I’m Ben, 45, and I live with my wife, three kids and one and a half dog in a cozy little village right by the Baltic Sea here in Germany. I work as an engineer, but my real passion is watches. My Omega Speedmaster journey started back in 2014 with a lot off research. I finaly bought my very first Speedmaster in 2016, just right before my first son was born. The second one followed only a few weeks later. Over the years, I kept diving deeper into the history of these models, and my collection just kept growing.
Benjamin Heyer
Yes, I do! I was around 12 or 13 at the time. A Casio. I don’t remember the exact model, but it was a digital watch with orange pushers. It felt huge on my wrist, though that might just have been because of my skinny arms back then! Unfortunately, it got stolen during PE class at school just a few weeks after I got it. That actually ruined watches for me for a long time—I never wore another watch after that until 2016.
Honestly, I could think of way more than three! But if I go strictly by my personal taste, my top three most iconic watches are the Omega Speedmaster, Rolex Daytona, and the Patek Philippe Nautilus.
I bought it just two weeks ago! I’m incredibly happy with it: it’s an Omega Speedmaster 145.022-69 with a 29.6 million serial number. It has a chocolate dial in flawless condition and, as a nice bonus, the bezel has faded to a slightly bluish tone. The icing on the cake is an official Omega certificate from 2009. It states that the watch was delivered to Ecuador in September 1970 and it even specifically mentions „the present brown colour is due to a discoloration of the original black dial“.
Shortly before that, I picked up a Speedy Moon. Neither of them was planned.
Yes, absolutely.
I love vintage items that are well-crafted. When it comes to furniture and lighting, I’m a huge fan of Danish design. A very good friend of mine — who is also a Speedmaster collector — helps me source great pieces from time to time. When we moved into our new house, he sold me an Arne Jacobsen AJ Royal lamp at a great price. It’s the model originally designed for the SAS Radisson Hotel in Copenhagen!
I also have a special connection to the Eames Lounge Chair from my university days in a shared apartment. One of my roommates had two of them in her room because her stepfather ran out of space at home. We all had mismatched, cheap furniture, mostly from IKEA, and then suddenly there were these two absolute design classics including the ottomans.
Furthermore, I adore the Porsche 993 design. It’s a dream that is still unfulfilled, but I drove one once and I’ve been hooked ever since. At some point, I might just have to let go of a few watches to turn this dream into reality.
Other hobbies? With three kids under 10 and 1.5 dogs, there’s barely any time left. Like most mid-40s dads, I’m just doing home workouts to combat the ‘dad bod’ and fight against our modern-day luxury of unlimited access to great food.
As a rule, I never go out without my phone, keys, and wallet. It always involves the classic triple check: front-right pocket, front-left pocket, and back pocket. If everything is in its place, I’m good to go!
The Speedmaster isn’t part of that check because it’s not essential for survival… At least not unless you’re boarding a rocket!
My wife once gave me pictures of some of my watches for my birthday. What a surprise!!!
My wife constantly misplaces and forgets things, so you can imagine my panic when she took all the watches I happened to be storing at home and took them to a friend of ours who is a hobby photographer to have high-quality photos made.
Recently, I wanted to hang those pictures up in our new house. The funny thing is, the prints are actually quite small! But the moment I brought it up, I could tell by her body language that she wasn’t on board at all. Apparently, even small photos of my watches don’t fit into her vision for our beautifully designed home. We did find a compromise for my book collection, but ironically, the watch pictures have completely vanished. So in the end, I was only allowed to display my books.
But hey, the wiser head gives in!
Limiting myself to only one watch is just brutal! But if someone forces me to pick, I’d go for the Speedmaster 2915-1 — the birth of the legend.
However, let’s be honest: if the jackpot is big enough, no rule in the world is going to stop me from buying more.
I actually wore two watches today!
In the morning, I started with my Omega Speedmaster 345.0809. Around noon, it completely stopped because I forgot to wind it up.
But hey, that gave me the perfect excuse to switch to the 105.003-63. The Ed White gets way too little wrist time.
I don’t think I can answer this question for anyone else. There are just too many places in the world that hold a deeply personal importance to different people. What matters to one person might mean nothing to another. But if I had to recommend one thing, it would be to go to the sea. It doesn’t matter where — just go to the ocean.
If I had a teleporter, I would spend the next 24 hours with my entire family at a warm, secluded spot right by the sea — complete with palm trees and a house right over the water.
I think the kids would vote for Disneyland instead.
If we actually teleported to Disneyland, I’d probably spend the whole 24 hours carrying three backpacks while my wife tries to find where she mis-placed her phone on Space Mountain.
Without a doubt, my snorkeling mask.
It’s the ultimate personal item for someone who loves the sea as much as I do.
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