Certainly, this forum contains hundreds of small little stories on how many of you came to own that one special watch. Perhaps it was an awesome find in some dusty attic. Maybe it was a certain life event that motivated you to take the plunge on a much longed-after piece. Maybe it was a gift that was presented in a most memorable fashion.

Maybe you stole $50 from your spouse's purse/wallet to get it... nah, BAD IDEA to admit things like that. Haha!

At any rate, I thought it'd be fun to create a single thread where such stories can be posted. Pick a favorite watch with any interesting backstory to it and share it with us all.

 

I'll start off here...

I have known about the Omega Speedmaster for decades. Even before the age of the internet, I was aware that the Apollo moonwalkers had some sort of a watch strapped on to the outside of their EVA suits as they explored the moon. The internet just helped to identify the make and model of the timepiece, and once I knew it was a Speedmaster, I knew I wanted one, just as long as it had ties to NASA history.

Funny thing about me - I'm humble to an absolute fault. Wanting to wear a Speedmaster vs. feeling like I "deserved" to wear one are in my mind two very different things. To wear such a watch that graced the arms of so many of my NASA heroes seemed almost sacrilegious. "Who the hell are you to even consider wearing such a watch?" was the hidden question behind every other excuse I fielded to myself to not buy one for myself.

It took an accident here at my airport for me to feel like I measured up. Being Airport Ops, we are expected to respond to emergencies. Admittedly, I was always worried about if I could do what was expected of me in a crisis, something that nagged at me for over a decade. With great relief, I found out in 2013 that I would.

In a nutshell, it took that long for me to feel like I was truly a man.

Took the better part of two years to save up, but that's how my Speedmaster history got started. True, that original 3366.51 has since been exchanged for an FOIS, but it's meaning of me owning it remains the same.

Alex
San Mateo, CA