The watch bug…

[M2H]

I have been reading the RolexForum for a few months, and I am really happy to be stumbled upon such a group of supportive people. I thought I share my Watch Bug story with you;

Currently, in my mid 30s, I have had a decade of not wearing watches. Mostly, because when I started my career in London in the mid 2000s. Yes, yes I was a banker… but that is for a different forum. I had no watch back then. The local colleagues kept commenting me about not wearing a watch, saying that it is always the richest guy without a watch. I got this comment so many times that I just thought, well, then I do not need to worry about this thing. Case closed.

Then come the Apple watch last year. All I could see on the Apple forums are discussions about the Apple Watch. For me, they look like a child’s watch, a toy, but this has started something inside me…

I remember, I had several Swatches as a child, I always liked them, they just put a smile on me. What more a child needs? I had backlit Casio to play with in the dark, and some other odd children’s watches. I remember my grandfather used to have a very nice extremely simple Omega with leather straps that I liked on him.

During my university years, I also had a brief period of interest in watches, and I found a nice 24 hour dial Russian Vostok with black leather straps. It was just something special with manual winding. It was stolen once I hosted a house party. I originally found it on eBay for about 35 GBP, and wanted to buy a replacement, but have never seen that model since then. Unfortunately, I have no useful photo where it would be shown.

Then, a few years ago, during a trip with my wife to New York, I found myself in the Swatch store on Times Square looking at the Body&Soul Irony Swatch. Next thing I realise is my wife just bought it for me, so this is what I am wearing occasionally. I am a bit shy on wearing it outside, because I remember what my watchmaker uncle always said about Swatches… well, let’s say he does not consider them serious business enough.

So, all this watch ‘bug’ has been deep asleep, and awoken by the scent of the Apple Watch. I have spent weeks on looking at its features, and what it is good for. However, I have always got hooked on the battery issue. I am sitting on my bed looking at my automatic Swatch, and thinking, I would like to have a watch that just works when I pick it up from the drawer.

I have started to think about brands, I remembered that many of my colleagues in London had Breitling, and quite a hype about it. I have spent my evenings for months on the Breitling website, I read all information, admired the photos, and come to the conclusion of the Navitimer 01 as the ultimate watch… or is it? I has many features, and looks nicely busy, but it is not exactly waterproof, and is it too busy to be elegant? It would however fit my enthusiasm for flying as a pilot’s watch.

Then, I remembered, but Cartier makes watches as well. At this point, I wanted something most elegant, and as an added benefit it would match my wedding band. Some of them look really nice, but there are not many information on Cartier’s website about how it is made, and what is inside. Although, it had nice and interesting history. So at this point I have started to look at online forums as well about watch movements. I have briefly imagined Piaget Altiplano on me, as an ultimate elegant watch… I still like its simplicity, but it just seem too fragile.

I ended up on Omega’s website, but of course! Why I have not thought about this before? All the James Bond stories, and Space, and Moon walking… what else. It is obvious isn’t it? Ah, Omega took away my whole 2016 summer evenings, sitting before my laptop and going into details of the movements, design. Finally, there were number of blogs about it. Famous people, history. Speedmaster? It has too many buttons and not enough James Bond. Ok, then Seamaster, let’s have the 300M then. Nononono, I see many people wearing it nowadays, not ‘special’ enough, and looks too small. 300, Nato strap? Maybe, but metal is just nicer. Hey, what about the 600M PO, now that is a beauty… The new Orange/Black bezel, excellent. I feel the butterflies, I am sure finally after over half a year, I am getting close to what I really want. Let’s read about it on the blogs, and forums. I just did not understand why I keep ending up on the RolexForum’s site reading about Omega? Is it really? oh no… the butterflies are going away, and look those Rolexes seem nice… oh, there are just so many information, so I have spent the last few months on Rolex’s website, and on the RolexForum.com’s site. I have ended up registering a few days ago to the forum…

What do you guys think where will all this lead to? I find myself looking at the GMT II Batman most of the times, and the new YM. I feel if I had gone into an AD, I would not be able to resist. Will this also pass? Should I check out other brands, the AP and PPs as well? I have briefly looked at them because they were mentioned on the forum here, but did not really like the design. No, I think I have arrived. I need this, but it should be done the Rolex way, I need a special occasion for this. So I think it will be May, to celebrate several coincidental anniversaries with a crown.

I am grateful for my wife to be so patient while I spent a lot of time researching on watches over the last year. …and, do not forget, one might not like the Apple Watch, but it is because of that I got seriously interested in watches finally.

I am happy to read your stories, how you got into Rolex, and which one you would think as a good First Rolex to have?

Current watch below, and I’ll keep you up to date on the new one.