Reply With QuoteLove the Junghans, i had one years ago.
Hi everyone, I've been on here for years but until recently didn't really look too hard at a multi-watch collection. For most of my life I was happy with 2 watches, but around 7 years ago I started to expand with a few more pieces and it took off from there. Below is a small walk through of the past 15 years of my collecting, along with some stories around the watches and why I got them.
(From left to right, bigger pic here https://imgur.com/a/DGEJK)
1. Seiko SNDB07P1 (or variant). This was the first watch I bought with my own money at 17 years old, cost me £80 from Littlewoods I think. Until this point I'd never had a watch that had cost more than £20 and this is the watch that I wore all the way through uni and the first 4 years of my career until I was 25. It's a nice enough watch but it's not been worn since the day I upgraded it to my titanium citizen (see watch 11), but it won't be leaving me - it's the sort of watch I can see myself passing onto a future child if they show interest in my collection.
2. Oris Big Crown ProPilot Date (41mm). Following the supposed demise of my titanium citizen earlier this year, I picked up this following a WTB post. It's becoming my default daily wearer in the office as is currently -1spd over the past week, making it the best performing mechanical watch in my collection. I absolutely love the simplicity of the dial and the hands are a gorgeous shape with a slightly larger than average date aperture as well. This is definitely here for the long haul.
3. Seiko SRP309K Orange Monster. You have to own one of these once don't you? it's just such a fun watch and I'd been itching to try one since 2006 but never really loved the original dial. The gen 2 version of this has been proving more and more difficult to hunt down with people now holding onto these with good reason as prices have climbed and manufacturing stopped. I picked mine up earlier in the year using the money I'd been given in lieu of Christmas presents (this is a common theme) and for £150 I think they're supremely good value given their construction and timekeeping and the 4r36 movement upgrade is a welcome bonus.
4. Longines Legend Diver Date. This was my wedding watch from 3 weeks ago that was part-chosen by my now wife from a selection of mid-range watches. It's a fantastic reissue with a few niggles but the newer version of the sailcloth strap is miles better than the old and make it one of the few watches I can wear all day without taking it off at some point due to discomfort. I've even committed blasphemy and put it on a bracelet https://imgur.com/a/CSBgM which caused a lot of division earlier in the year, but I now have endlinks to match!
5. Hamtun H1. I backed this on Kickstarter last year, a 41mm titanium 200m dive watch with matter ceramic bezel and inlaid lume, sandwich dial and domed sapphire internal AR for the princely sum of $199 if you were early enough. I wasn't, but at ~£200 this Seiko NH35 powered watch is probably as close to a Pelagos as I'm likely to get now. It's timekeeping isn't great at -20spd and the lume isn't anything to write home about after the stretch goal to move to BGW9 couldn't be achieved on the other colour variants of the watch, but it's a nice enough wear if by no means a keeper.
6. Fortis B-42 Marinemaster. I have a love hate relationship with this piece after 18 months of ownership. I love it's style and it's sheer value for money in the second hand market plus the fact that this model isn't made anymore makes this a hard to find piece these days. I hate the fact that it's over 200g on the bracelet and boy does it feel it. Annoyingly, Fortis did make a titanium version of this watch for a while but they made the bezel a 15 minute indicator which in my opinion looked much worse than the original. I'd admired this watch from afar for many years and eventually purchased it as an engagement present to myself, but it's size and heft severely reduce the wearing opportunities which is a great shame because it's too beautiful to sit in a watch box.
7. Seiko SKX007K. This watch was the first watch of my recent splurge years, where I stopped worrying about savings and just bought things I liked. Purchased for my 31st birthday, I originally paired this up with an Isofrane style strap from Obris Morgan, but I've found it to be much more at home on a nato. I recently picked up an oyster bracelet to match, but after a month it went back on the nato, where I think it belongs. It's a great lightweight summer wear watch that I have no qualms about getting mucky and is also keeping a fantastic +2spd in my ownership.
8. Casio Gulfman G-9100-2. Bought in 2009, this has been my gym/swim watch ever since. In my opinion far superior than the boring black variant, the real bonus of this watch is that my now father-in-law owns the boring black variant and declared us 'watch buddies' not long after I started dating my wife. Anything that gets me in the good books is a win in my book! It's still on it's original battery as far as I can tell too, I've had it for 8 years and it's never missed a beat.
9. Parnis 46mm B&R homage. Oh dear. Everyone makes watch mistakes, and this is mine. It's 2010 and Bell & Ross had just seen an upswing in popularity and were started to be carried by the high street jewellers, and I thought to myself 'you know what, you need an aeroplane instrument on your wrist'. I didn't. It's been worn about 4 times ever and is far too big and top heavy for my 7.25" wrists. With that said, it was cheap and actually the timekeeping hasn't been at all awful when I've worn it.
10. Junghans Mega 1000. I'd never heard of these, but my local jeweller had one of these in his window he was trying to shift for about 6 months. No original box, no papers, just the watch and a quip to download the pdf manual but at £150 I wasn't complaining and my wife bought it for me on our 2nd anniversary together. It's a lovely piece of German design and the leather strap is beautifully comfortable, hugging the wrist but still allowing room to move with its premoulded shape. It's also nice to have a radio controlled watch handy in the box for easily setting all my others!
*11. (Yes, I know - it's not in the box) Citizen AT0660-64 https://imgur.com/9ZYKMh8. My daily wearer for the last 7 years, probably the best £200 I've spent on a watch. It's seen and done everything and is currently serving as a bedside clock due to its fantastic lume. Only downside is the module has been a bit picky of late when I've been wearing it leading me to remove it from daily use as it would randomly stop and start when picked up and put down. It's not worth the repair bill, so it gets it's moment in the sun (literally, to recharge) and a gentle retirement.
So, there we are! Where next? I probably have too many black faced divers, so I might look to rationalise a little and free up some money for some more diversity. I'm not a movement snob, so as long as the watch looks attractive and is within budget, there's always a chance of it being added to the box!
Love the Junghans, i had one years ago.
Excellent! Love the sotc-
You say mistake but I'm quite taken with the Parnis. If you want to sell it, let me know!
Cheers Dave
I'm with you on that. Didn't know they did a B & R homage.Originally Posted by Dave O'Sullivan
Enjoyable read, I love stories attached to watches.
My favourite is the Oris Big Crown Pro Pilot Date, nearly bought one myself a while back. A very simple looking watch with some nice subtle details
Never seen an LLD on a bracelet like that but I think it really works, great looking watch and so versatile.
Very nice.
Particularly like the Oris and the Fortis.
(If you ever decide to move them on please let me know)
Thanks for showing a great collection .
Sent from my SM-G920F using TZ-UK mobile app
Nice, we have similar tastes as I 4 of those watches!!
Try the Fortis on leather, I have mine on a padded sharks skin and looks great plus it comes across more classy..
Posting Permissions