What is your "beginnings" story in this hobby of ours?

[wschofield3]

As a twenty something, I had a boss that wore a Rolex Day Date, and he teased me about my Seiko ani-digi relentlessly, so, I purchased a Day Date, yellow gold, pre loved and at a great price from the largest Rolex AD in Boston that happened to be in the same building as a HiFi store I managed in Harvard Square.

I had a deal with the owner of that shop, Alpha Omega Jewelers, and he would provide me actual cost on his goods and I did the same for him as he was a HiFi junkie. I even bought my wife's engagement ring from him.

I did not like the yellow gold, it was a bit much for me at age 23, so, I had him look out for a white gold version of that same watch, and about 6 months later, he came through and I traded in the yellow for an almost even trade - I gave him a tiny bit of cash as back then, the WG versions were hard to even give away, seemingly.

A year or so later, I purchased a Sub from him, and I still had both watches when I joined the "other place" over 10 years ago, after I got into the TV watch craze with Invicta and others. That TV thing got me to find the other place, and I quickly began dumping all of my TV watches and started to look for other, new friend recommended watches.

The two Rolex watches were sold not too long afterward as I have always had a somewhat adverse reaction to advertising wealth and they sat in my drawer, one of the reasons I went from a BMW 5 series to a VW Jetta, although, as you know, my Jetta appears somewhat stock, but is anything but as I love performance.

So, mostly giving away the TV watches as none were too expensive and selling the two Rolex, I started looking for my first "better" watch and needed it to be somewhat of a bargain as my knowledge was not what it is today, so, I looked for a brand that had cred, but I could purchase for short money.

I purchased this from Bernard Watch for $999. Not an in house caliber, but I really liked it.



I paused for a while, still getting rid of my TV watches, I had purchased quite a few, and then, I went a bit nuts with getting an Ebel BTR and some other "darlings" of the old place, I even went to meet many of them in Florida on two occasions and went watch shopping.

That is about the time, in my modern interest period, that I purchased my first, to me, luxury watch; the GO Panomatic Lunar.



Lots of changes, trades and purchases since then, but that is the way it started for me.

What's your beginning watch story? Looking forward to seeing your responses!

[mlcor]

Hmm, I wish I could say I had some epiphany based on childhood experience or something, but no...

I honestly don't recall thinking much about watches until I went down the rabbit hole a little more than ten years ago. I remember being in Singapore and looking in the Richard Mille window, astonished by the detail and complexity of the mechanicals. I was too intimidated to go in--I knew nothing about the brand but could tell they must be expensive, like probably almost $50k.
When I got home and Googled the actual prices, I just about fell over.

I got this on my 13th birthday, and wore it regularly for probably 5-10 years:



After a while, solar powered watches came along, and they were grab and go, so from then until ten years ago or so, I mainly wore this:



On dressy occasions, I would wear the Hamilton that had been my father's:



When I started down the rabbit hole, I bought a Longines Retrograde that is the opposite of @hayday's black dial:



...but I soon realized the 16.1mm thickness wasn't working for me. After that, I bought several in quick succession that are still with me today:







All downhill from there...

[theague]

I bought myself my first watch at age 14. It was a diver style watch from Arizona Jean Co! lol I got it at JCPenny for around $50-75. I believe it's still kicking around in a drawer somewhere in my office. lol If I ever find it I'll return and post a photo.

After that I pretty much always wore a watch, mostly cheap digital like this Armitron. I wore this one for YEARS and had more than one of the exact model. Wore this one all around Europe when I was 19.


My first automatic watch was a Relic. I got it at Fred Meyer (Kroger) for less than $100 around 2010-2011 time period.


From there it went downhill. I joined WUS in May 2010 and started buying. I've probably purchased 50/50 used/new over the last 15 years or so. I'd estimate I've owned at least 100 watches in that time. Probably a small number compared to some but I've enjoyed the journey.

I think my most expensive purchase was a Sinn U1 or the 240. I can't remember which one I paid more for. I think the U1 was around 1200-1300 used. Sinn 240 was $1220 used, I looked back at my PM's on WUS. Sadly I didn't keep that one as getting a nato strap on it was quite difficult and I'm a nato only watch wearer. It was a beauty though. Not keeping that one and the dual crown Zixen I had were painful.



I still wonder 15 years into this hobby if I'll ever get to the point of buying something greater than $1500 lol Maybe some day? I don't know. I've definitely slowed down a lot.

[skywatch]

I enjoy these reminiscences. I don't remember a time when I wasn't fascinated by timekeeping and by little machines. My father was a microwave engineer who dabbled in antique clock repair, and Sunday mornings were the times when he would time all the clocks to the NIST radio signal. That was back in the 60s. When my grandfather died in the early '70s, my mom gave me his 1939 Hamilton to care for (I have since gifted it to my niece), and then I had the chance in 1978 to study French for a month in Strasbourg, and kept $90 of spending money for a trip through Lucerne, where I bought my first watch for around $80, the brown Bucherer. Later in the '80s, I received another grandfather watch, a Gubelin/AP that was a gift to him from a patient. I refurbished that and an art deco Gruen from great grandparents, and keep those for niece or nephew...



After university, I was doing sleep research and I needed to buy a dozen cheap digital watches to give test subjects for an experiment, and I wore those $3 cheapies for years until all their batteries died. (The watches were cheaper than new batteries.) I met my wife in 1988 and she gifted me a lovely quartz Seiko moon watch, which I wore for the next 15 years until the bug started hitting me in the early 2000s. I still have it, a bit worse for wear.



The 2000 decade started the growing assortment of discount quartz discoveries (TJ Maxx sorts of finds), and I was still on an artist's budget so I mostly just drooled at luxury watches from a distance. I started hanging out on "affordables" at the other place, and cycled through the usual experiments of ultra-cheap Chinese (to learn some skills opening them up and such) Seiko 5 and Sea-Gull, Citizen EcoDrive, etc. The rabbit hole opened up when I bought the Nomos Ludwig (barely used) for a bargain in 2011. I'm still a cheapie bargain hunter, though, and acquired most of my nicer watches pre-owned from other forum members.

[litlmn]

I've always liked watches, but all I knew about nice watches were from magazine ads (i.e. Rolex & Tag). I had several fashion brands and Fossils. I bought my first nice watch, a Movado, from a jewelry store that was closing in the Altamonte Mall.

I'm not good with dates, so no clue when this was. This let me to another Movado purchase. Then one day I found an amazing deal on a "Swiss" watch on eBay . Think Invicta like deal. Doing my research on it after I purchased it, led me to WUS. Turned out it was a Chinese Mushroom brand. It was a Romilly Moonphase that I still have to remind me that I was young and dumb.

WUS took me down the rabbit hole of Divers watches, Affordables and Watch Straps. My WUS account dates me to 2011. My first purchase after was an orange dial Seiko Monster. Many hundreds of watches later, Here we are.

[tribe125]

I always looked at watches, nose up against the jeweller’s window, but I thought you could only have one at a time. I was middle-aged before I had two, although I think I did cheat on one occasion by persuading myself that my watch was broken when it wasn’t. The breakthrough (or descent) came one day in Kraków. There was a bright red G-Shock in a shop window, and after the fourth or fifth time that I stopped to look at it, my wife said she was surprised I hadn’t bought it yet. That evening I wore it to a concert at the Filharmonia, discreetly pressing the buttons while listening to Bach or Telemann, or whatever.

Back in England I decided to find out more about G-Shocks on the new-fangled internet. Before very long I was a moderator on the G-Shock forum at Watchuseek, and occasionally bunked off to prowl around the Pilots and Military forum. Looking back, it seems like a few short years between that afternoon on ul. Florianska in Kraków and rummaging around at watch fairs and reading up on Antoine LeCoultre and George Daniels. Before I knew it, I was flying over to Germany to visit Jörg Schauer at Stowa, and not necessarily disclosing the full cost of a Submariner to my wife (“Second-hand, and surprisingly affordable if you know where to look.”) Anyway, it was her fault - she should have known where that red G-Shock was going to lead.

[wschofield3]

Thank you all for your beginnings stories, loving them!

Let's keep it going, I want to hear them all!

[pacifico66]

My interest in watches started pretty late in life story starts around my 40th birthday and at that time In my career I was meeting serious people and decision makers in large companies who I noticed were wearing expensive timepieces. At this time I had very little responsibility and with no children and making "real money" I said to the wife I would love a fancy watch I mentioned Rolex and she came up with the 16613 for my birthday .Not sure what i was wearing at that time I think for work it was a quartz seiko and a cheap Casio for fishing duty.After researching what she got me I was pleased to see I could wear this watch literally all the time which I proceeded to do. I could swim and fish goof around on snowmobiles and quads life was good never put another thought into getting more watches.That was short lived I was helping a friend change a transmission in his ford truck snapped a bolt on the crossmember and my wrist took the brunt of it the rolex was well buggered.I knew nothing about getting watches repaired but I knew of a place near one of the jobs I was doing at the time and dropped it off to be repaired the proprietor explained how expensive and how long it would take and did I need a timepiece to "tide me over" i looked around and settled on the Ball Hydrocarbon.Customers noticed that watch actually more than the sub and started asking questions. Not to be caught flat footed I started reading everything I could about watches and that was also when I discovered WUS and started to really find out about the variety and types out there.i started buying a lot of microbrand watches with a few nicer pieces sprinkled in all commensurate with large Jobs sold the bigger the commission the nicer the watch.A few years into WUS @Cybotron posted GTG's and i went to and helped organize several of them. It was a pleasure to meet @wschofield3 and @hayday and I consider them and @Cybotron friends as I do all of you.I retired last year so time is something i have a lot of and would love to get back to the pre-covid regular meetings we had there.In the meantime this community is it and I am thankful for it.

Sent from my SM-P613 using Tapatalk

[Cybotron]

As far as I can recall I always wore a watch. In my teens and early 20s, I was into Citizens and Swatches. A Movado Museum watch was my first fine watch and probably the most I ever spent on a watch. During this time, Movado was starting to gain alot of popularity. Before learning about automatics and other brands, I wore that Movado for about ten years. I recall entering the Movado outlet store and trying on several timepieces. I picked up one watch and immediately thought, "Where is the battery?" The salesperson claimed that since it is automatic, a battery is not required. I was intrigued.

That is when I found all of the watch forums on the internet. I joined them all. Timezone, Watchfreeks, Watchuseek, and Watchtalkforums. Although I visited the forums in 2005, I did not join until 2006. I gained a great deal of knowledge from the forums over time. I gained knowledge about a wide variety of watch brands and movements. Finally, after studying more about watches, I purchased my first pricey watch. A Longines moonphase chronograph. (Unfortunately I no longer have a photo) Though I was happy, I wanted something sportier. I chose to present myself with an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean since I had recently received a significant promotion at my place of employment. I was shocked on how much money I had spent on watch, but it didn't end there. Learning about brands such as Zenith, IWC, Panerai, German Brands and tons of other brands. I had to experience them all. Rolex came later for me as I was intrigued about not so common brands.



Fast forward to 2024 and I’m still enjoying the hobby.Since joining the forums I have met tons of great people, done business with tons of forum sponsors and dealers. There have been times where I suffered burnout but sometimes, I feel like you need a break and get back in the mix. Although I’m enjoying a smaller collection these days I always have fun and buy what I like.

To be continued…

[Cybotron]

As a twenty something, I had a boss that wore a Rolex Day Date, and he teased me about my Seiko ani-digi relentlessly, so, I purchased a Day Date, yellow gold, pre loved and at a great price from the largest Rolex AD in Boston that happened to be in the same building as a HiFi store I managed in Harvard Square.

I had a deal with the owner of that shop, Alpha Omega Jewelers, and he would provide me actual cost on his goods and I did the same for him as he was a HiFi junkie. I even bought my wife's engagement ring from him.

I did not like the yellow gold, it was a bit much for me at age 23, so, I had him look out for a white gold version of that same watch, and about 6 months later, he came through and I traded in the yellow for an almost even trade - I gave him a tiny bit of cash as back then, the WG versions were hard to even give away, seemingly.

A year or so later, I purchased a Sub from him, and I still had both watches when I joined the "other place" over 10 years ago, after I got into the TV watch craze with Invicta and others. That TV thing got me to find the other place, and I quickly began dumping all of my TV watches and started to look for other, new friend recommended watches.

The two Rolex watches were sold not too long afterward as I have always had a somewhat adverse reaction to advertising wealth and they sat in my drawer, one of the reasons I went from a BMW 5 series to a VW Jetta, although, as you know, my Jetta appears somewhat stock, but is anything but as I love performance.

So, mostly giving away the TV watches as none were too expensive and selling the two Rolex, I started looking for my first "better" watch and needed it to be somewhat of a bargain as my knowledge was not what it is today, so, I looked for a brand that had cred, but I could purchase for short money.

I purchased this from Bernard Watch for $999. Not an in house caliber, but I really liked it.



I paused for a while, still getting rid of my TV watches, I had purchased quite a few, and then, I went a bit nuts with getting an Ebel BTR and some other "darlings" of the old place, I even went to meet many of them in Florida on two occasions and went watch shopping.

That is about the time, in my modern interest period, that I purchased my first, to me, luxury watch; the GO Panomatic Lunar.



Lots of changes, trades and purchases since then, but that is the way it started for me.

What's your beginning watch story? Looking forward to seeing your responses!

That brings memories for me. My go to places where Alpha Omega Jewelers (Natick store) and Tourneau back in the day.