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Awesome thread! I do love watches. Here's the backstory for those who want to know...
The Early Days...
I think I was around 14 when I got my first watch from Santa Claus. It was a Guess brand watch. Quartz chronograph with a white face. Nothing fancy, but I loved it and wore it every day for years to come. I remember back then doing a little bit of reading about the history of watches, got into it a bit, but never too much.
Then when I was out of high school, just starting University (I think 1998 if I have my years correct), Oakley released their first watch, called the Timebomb. It was crazy expensive by my standards for watches at the time - think it sold for like $1500 or $2500USD, but I wanted it sooo bad. I fell in love with it. I ended up not having to buy it, but instead bartered for it... I made a website for a local optometrist who was also an Oakley dealer - and he paid me in sunglasses and my Timebomb (seriously - I probably owned like 22 pairs of Oakley sunglasses back in the day - was as addicted to sunglasses back then as I am phones and watches now). The Timebomb I got was the stainless steel version with the blue face. Looked like this:
I wore that watch for a decade, through my University years and then into work life. Probably from 1998 past 2008. Not a watch that time aficionados will appreciate, but I got so many compliments on it. Also, it was cool in the sense that it was a sort of automatic and mechanical watch in one. It had no battery. Motion would make it charge a capacitor that fired from there. You could take it off for 15 days and it would still tell time. And once it died you could wear it for just a few seconds and it would get going again (no need to wind it).
Then the Watch Bug Hit
It was already once CrackBerry was going and I began traveling a lot that my love for watches was rekindled and taken to a new level. Living in Winnipeg, I pretty much always fly through Minneapolis to connect anywhere to the USA, and I like to buy magazines to read on flights. On one trip I just decided I was sick of reading business magazines, health magazines, gadget magazines, etc., so I started to look for something else to read. And I found Watch Time magazine. I totally got into it. As I started to flip through the pages, I had flash backs to when I was 14 and first got into watches a bit. By the time I was done reading that first issue I decided I deserved to buy myself a nice watch. I'd been working my **** off for years, so it felt like a nice personal reward. Also, based on the length of time I'd worn my previous watches, it seemed not too difficult to justify.
It took me a year to decide what first, nice watch to get myself. I learned about all the companies, all the brands, all the history. Learned about the way the industry works too so I'd have a full appreciation of just how much of the cost of the watch actually goes into markup and to cover advertising costs (this doesn't deter me - I get how business works). I even visited some of the watch forums and sites out there. I know how we are often quite wound up and passionate about our favorite platforms in the mobile space - some watch enthusiasts take it to a whole new level (always entertaining to read the Watch Snobs articles on AskMen).
After literally a year of making up my mind which watch to buy, I ended up going with a Panerai. I liked the brand and the company history (Italian heritage, revived luckily by Sly Stallone, etc.). I loved the look of the watch - very classy. I got a model that had their new in-house movement. And I loved the quick change straps on it - so I could really change the look of the watch going from rubber to leather/croc (and in various colors). If you're only buying one nice watch, you can really get a lot of mileage out of it.
My Bell & Ross I got as a gift from my fianc�e. It's a BR 01-97, and as mentioned above, has the CrackBerry orange hands and numbers on it. Only 250 made in that particular model. When we saw it on a trip together I just wanted it so bad. I talked myself out of it. Didn't buy it. But then she surprised me with it. Love that watch. It comes with both a rubber and nylon/velcro band. I prefer to where this one with the velcro band. Just looks tough and awesome - also dresses it down nicely.
I have a Stainless Steel White Face Daytona that I ended up buying a little later. For people who are into watches, they'll know it's a hard to find watch. I wouldn't call it rare, but I guess Rolex limits the production on it to a certain number of units a year (like 20,000) or something like that, and Rolex dealers are never allowed to have more than one in stock at a time, and only can order more once they sell the one they have (or something like that). For yeras, whenever I'd walk into a watch store, I'd ask if they had any white face Stainless Steel Daytonas in stock. And they never ever did. Ever. And usually they had a waiting list for them. As soon as they come in, they sold.
LONG story, short, let's just say that one day, when I least expected it, I found one in stock at a store. Again, talked myself out of it, then through a weird turn of events and stuff, ended up buying it. When I got it I didn't even wear it for over a year. Then one day I decided screw it, I'm going to start wearing that one too. I by no means have any desire to be a guy who collects watches... I like watches - want to wear them!
Then finally I got my Omega. It's the new Planet Ocean. This was actually given to me as a gift (nicest gift I ever received!) from a friend who sold his company. I love the look of it. I tend to like big watches, so while the Daytona is small and classy, this has that nice full metal band look and is a bit beefy. Great movement too and just a hot watch all around.
Then I Made a Promise...
No more watches until I make a website about watches! I love watches, but man oh man, it's an expensive hobby to get into. I have a long, long list of watches that I'd love to own/wear, and as I said above, I like wearing them. I actually have a few awesome domain names I bought over the years - WatchReviews.com and TimeCrunch.com. I figure either/both would make for a wicked watch site and community. Make it less for the watch enthusiasts and more for everyday people who are trying to decide what watch to buy. I'm the type of person who actually enjoys the process of deciding what to buy even more than buying it, and I think a lot of people just buy watches without doing too much research.
So for now no more (nice) watches on my wrists... until we launch a watch site. I mean, watches *are* mobile, right? I think we could squeeze them under the Mobile Nations banner somewhere.
Ok, that's the story! Hope you enjoyed it. Fun way to start the morning.05-08-13 07:21 AM - Wow.. I'm flattered you called me a journalist! I never think of myself as a journalist... or blogger for that matter (I'm not a very skilled writer). I'm just a guy who likes to talk about the stuff he loves!
These days, I don't really do any coding other than the basic html / css we need to know for formatting up nice blog posts. Though I can still usually follow code and figure some stuff out (it doesn't just look like gibberish to me). I think it's in me to learn again - just not enough hours in the day. When I was in my teens I started making websites for local businesses and some not so local. Me and a buddy just sat at my parents house one summer when we were like 15 or 16, and taught ourselves html and how to make sites. As soon as we kinda knew what we were doing, I started going around to businesses and convincing them they needed to hire us to build them. Worked out pretty well! Would spend the summer golfing and making websites. Did this all the way through university / business school really - helped pay the bills. Beat my old job of scraping bread pans at the bakery.
Heck - you can see some of my earliest website stuff here (just checked it out). Hilarious to look at this now!
05-08-13 07:56 AM - Nice post Kevin - I sort if understand where that feeling of wanting more watches come from but they are expensive...
(I have a Speedmaster on my wrist - I wish I could collect watches but I do not habe the money for it.... and if I get to save up a bit there are other things on the buy list... Anyway I habe time still
)
In terms of running a watch forum - if you have a domain just try? Get something like smf forum or Drupal and just see if you can draw and audience?
One issue might be retaining users - there is a nice fountainpen forum in German that has pretty much died or at least sees very few posts which is a bit sad... (Montblanc males lovely pens).
But why not try?
Posted via CB1005-08-13 08:27 AM - On the other hand () I haven't worn a watch since my first BlackBerry Curve and I notice a lot of folks don't. It's almost poll worthy.
I'm certainly not knocking the wearing or collecting of watches, I loved my Guess watch and my 16 year old collects inexpensive watches (except her one Coach which is still inexpensive by most standards).
And where Crackberry Kevin makes a website I will follow so who knows, a nice watch may be in my future yet!
Posted via CB1005-08-13 09:08 AM
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Kevin's wrist watches!
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