Reply With QuoteThis site sparked my interest in mechanical watches and has enticed me into spending far too much on this hobby..!
Thanks Eddie 😀
There’s been quite a bit of chat that the market for mechanical watches will dry up as the younger tech savvy generations become older. I’m not so sure....
I’m middle aged now and love mechanical watches. However, when I was young, it never even crossed my mind how a watch worked. I was a young lad when digital watches took off and marvelled as the number of functions multiplied exponenentially (calculator watch anyone)? That was the new tech at the time and me and all my mates wanted that. The equivalent of today’s smart watches/ iPhones that the world can’t get enough of you might say.
However, as I got older my tastes changed. I would say I was in my late 30’s when I first became interested in buying a luxury watch. A few factors contributed:
• being financially better off and actually having some spare cash.
•having a desire to use that to buy higher quality stuff, whether clothes, furniture, personal possessions etc
•appreciating the workmaship, engineering, materials, history of such items
•getting a small inheritance and wanting to use that to buy a high quality personal item to which sentimental value could be attached and last a long time. That, I decided would be a watch!
Sadly, that first “proper” watch was stolen a couple of years later, but interest was sparked and a good few watches have followed.
I dont see why younger generation’s tastes wouldn’t develop over time in the same way. My son is a teenager and is not really interested in my watches but he wants to be an engineer, so I would wager his tastes might well change in the next 20 years as he comes to appreciate fine engineering and workmanship etc.
So, what sparked your interest and how old were you at the time??
Last edited by D4RW1N; 25th October 2018 at 20:43.
This site sparked my interest in mechanical watches and has enticed me into spending far too much on this hobby..!
Thanks Eddie 😀
About 3 or 4 years ago I was on a KLM flight looking at ways to spend my air miles in the shopping magazine. I spied a Tissot Perpetual Calendar (T0636371603700) watch that really took my fancy.
I didn’t have enough miles to buy it, but a couple of months later I was on holiday in Tenerife and I went searching for it in the numerous dealerships around Playa De Las Americas. In the end I decided I preferred the Tissot Heritage Visodate (T0194301603101). Similar colour scheme, but a more suitable size for my wrist. It looked like a classic watch and had a display case back that I really liked.
That was the starting point. I used to protect it like the Crown Jewels. Then about 4 months later I got myself a Rado True and suddenly the Tissot didn’t seem as precious anymore.
I still have a lot of affection for the Tissot. In the next 5 years or so it will need servicing and when I consider how much I paid for the watch, it isn’t really worth bothering. But it has sentimental value. So I intend to look after it.
Last edited by MDSWATCH; 18th September 2022 at 19:25.
I am 69 and only ever wore a quartz watch for about 4 or 5 years. I wore mainly Omegas until 2014 and since then, only Rolex.
To me a watch is a mechanical device, just like every clock in my house.
I have a long case in the hall, an Elliott in the dining room, and an Everite mantle clock in the lounge, all give excellent service and will never be replaced.
I do have an electric radio alarm but I only use it because I like being woken up by music.
I have a quartz in the Spanish place but its days are numbered.
I am 39 and my schoolmate bought a limited Omega Seamaster Bond for his 30 birthday. And I did the same. I buy one watch every year into my collection since then.
As a kid had always aspired to buy several things throughout my life time as I achieved my goals, no idea why but cars and watches were always in my mind.
Started with a tag carrera at when I got a full time job and since then added a hublot for my 30th, then a Rolex air king at 32. Will probably gradually keep adding to the collection....!
In terms of cars my goal has always been a lambo or Ferrari, very very far away from that dream !!!!
After starting with Citizen eco-drive (Red Arrows edition) and AVI-8 (all quartz), I got into Russian watches and built up a nice collection of Soviet era hand-wound mechanical pieces from Vostok and Raketa, and it went from there. The Russian forum on Watchuseek was really helpful.
When I was a teenager I bought a fake Submariner from a stall in Spain (I knew nothing about watches whatsoever at this point). It had a glass case back, and was really interesting to watch the hairspring bob backwards and forwards.
The thing fell apart pretty quickly and I decided I wanted to know more about watches. At the time the best sources of information were Timezone.com and perusing the Harrods watch department. The Rolex forum on Timezone was pretty aggressive at times, and many Rolex dealers were pretty rude, but whenever I viewed Ulysse Nardin watches people had a lot of time for me.
As soon as I got a job I started buying smart watches, although now I have children I have less spare cash!
I collect watches I like the look of, rather than making a spurious argument as to the history of the brand or the independence of the manufacture.
My wife was much later in to watches, but I would think her buying patterns would reflect the younger generation. She wears a fitbit on one wrist and a nice watch on the other, rotating between a rare (and mildly famous for being smashed https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...mashed+cartier ) red dial Cartier, an OysterQuartz, and an Apple IWatch.
Last edited by funkstar; 26th October 2018 at 10:34.
They sound nice Mick, do you have any pictures? I’m thinking of buying a mantle clock for my office.Originally Posted by Mick P
For me I was about 16 & I read a James Bond novel (OHMSS I think).
Bond had a Rolex & it's what sparked my interest in expensive watches.
The clocks are in the UK and I am in Spain at present.
Do a Google on Elliott clocks, they were the clock that middle England drooled over before quartz came on the market.
Ebay has a good selection.
Mine is a solid brass model and it is good for just a few seconds a week and adjustment is a doddle.
Live and let die..Roger Moore tied up alongside Jane Seymour above a pool of sharks..twisted the bezel of the Rolex..It became a magnet..point the watch towards the knife..the rest is history..saw that as kid in 1973..always wanted Rolex..hopefully February have the money and onto a list
Ernie
When the old man died he had already decided who got what etc, I was privileged to get a absolutely battered old gold Omega Seamaster on a frankly horrendous Nato. It wasn't until I looked through old photos that I noticed he wore it throughout his full 22.
I carried it with me as well when I served but never had the nuts to wear it on the job.
J
Bought my first proper watch aged about 27/28 cost £110 from the little yellow watch shop in clerkenwell, I bought it because a photographer I was assisting at the time had a nice old Omega. The watch in question was a 1950s Omega with Arabic numerals and stainless case. It was stolen in a burglary a few years later after which I lost interest.
Several years later in my early 40’s I was asked to shoot some watches for QP magazine, first job was a trip to the JLC manufacture to shoot the Hybris Mechanica collection culminating in drinking Cristal in the showroom/library/handover room. since then I have been to Patek, Montblanc (Minerva) and Audemars manufactures and handled many other high end watches in the UK from the likes of Lange, Breguet, Cartier and numerous others, in fact the list of those I haven’t photographed is probably a lot shorter than those I have.
So I guess that’s what reignited my interest in mechanical watches.
When I was 18 my Gran gave me a gold (coloured at least) manual wind Seiko Skyliner that had been my Grandad's. Sadly I lost it after about 6 months but it sparked an interest. That was 1987,after that I had digitals until about 1993 when I got one of the first Seiko Kinetics. My dad's wearing it now.
I went onto a Traser but still hankered for a quality watch
After my Gran died I wanted something quality but also stylish & practical so I looked around & settled on a 2007 2254 Seamaster, 1 year old, box & papers for a bargain £895.
I wore the 2254 every day for nearly 10 years, then flirted with CWC. I still have the 2254 but this summer I got a Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch which is now my almost daily wearer, the 2254 gets a run out now and then to ring the changes
Both watches represent everything I dreamed of as a kid but the real pinnacle would be a birth year ('69) 145.022!
When I was about 11, I brought a suitcase containing the spare parts from an independent watchmaker who had retired. I didn’t do much with them, but it kindled an interest in mechanical watches and how they functioned.
When I was about 13 or 14, I brought a large hardcover book that ran through current and historic manfacturers from A to Z and illustrated them with images of watches. That got me more interested in watches.
By the age of 17 I’d saved money from my part-time job to buy a Speedmaster. In the intervening 20 years I’ve had dozens of watches, and my interested has waxed and waned. In general, I don’t ‘collect’ - I buy a watch and sell whatever I had before.
Cheers Mick, thanks. Some nice options and a decent price range.
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