Hello,

There are many people here in TS that love watches as much as they love cars, what struck your passion with watches ?

I truly believe behind every collection is a story ?

What really caught your attention and why do you like this hobby ?

Please share with us your excitement and stories ?

What struck me and started my Passion is my uncles Rolex Daytona which is WG with the Black dial, my oh my is it still a fine looking watch.

 

When I was a senior in high school - back in the late 1980s - one of my good friends got a SS Rolex for his 18th Birthday. I was mesmerized by that watch! I was tremendously jealous.

I was captivated by the quality, craftsmanship and style. It just totally captured my imagination. It is hard to explain.

I coveted it so badly that I used to dream about having one. One night I dreamed that I had one and that it was in a shoe box in my closet. The dream was so vivid and real that - after I woke up - I actually went through my closet looking for it. Crazy.

So I begged my parents to get me one as a gift for my high school graduation. They said that they would think about it. When graduation day came, they bought me a SS Tag instead. Now the Tag was a nice watch and I wore it everyday for over a year, but it was not the Rolex I wanted.

This had a huge impact on me. I never stopped wanting that Rolex. I thought about it for years.

Then - just after my first year of law school, some 15 years after high school - my wife bought me a Submariner as a surprise. It was the best gift I had ever gotten.

That started my obsession. The rest is history.

 

I was influenced because when I was reading car magazines I kept seeing Rolex adverts and I immediately liked the Daytona (WG with Black Dial); it is sporty and I felt it was the perfect watch back then as I loved the black dial with the red.

Over the time I gradually went from owning Swatches to Tag and my biggest leap was from a Tag F1 to a Omega SpeedMaster The Legend. I used to purchase watches on an annual basis, bought some Tissot(Quartz) and Bulgari(Quartz) Carbon Gold.

I must say I wish I didnt spend small amounts of money on "lower scale" watches as the funds combined could of bought me a nice Rolex at that time.

I sold the Zenith Defy Classic after I got the Audemars Piguet because it took over as my daily watch, the RubberClad Offshore still is a cherished peice of my collection and I wear it more than the Royal Oak Offshore BumbleBee because the colours suite my wardrobe more and its much more versitile.

What also boosted my watch collection is that I received watch gifts as a child and I started to collect the $60-70 dollar Swatches every year and till this date I still have them and when I look at them it just reminds me of my childhood and that I've started from just a hobby to a decent collection now.

Currently I have 3 watches and they are AP ROO Offshore, AP ROO BumbleBee and an Omega SpeedMaster "The Legend" and hopefully my 4th addition will be coming soon.

I take Watches seriously as cars, Cars have always been my biggest interest and hobby. Watches are nice because they can be stored in small places and doesn't need a big garage such as cars once you have more than 1-3 cars.

I feel associated with my watches and the same goes with my cars, I buy a watch because I like it and not that its in demand or a fashion statement.

I dont care if everyone needs to know its a XYZ amount and its ultra exclusive, all that I care is that I like it and I find it rational to have.

 

That is a nice story, thank you for taking your time. I got into AP because it has a better heritage, I like the Design of the Hublot because they look sporty but after I read about their movement and their mass amount of editions and variants, I decided to get an AP because it felt like its a better watch and is a better brand.

I am also fascinated by the vintage watches and watches as investments, Watches to me is par on par with my enthusiasm with cars. Sometimes I like them more than the other but they go side by side as in interest.

When I travel to Europe I like to take a nice walk and view the boutiques, I do the same thing with car dealerships as well when I am traveling.

 

I know people who see no use for watches, the type of people I am talking about use their mobile phone as watches and see watches as something obsolete.

I also know people who are so convinced that watches are like cars, you use them till they break and switch to something new. Like cars they have just a purpose to tell time, these same people tend to keep their car for 10-15 years till they break because its an object with 4 wheels that is used to commute to a destination from point a to point b.

 

It's yet to fully sink in, but TS is making it harder and harder to resist.

 

I agree and the forum is one of the main contributors to this passion, I had some sort of personal price ceiling back from 1k to 5k and then to 10k. It now is set depends on my passion and the funds. It has become a full hobby and passion as with cars.

 

My dad has always had two or three nice watches and he wanted to get both my brother and I each a Rolex for our 21st Birthdays. My brother got his Rolex when he turned 21, but one of my co-workers who happened to be a watch guy got to me before I turned 21. I learned that there was more out there than just Rolex, Omega, Tag, etc. I fell in love with the IWC Big Pilot, but it was considerably more expensive than the Rolex he wanted to get me. I ended up getting an IWC Mark XV for my 21st Birthday, and wore it with pride every day for a few years, and spent more time looking at and reading about watches, picking up new pieces when I could. The Big Pilot was always tough to come by and usually full price, so finally being able to buy the Big Pilot was a pretty big day for me.

 

All of you on TS got me hooked on watches. I honstly never understood why anyone would spend more than $40 for a Timex since all you need it to do is tell the time.

Growing up, I had a neighbor who did very well for himself in the medical industry. One day at a neighborhood BBQ, he was showing my dad his Rolex and my dad was just as mystified as I was how anyone could spend so much on a watch, but I think we both found a new appreciation that day for mechanical watches.

I've always been interested in mechanical things and how they work. Watches are just another aspect of that and I love the history as well as the craftsmanship that goes into a nice watch. Now, after exploring that passion here, I'm hooked. For now, I just enjoy looking at them and I haven't really taken the plunge on anything too expensive (my Lum-Tec is easily my most expensive piece) but I plan to reward myself with a watch for future milestones once I have a bit more money.

 

I started getting into watches already from childhood, I always loved different kinds of watches and had several quarz pieces, Festina, G shock etc. My grandfather had always been a clock collector, and he gave me the first real timepiece: an Omega Seamaster quarz. (when quarz was cutting edge)



Back in those days I didn't know the value of this piece and neglected it. However I still have it,slightly damaged an plan on restoring it to it's original state (even have all the original paperwork etc.)

In college it all kinda sped up, I'd seen a U-boat add and I wanted a watch like that. SO I started looking into it, seeing how much that costed etc etc. Than I met this guy who was also doing his masters in engineering who got a Jaeger Le Coultre as present. I absolutely adored that watch, and so I started to learn more about swiss watches and the different big brands etc.

The final drop was one of my best friends, that I hadn't seen for a long time that came back into my life. We went out golfing alot together and re getting to know eachother after all those years. One day he showed up at the course with an Oris watch, which I noticed. We started talking about it and learned that he also was very passionate about watches. He basicly gave me the links to all the right places, and that's how I became a swiss watch purist, wanting nothing else than an automatic Swiss watch.

Since a year now I have my first on Frederique Constant, and hopefully more to come