Starting a watch collection

I’ve always liked watches.  My earliest recollection of owning a watch was a Swatch back in the mid-1980’s.  From a fashion standpoint, Swatch watches were all the rage in the 80’s.  Like most other fashion conscious teens, I had a black and white skinned Swatch.  Now that I think of it, I recall having a couple of the flexible plastic band watches.

In the early 1990’s, I was an Airman in the US Air Force living in Miami.  Being around the water all the time, I decided to step up my watch game with a Casio Divers watch with the typical thick, black rubber band.  On my first visit to the Bayside Marketplace in Miami, I stumbled across a Swatch store just as the new Swatch Irony was rolled out. The Irony line, with its stainless steel case and bracelet, was different than anything Swatch had offered. Wanting to up my watch game some more, but still on a tight budget, I spent $60 on an Irony. This Irony is the oldest watch that I still own and it still keeps time. Gotta love those Swiss watches.

For most of this new century I’ve been a Timex Ironman guy. I discovered these super-durable, utilitarian watches in the early 2000s and currently sport the third one that I’ve owned in the last 15 years.

So what happened?

For some time, I have kicked around the idea of starting a modest watch collection but life with a family of five never seems to allow for such spending. As I’ve gotten older I’ve pushed away what feels like selfishness. I’ve worked pretty hard to own a business, we drive modest cars, I coach everything I can for my kids and bend over backwards to give them experiences I never had as a kid – baseball games, ski trips, cruises and the like. I would not say that I’m materialistic and have no expensive vices, habits or needs. But, I do like nice watches.

In the summer of 2016 we took an Alaskan cruise. One evening, I strolled down the promenade of shops on the ship and swung by the ship’s jewelry store. I admired the Rolex watches, learned a little about Invicta watches from the sales lady and paused at a small collection of Tissot watches. I was familiar with the brand and was smitten with the black-banded, orange-accented Quickster Chronograph. For some reason I could not resist this watch.  With the purchase of the Tissot, a watch collection was started.

This finely tuned Swiss machine is water resistant up to 100 meters, has a 316L stainless steel 42 mm case, Swiss Quartz movements, and a sapphire crystal.  Not bad for a beginning.