I consider myself very lucky to have the possibility to dedicate some resources (time and money) to what I believe is today my strongest (and most dangerous) hobby: horology. And honestly, I sometime feels embarrassed about that. I mean, I don’t have a family tradition that led me into watches neither I have any close friend that is into watches. Which makes me more difficult to explain them (and sometimes to myself too) why I spent 8K for a Submariner or even worst, 27K for a gold Daytona. And I have tried many different explanations but the one that apparently is more accepted, guess what that is? “It’s an investment piece” lol. (I personally don’t believe that, and I hope my wife is not reading this).
Everything started when I joined the adult world with my first job. I was 24 joining the Big Pharma world, and I remember wearing a wewood watch. I don’t even remember if that was a quartz watch or automatic one.
I think everyone has been enlightened or inspired by someone at work. Someone that you admire and somehow you want to mimic and copy in they way he speaks, talks, laughs (pooped lol, not so further though).
And that guy became for me my mentor.
Storytelling is a very attractive way to capture dreams, crystallize ambition and shape your own perception. He was damn good in that. I believe he’s actually the first guy that mentioned the word “investment” when it came to watches. I recall he was wearing a 16610. And how beautiful that was. I couldn’t of course afford a Submariner at that time. Actually when I think that in 2012 you could find a Sub at 3K…man how beautiful the worlds was.
So I instead decided to buy a ToyWatch, basically a replica watch of the Sub in a flashy blue color. And I carried it with pride for at least a couple of years. Every time and everywhere.
I remember coming back from summer vacation. My mentor was crazy tanned in the classic italian fashion, and he was wearing a crazy weird octagonal watch. And that watch was even weirder while I was looking at it closely. I remember the white dial had those little squares (now I would call them petite tapisserie)and no seconds hand. I was really in schlock. What the heck? Was it broken?
(Little disclaimer here for those horology snobs. Yes, exactly. I was a newbie. I didn’t know you could have a watch without seconds hands. Happy now?)
The color of the dial was emphasized by the color of his brown tanned skin. It was awesome guys!
“It’s an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak”. Yes people. The famous Genta designed that goes under the reference 15202. “I sold my sub, and traded for this adding a bit of cash”. He stated.
Guess what I did immediately after? Google came to help and an entire world opened up. The Holy Trinity was just in front of my face.
At that time, I was more into soccer and running. But late in the night, a tiny little itching was arising. My first symptom.
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Ciao,
A.
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