There are a lot of hobbies out there and a lot of collectibles. So how is it that one guy chooses comic books or baseball cards or Impressionist paintings and another guy chooses watches? Well, I can only speak for myself and my own obsession with wristwatches but I wouldn’t be surprised if all of those interests had a common source rooted in our childhood.

For me, the watch enchantment started when I was a kid and my dad and I would take long drives up to his house in Western New York (Upstate, as we always called it, the term Upstaters love to hate). Now this was a long drive in an old red Volvo so it took a bit over 5 hours on a good day. My parents being separated, these road trips had a special magic for me, to spend so much alone time with my dad while he steadily drove northward away from the City. And aside from our talking and catching up, he would invariably hand me his Omega chronograph, which I believe he had got working as an ad man on the brand’s account. It took me some years to remember it correctly but I finally realized it was this one:

A Speedmaster Professional Mark II with exotic “Racing” dial. Continue reading →