Poll: What started your interest in watches?

[TickTock]

I saw this question asked on another site and was amazed at the various responses and comments. I though it would be interesting to see the different ways our members came to this interest.

I'll leave the poll run 7 days. Afterward I will post a link to the original poll if permissible.

Please feel free to comment on your personal journey in addition to the limited poll options.

[ndtaan]

My mum gave me my first watch when I was 10.
It's Mido with a date window,white face and red numeric and a metal bracelet.
She gave it to me at around 7pm in our garden when she came back from work.
I remember I was ECSTATIC!! Not so much with the watch at first but the fact that my mum trusted me with an "adult" thing.
And that started the interest in watch as I begin to notice there are all kinds of dials and shapes colors.......and I'm hooked for life

[TickTock]

Great story. i wish I could remember my first watch but I really was not interested in them most of my life. I had the assortment of Timex watches most of my life as my job was never compatible with a nice timepiece.

My first nice watch was a gift from my wife in the mid 1970's. It is a Seiko DX automatic gold filled watch with a faceted "disco ball" crystal and golden-brown dial. Very nice and I was proud of it. I still have the watch and although I haven't worn it for 20-25 years, it was still running when I put it away. Its currently with my son stored at his house in the USA along with my fathers Boluva. I haven't seen this watch in years. I need to take a look at it next time I'm back in the US. 

I bough a nice (for me) simple quartz Tissot from Watatime in 2001. Stainless steel with blue dial, 3 hands with date. It was stolen about 4 years later. I was 55 years old at that time. I replaced it with another Timex and eventually bought a Luminox in 2011.

I finally bought another automatic  in 2014 after being tutored by a friend/coworker on nice timepieces. It is a Panerai 164. I bought it preowned in the USA and it stayed there.

After buying the Panerai, I purchased a Breitling Avenger II Seawolf in Seoul in 2015.  I then bought a Breitling Avenger Aeromarine chronograph and a Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Double Retrograde again in the USA and they joined the Panerai waiting for me to collect them. 

In February this year I finally had a friend hand carry the Panerai, Breitling and ML to me. So it was like getting a box of watches incoming at the same time. I basically went from 1 automatic watch to 4 overnight. It was fun trying to figure out which to wear first. Unfortunately the Panerai strap was too short and I didn't get a replacement for it until this August.

So I now have 3 automatics and one manual wind in rotation of what I would call nice watches. Hopefully this month another manual wind I ordered in August 2015 will arrive although I don't have confirmation it will ship this month. I'm hopeful it will make it after the 14 month wait. Currently the Panerai is my favorite in the rotation but they all see some wrist time.

[DNA2]

Watch to me is time keeper, as long as it tick / blink, I am ok.

After age 35, financially more freedom, and start to look ard. Been heard about exciting story and figure abt watch world, and I thinking to start one. First is 1k Tissot PR200, most common piece and very entry Swiss.

Then other interests surfaced like MTB, radio control car, camera etc, which I drift away from MwF. Due to outdoor activities I engaged, I did ad a Garmin runner and Protrek in my waist.

And, something caught my heart years back, Jason in Transporter with his IWC.

So here I am back to MWF, learn and hunting again~

[meoramri]

First watch was when I was 8/9.....then another ....age 12.....a gift from parents when reaching 21.....gift from wife age 29...bought my first age 40....when went totally mental since then 

[Jedirat]

Owned my first watch during my primary school time, an Orient gifted by my father. But I have no appreciation of the beauty of the watches when I was young only when I have received my first pay cheque and accidently shown a Rolex adv. in a watch magazine by a friend of mine.

Since then, all was history.....haha...

[ndtaan]

First watch was when I was 8/9.....then another ....age 12.....a gift from parents when reaching 21.....gift from wife age 29...bought my first age 40....when went totally mental since then 

Late blommer

[meoramri]

First watch was when I was 8/9.....then another ....age 12.....a gift from parents when reaching 21.....gift from wife age 29...bought my first age 40....when went totally mental since then 

Late blommer

Watch puberty came late for me 

[TickTock]

The poll closes Friday so I just wanted to a a heartfelt thank you to those who participated.

For those of you who shared your comments and experiences, I appreciate you taking the time and effort to share your stories. Your path to this interest is inspiring to some one like me who started very late.

Kind Regards,

[Cocas]

The first Swiss made watch that luring me into this watch collection frenzy was because of this CYMA watch that I acquired in1994 (if I remember correctly).
http://www.malaysiawatchforum.com/index.php?topic=16872.0

[TickTock]

The below link is the original poll on how people got started in collecting. This provided the idea to start a similar poll here on MWF.

Thanks all.

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/ask-audience-how-first-interest-watches/

[mnazri.tan]

Went to china, bought a few replica feel good...then start reading article about horology, got smitten with the world, then realised that the replica is actually shit (now with new knowledge and view) bought Invicta, then homage, then learn about movement...i am hooked for good..start seiko. The rest is history


Sent from my Lenovo P70-A using Tapatalk

[turinbrakes]

Oh yea...Fidel Castro & his rolexes 

[gchee]

I owned a couple of Tags in my early twenties, didn't really think much about horology world, just wanted a reliable quality watch at that time. Bought my first Rolex at 34 and since then have been adding more watches to my collection and its still growing today.

[fuzzy]

It was a fake AP, surprisingly. Obviously I had no idea back then as a tween, I was just fascinated by the movement (the naked couple that did a thrust every time the second ticks doesn't hurt either!) and it led me to read and learn more about how we approach and craft such great manner of ways to essentially solve the same question, how do we tell time.