA 2824, and very wearable 36mm (35?).

Another twelve years later, I'd left graduate school and had a few jobs. I was finally making some progress in my career, was dating the woman who would later become my wife, and things were generally good. I can't remember what got me looking at watches again, but at some point I decided I wanted a sports watch. I looked at a lot of the usual suspects, but nothing really caught my eye. By chance, I lucked into a NOS Vulcain Nautical Cricket (re-issue, special edition). Reading about the history of that watch got me hooked and before I knew it I'd added a vintage JLC Memovox, then a Seiko Bell-matic, then a King Seiko, then a Tudor Advisor, and on and on.

I don't think I'll be one of those people with a 100 watch collection... but there are definitely still quite a few pieces I'd like to obtain one day. I'd really like to get one of each major Tudor Advisor reference... and I've got it in my head that a Reverso / Futurematic / Memovox collection would be rad.

What can I say? I can't help myself.

Started with an old bugs bunny quartz watch I got from Six Flags. Around 2015 I was gifted a Suunto Core all black Military from my mother. Prior to a trip to Japan I picked up a Seiko Solar Pepsi Diver. About two years ago right after an anniversary, and having been on a James Bond kick, I bought my first Auto: A Steinhart Ocean Vintage Military (mk2). Later I picked up a Ginault Ocean Rover, and then a Squale PanAm GMT. This year, I picked up my first manual wind vs auto - a Speedmaster "replica 57" 3594.50, which has been modded to look like a 105.003.


At some point I also picked up a fitbit, but hey.

Got any pics of that?

Sure. No surprise I have quite a few pictures in my phone!

First watch, age 5, Wesclox Scotty, gift from maternal grandparents, as I was always looking at grandpa's gold omega pocket watch. Both watches still run.
*Generic Timex three handed watch, late 60's, now long gone.
*Jaeger LeCoultre, gift from my dad around 1969, still in current rotation.
*Texas instruments digital watch, black plastic case that only showed time in red when you pressed a button, circa 1972-3. Gift from paternal grandfather. Pitched it after several battery change cycles.
*various digital/quartz watches, nothing memorable. Most gone
*quartz watch for college graduation. Battery leak destroyed it.
*Got back into vintage mechanical watches around 1992. 1946 Breitling, '69 NIvada Grenchen, Tag Heuer chrono, etc I Purchased these through various listings I requested and sent through the mail, receiving stapled pages with scruffy photocopied images of the watches. I have passed these watches onto my 3 sons.
*More serious push into collecting vintage chronos and divers over past 5 years.
Collecting has slowed, but not stopped. Acquisition Radar still up and pinging for targets.

It's still ongoing, so i guess you could say it's still progressing.😉

Hello All;

A little about how it all started.

I was 12 years and went to spend the summer with my grandfather. While I was there with him he suffered a stroke and lost use of his right hand. He eventually moved in with my family so that we could take care of him. He would ask me to wind his manual wind watch every day after his stroke. Thirty years later, I have his watch, my grandfather is long gone, but I wind it every day....... even if I am not wearing it.

That summer started the obsession which has had its highs and lows but loving every second.

Hope to engage in good discussion and learn alot!

@TBSDSpaniard

Amazing story. Welcome to the forums! We love pictures by the way! What kind of watch did your grandfather have?

Here is my grandfather's perfect watch.



And then this from my other grandfather.....




I never had a chance....I was "ruined" at such a young age....LOL

First post from a lurker. Active in Reddit and Whirlpool AU. Lurker in WUS as well.

My very first watch is a Baby G-Shock in green as a kid. As a right hander, for some reason I had it in my right wrist as well. I used it everywhere i went. Overtime I grew fond of my mom's timex with the chinese numerals and dates. It was given to me at one point, but I don't know where it is. I still have the baby-g though tucked away in a cabinet in my home country.

Technology changed and I stopped using watches in favour of phones until uni where my relatives would give me watches as present being a mature* kid. I have a few fossils (by philippe starck) also known as the donut watch and a few fashion watches. I then decided that I need a good watch coming in a major job so my first watch was a Le petit prince chrono which was absurdly big for my < 6" wrist, but I loved it. Overtime, my taste changed to dressier watches going Vintage Omegas, Couple of rare JDM Seikos, JLC Reserve De March, A. Lange and Sohne 1815 u/d (Which is now in a safe), Seagull Watches (tourbillon) and NOMOS Orion. As a collector of sorts (hot wheels, DC / marvel comics, and absurd useless hobbies), I still tried going into a specific collection which started in the james bond watches (2531.80 and 2220.80) which I both traded + cash (from selling all my Leica) for that lange.

Along the way, I grew fond of watches I can never sell. They are not milestone watches, but I love them. However, Still looking for that 'collection'. James bond watches, race car watches or even diving watches never got me going. Vintage rolex is a hard call, and there's just so many watches with scattered information. Moreover, modern watches are just meh. Then came the speedmaster. I didn't pay attention to this until I was offered a FOIS. It's such a nice watch. I am always a sucker for alpha and dauphine hands and the FOIS was a no brainer. I loved it. It's just a nice watch. Then came countless research of the professionals, then why the reduced is hated, then the vintage speedies and limited edition.

Flipped most of the dress watches and the fun part begins. I started my speedy collection with a 145-022-78. I hope to go lower with certain LE exceptions and it's going to be one heck of a ride.

Current collection includes Rolex 114270 (my daily wear), FOIS, A.L&S 1815 U/D, Grand Seiko SBGX091, then the speedy.

Good question! Timex- Barringtons- Rotary- Sekonda- Mappin&Webb 9ct - Casio digital- Seiko-OM Speedy- OM Connie- OM Seamaster - Tag - Longines- now anything vintage especially sub dial or Chrono.

Opps forget about 1st Rolex bought before OM speedy ....now looking at Tudors ...love the new GMT Pepsi and its price

I have a box with a few rotten swatches and other watches from my youth, and didnt pay much attention to watches for many years in my 20’s (I even liked the fact that I never wore a watch, if that makes sense).

One day about ten years ago I was bored on ebay (were I normally spent time searching for analog synths) and though Id look up this cool watch I had read about in a Playboy magazine a few years back, the Bell & Ross Hydro Challenger. The search brought a couple of results and for $1100 I bought what could be considered my first adult watch. I was very happy until I found out the battery change was complicated, sold it after a couple of weeks but the damage had been done.

From there I started experimenting with various modern watches from lesser know brands like Marcello and Formex to name a couple until one day I found an Omega BB Ploprof for sale locally. It had wrong hands and everything, but still something about that watch really caught my attention. The feel, shape, size, weight of the watch were perfect, so I started collecting Omega Seamaster diver watches exclusively.

The more I read, the more other Omega lines grew on me, it wasnt until a couple of years later I bought my first Speedmaster as it was the only Omega family member I didnt have yet. When I saw it in the flesh the feeling was very similar to when I found the BB Ploprof. By then I was a full Omegaholic and started hoarding anything with the Omega logo on it 🙄

That is more or less how it all began for me, and just recently I have diversified into other brands as well. Like Seiko for example, great bang for the buck specially now that Speedies are out of reach.

For me a Citizen quartz was my first "nice" watch that I wore every day. This led to an interest in watches in general and then to a few very inexpensive Elgin and Bulova vintage pieces. I figured out that I really liked mechanical watches and started reading about current watches. Everything in the watch magazines was well out of my price range (many even well out of even my aspiration price range - looking at you Patek).

After initially lusting after some of the wilder designs I cam around to the more classic diver and dress/sport watch designs. I bought an Orient Diver, a Tissot Visodate, and a Seiko Alpinist to act as my rotation while working on gathering funds for an Omega. The fund gathering process has been quite slow with numerous setbacks for both happy and sad reasons, but I am finally getting to the point that I can make the leap to an Omega.

My target watch is a blue dial Aqua Terra. The Skyfall model was the one a few years back that set me on the Omega path, so I have to go with an Aqua Terra as my first, but a Speedy (Hesalite Moonwatch) is next on my list.

It's all a cycle, I have bought vintage Rolexes and then sold everything, and then bought again the same watches. I know it sounds crazy LOL.