What started my watch love affair?
Early in my 20's, I use to flip through the pages of my monthly GQ magazine, rarely reading the articles, but rather looking at all of the beautiful pictures of print watch advertisement from the major watch brands like Tag Heuer, Movado, Omega, etc., hoping that one day, I'd be fortunate enough to have one of those beautiful timepieces grace my wrist.
At the tender age of 23, I decided to gift myself a very nice college under-grad present. One day, after staring endlessly at a magazine article for a Tag Heuer Link Diver in gold-tone (pictured), and having a newly minted AMEX card burning a hole in my pocket, I pulled the trigger on the all gold-tone (plated of course), Tag Heuer S/EL Link Quartz Diver, much to the dismay at that time of my Mom, especially after she found out how much I paid for the timepiece, LOL. The watch was a clash of contradictions, a dress-diver; a dress watch that could go from the board room, to a black-tie function, to diving off the Great Barrier Reef. Okay, that's a stretch, but I did think that the watch was aesthetically pleasing, and the watch bracelet, in itself, could stand alone as a fine piece of jewelry.
So, while the Tag definitely wet my appetite for fine timepieces, it didn't propel my collecting bug, but that would soon change. Shortly after purchasing the Tag, I began to look at opportunities to buy limited edition / limited production timepieces online through gray market sellers (off regular retail), for the purposes of reselling them through my Ebay business at that time. I would receive a timepiece, obtained for the purposes of resale, fall in love with a certain design aspect of the watch, and then decide to keep the watch as opposed to selling it; so began my odyssey, or at least a certain comfort level of owning multiple watches. From there, my collection grew as I gravitated to collecting certain watch brands and / or styles. This was further accelerated by the influx of various home shopping TV shows that made obtaining numerous watches on fairly easy payment terms very easy.
I'd say that my collection has definitely matured, as hopefully I have through the years. I pay for all of my timepieces with cash-on-hand, avoiding purchasing watches on credit or payment terms, and I definitely place more conscious effort and thought behind each and every watch purchase now. In contrary, early on in my watch collecting hobby, there were many more spontaneous purchases than not, and flipping (selling) most of my timepieces was the norm. As I have conversed with different collectors over the many watch forums, each collector has their own story behind what sparked their passion and continues to drive that passion today. I'd love to hear your story!
