Watch Collector
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I have to mention two. The first watch I remember wearing was a digital CASIO, and I was probably 8 or 9 years old. It was very basic but it told me the time, it bleeped, and it had a light. For those 3 reasons I thought it was quite amazing.
My first analogue watch was a SWATCH Jellyfish. When I got to 12 or 13 I remember thinking it was important to have a ‘proper’ watch, one with hands!
I still have the SWATCH Jellyfish to this day. Unfortunately the buckle has broken and the battery cavity has cracked, otherwise I would still wear it.
For me it has to be the OMEGA Speedmaster, the ROLEX Daytona, and the ROLEX Submariner. The space watch, the racing watch and the diving watch.
A friend of mine asked if I could help him evaluate a watch that he was considering buying. He knew I loved Speedmasters and said the watch was a 105.003, I was immediately interested.
A few weeks later we were sitting in a motorway service station, waiting for the seller to arrive. As soon as I saw the watch and heard the story, I knew it was special. A one owner ‘Ed White’ from the United Kingdom. An almost perfect dial, sharp fat lugs, and a correctly dated 7912 with the original number 6 end links. I gave him the signal to buy it, and the deal was done. Five minutes later I offered him 30% more than he paid for it, I had brought the cash with me. He said no, he was going to keep it it for a while.
I pestered him for the next few weeks but it seemed the watch wasn’t for sale, I began to forget about the beautiful Ed White I had seen in the service station.
Three months later I received a text, “if you still want to buy the Speedmaster you can have it”. Several hours later I had completed the 250 mile round trip, and the watch was mine…it was on my wrist at last! It is one of my favourite Speedmasters and is one I would never sell.
My taste in watches has changed drastically in the last 5-10 years. I am now a vintage guy.
I worked in finance for 25 years and became bored with seeing the same modern watches everywhere I looked. I enjoy knowing that unless I visit the ‘Time For A Pint’ get togethers, I am very unlikely to sit next to someone wearing a premoon Speedmaster, or a 60 year old Seamaster for example. Every vintage watch has a story, and that is something modern watches just don’t have. I still have a few modern watches, but these now only seem get worn when i go on holiday.
Collecting vintage watches has also opened up a whole new community I never knew existed. I have gained many good friends on this journey. Friends I speak to all the time. Without their help my collection would be a different story, and for that I am grateful.
They got it right, it’s as simple as that. It was designed as a tool watch, and that’s what it still does. For me a watch has to do more than just tell the time, it has to capture me, and the Speedmaster does that. It is packed with a rich history, and if it’s good enough for NASA, it’s good enough for me.
If it’s one I own it would have to be my 2998. There is just something special about alpha hands.
If it’s one I don’t own then that’s an original Apollo Soyuz from 1976, 5.5 mm pushers, OMEGA extract and box and papers. A little greedy I know, but a boy can dream!
A very large telescope so I could check everything was ok at home.
It would be a sports car, a Rosso Red Ferrari F40 would be the first of many.
I would travel back to a hot summers day in the mid 1980s.
I would go to school, I would visit my grandparents, I would take my dog for a walk, and then I would ride my Skyway BMX. All things I miss doing now.
Yes I am guilty of this. I often look at my watch for several minutes and still don’t know what time it is. I have a brown dial ’69 145.022 that often makes me late.
I bought a SEIKO Black Turtle SRPC49 last week . It’s the first brand new watch I have bought in years, but I couldn’t resist it. I have a thing for vintage SEIKO dive watches from the ’60s and 70s, so it was an easy decision.
Today I am wearing my Moonwatch of course, a ST 105.012-66 CB.
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