Hi everyone, saw Nick's post on FB earlier and thought it might be nice to check in!

How has the pandemic treated you? Are you doing well? Have you got any new watches?

Hope you're all doing great ^_^

Heya all!

Probably about time I said hello since I signed up for this wonderful forum. I'm based in Droitwich in the UK but have moved around a bit within the midlands. Just ask Harlan - he'll tell you how great the midlands is ;)

I'm based working from home as a Cisco contact centre engineer. I basically design and build "press 1 for sales, 2 for stuff" for big companies and yes, it really is that boring. I'm 36, have a 3 year old son, and a wife who is not particularly accommodating of our mutual hobby.

I've been into horology since around 2014/2015 and my first real piece that wasn't an Accurist or Rotary Argos special was a Tag Heuer Monaco. I'm a frequent visitor to the 24 Heures du Mans and as you can guess, that particular timepiece resonated with me bigtime. Step forward a few years and will happily discuss the torque curves of mechanical powertrains or the use of silicon in movements.

Over the following years I've made all the usual mistakes of horology collection. Collecting the "dress watch, dive watch, etc"; having a table full of watches I don't care about or wear, and buying absolute tat. Nowadays I have a Speedmaster, a HudsonTime Longines Conquest, and a Vacheron Constantin Overseas Gen 3. I do have a few other bits and bobs which I like in their own ways but they generally don't get much wear.

During CoVID-19 lockdown I painted a lot of rooms in the house, cut the grass a fair bit, and decided to set up a Vacheron-specific website that focuses primarily on history - European history is a big interest for me. It's small fry at the moment but given a bit of effort I hope to turn it into something I can be proud of.

Big love to the MDWE massif.

Michael.

Been a member since 2019. Livin in the philippines. Making pesos as a dentist. Been into watches since 2017. Since early days of college had a seiko diver since i used to dive. Then got other watches that i thought was "good" This longines i bought as a pick me up cuz my marriage officially ended back in 2018. It meant a new beginning for me. Now in the days of CORONA, had to close one of my clinics permanently. Now ill have to rebuild. Since the day i joined, i loved what i learned. You dont pull punches here its straight up. Thanks brothers!

Hey fellas. From Sydney Australia. My watch interest came from two things really. First watching James bond movies. Second is probably always seeing my grandfather wearing one. He migrated here from italy when my mum was 4. He was a bricklayer and the watch he had you couldn't even see the dial it was that scratched but he always wore it. Got two kids who spend most of my watch funds. I love a good whiskey or bourbon.

Hi everyone, I'm from Nova Scotia, a province of Canada on the Atlantic coast. About an hour by air to Boston. Halifax, our capital has very strong historical ties Boston through the seafaring and fish trade. I am actually in the fish business myself. I've liked watches a hell of lot since childhood but I fell in love with watches only about 20 years ago. Then I fell in love again once I was exposed to vintage. I love this hobby. Love the sea by sail or power. Love good music and have a solid collection. Into comics as well with a solid collection. I like a puff here and there, whisky, wine and beer! I love this group. Amazing knowledge. So much to learn. Fantastic content and watches. Crazy people!! Be safe people and come to Nova Scotia in the summer or fall some time when the Covid crap is over. Cheers, Nevin

Hello.

My name is Ian Templeton.

I live in New Zealands South Island.

I’m new to watch collecting and just learning.

I’m 52 years old and my history is in motorcycle race mechanics. I love tinkering with mechanical things. I really enjoy taking something that’s destined for the scrap and fixing it up.

When I was about 7 my uncle gave me a new watch for my birthday. A simple Yema. I still have it, still love it and still wear it regularly.

When I turned 18 I inherited my Dads Seiko Automatic. He had hardly worn it. It was brought for him by my mum in 1973 as he had cancer and could no longer wind a watch. Unfortunately he also could not move enough to work the automatic wonder. A quartz would have been better. This watch is a link to both of them and I cherish it.

These 2 watches were all I wore for years.

Along the way I wanted a rugged waterproof watch and since I had such a good experience with my Yema I brought a Yema Sea Spider in 1999. It’s taken a hiding over the last 20 years so it got a decent service last month. It’s great to have it back.

In the last year I have stepped away from motorcycle competition and found myself in need of a new hobby.

I started looking at watches and realised that im drawn to the classic styles from the 1950s and 1960s so thats where I’m focusing.

I’m looking forward to learning new skills and slowly building a collection that suits my taste and style.

Thanks for inviting me into the community.

Frrrrrooooom west Philadelphia born and raised... Oh wait, that's the Fresh Prince....

I'm originally from Boston (no, I don't have the accent) but now live in Seattle collecting watches and enjoying life. I developed an interest in watches at an early age. I remember begging for a Timex Iron Man when I was 8 and I loved it. as I got older I went through the usual gammet of luxury watches, bouncing from Rolex, to Patek, to Lange, to Cartier, and everything in between. In 2017, I bought my first vintage watch, a Tapestry dial GP Gyromatic with an observatory logo. I was hooked. I bought it from someone who purchased it at Hudsontime. I was super impressed with the quality and condition of the piece, so I reached out to Dennis and Nick quickly to get my next piece...

Well, 30+ vintsage GP's later, I can honestly say I've left modern pieces for good. Yeah, there will always be one or two modern pieces, but my heart is now definitely with vintage, and specifically vintage GP's.

Outside of watches, I also have an interest in tech, and also film photography (quite the juxtaposition, isn't it?).

Anyway, I'll leave with a picture of a 39J Gyromatic that has to be one of the cleanest all original vintage watches I've ever held. I almost don't want to wear it... almost.

Hello All, I'm Jason from NYC. Originally grew up on Long Island, went to school and lived in Pennsylvania for 4 years, moved to Westchester County for some years and now reside in Astoria Queens. I started to only realize my love for watches over the last few years. Since a kid, I was always fascinated with watches and apparently was always checking out my grandfather's watches when he would wear them. My father is not much of a watch guy so I never was fully exposed to much of a watch education. A little over 4 years ago, I joined a really succesful company where I'm suronnded by incredibly succesful and wealthy people (big fish small pond / small pond big fish situation) and have made myself home there. From working here, I began to educate myself on watches and the history/brands behind them. Being surrounded by these people wearing their Rolex's, Pateks, and APs really got me into it. I'm in a sales position so I'm always grinding and looking for more. I am a huge sports fan and follow football, baseball and boxing/mma the most. I am a HUGE Jets fan (sad life) and have season tickets so if anyone goes to games let me know. My other hobbies include traveling, going out to eat good food, good drinks, and spending time with family/friends. I also play too much COD Warzone ha. I came into this group with Uncle C in old vintage watches and calling out a redial and have learned a lot since then. My favorite watch is not the most expensive but is my grandfather's Bulova Accutron Astronaut which he left to me when he passed in January. Second favorite right now is the one I just purchased from Hudson Times, a nice Zenith.

Greetings from the London Borough of Brent in the not so soon United Kingdom. I work for a Disability charity saving them money in maintaining their extensive property portfolio. I also have a hand in a property management and consultancy business providing serviced residential accommodation and commercial building compliance & health and safety advice for retail organisations and local authorities. My first serious watch watch an Oris and it has only gone to grow exponentially. From Zenith, IWC, JLC, Grand Seiko and your Rolexs' and Omegas' between. I like us all like watches. Other than watches my personal interest include: Oktoberfest in Munich Spending at least 10 days of year in The Netherlands. That's not a consecutive 10 days either and no it not always Amsterdam. Small batch Scotch. Current recommendation is the Balblair 1994 casking bottled in 2015. Look forward to the free speech platform that the internet provides

Obrigado José. :)

My name is Fernando Gomes Semedo and I am living in a small Canadian town called Sault Ste. Marie. I am the son of immigrant parents that came to Canada from Portugal. I have a place in Coimbra, Portugal and I try to spend as much time as I can there. Eventually, I want to move to Portugal permanently. I studied computer science as my undergraduate. Although I loved studying the subject matter, I soon found that I hated working in the computer industry. I went back to school and graduated from teachers' college in 2000 and I'm currently working towards a master's degree in Education. I've taught math and computer science in high schools for 4 years, then I became the technology lead teacher for our school board and ran the our e-learning program for 6 years. For the last 10 years, I've been a guidance counsellor for mature students over 18 that are returning to school to get their high school diploma. I counsel 375 to 400 mature students/year in 5 adult schools and the local penitentiary.

I love photography. I've been photographing since I was a teenager. I process all my film at home and still have a darkroom. However, I usually print digitally from scanned negatives as I have grown sensitive to the chemicals. I can manage processing film but I have a difficult time with chemicals in open trays when printing. I also enjoy cooking (and eating). I love studying anything about Portuguese history and culture. I used to be heavily into cars. I used to participate in CASC Solo-1 when I lived in southern Ontario attending university. But it became extremely expensive and when I moved to Sault Ste. Marie, there was only drag-racing or circle-track. I still like cars but I admire them from afar.

My mother was the person that got me into watches and Omegas. I was always fascinated by her solid gold Omega since I was a child. She wore it almost everyday of her life and took great care of it. She would have it serviced every time she went to Portugal at the AD where it was originally purchased in 1960. (Our family has been going to the same AD/jeweler in Coimbra for 4 generations - they are like family.) I used to wind my mother's watch for her in the morning when I was little. My mother was also fiercely loyal to the brand. When I purchased a Longines Master Power Reserve as my first "serious watch," she slapped me! Our family has always favoured Omegas one generation to the next.

My father had a matching solid gold Omega too but in 1977, a crooked watch dealer convinced him to trade it for a gold-plated Certina. My father thought that the Certina was also solid gold. My mother was always angry at him for trading in his wedding watch and for being duped. The gold plating on the Certina started pealing about a year after he purchased the watch and after that he wore a number of inexpensive watches throughout his life, all of them overtly large. My mother called his watches "cebolas grandes de merda," which translates to "big onions of shit." In 2000, I went to the AD with my father and he spotted a new gold De Ville that looked very much like his old watch and he purchased it. A few days later he surprised my mother by wearing it at dinner. She was delighted with the watch and all was forgiven. After dinner while enjoying a (digestive) brandy with my father, he took it off his wrist and handed it to me. It was my graduation present from him.

My parents' watches:

My uncle also has a pre-moon Speedmaster. It was his first purchase after landing a job at Ford in 1970, where he worked as an engineer for 40 years. I can't tell you how many times he told me the story of the Moonwatch when I was a kid. That watch was passed down to his son, my cousin Joel.

Since my father gifted me his De Ville in 2000, I've been collecting Omegas. I have a collection of 15 Omegas; from 1933 to 2014. I was lucky to buy the majority of them when they were cheap. Some watches are not up to the MDWE standards, I'm afraid. Early on I purchased a few redials with re-lumed hands... fortunately nothing too crazy (except for maybe my Speedmaster). 15-20 years ago, there wasn't much info online and I had different priorities as a buyer. However, I marry my watches for better or for worse. I love them just the same. I enjoy wearing them everyday. and I don't plan to sell any of them. (If I did, I would do so with full disclosure.) Of course, originality is now very important to me.

My favourite watches are, of course, my mother's watch first, my father's watch second and my grandfather's Axod pocket watch third for sentimental reasons. But after those, my favourites are an Omega Cosmic ref. 2471-5 with Portuguese date, an Omega De Ville ref. 14101067 with the cal 321, and my Omega Seamaster Cermet ref. 396.0945 aka the Black Tulip.

Dennis and Nick, thank you for creating this resource for us. Dennis, thank you for inviting me to MDWE.

Hey guys Gareth here from Warrington, England Hobbies: Travel whether it's city breaks, long haul adventures, beach holidays doing fuck all I'm interested. Keeping active, playing and spectating in sports. Was a pretty okayish amateur rugby player for 20 years, now I Arm Wrestle for a club called Leigh Pulling Power which houses some of the pound for pound strongest guys in the country (I'm a pussy compared to most of them) but it's good way to let a bit of steam off without going into work black and blue most weeks. Love Italian food, culture, way off life and I'm learning the lingo a little bit too. Favourite watch I own is this watch pictured, it's my first HT peice bought in Jul 19 and the watch I'll wear on my wedding day Oct 2020. Favourite watch I dont own but will is a JLC master 8 day perpetual calendar (not sure when but it'll happen). Dream watch, dont have one. I prefer to focus on what I can get my hands on now or in the not so distant future with a bit of time and effort.

Thanks for allowing me to be part of this great endeavor guys. This is going to be an epic year for me as I am recently retired in January from a career in medicine, no not a doctor. That means that money will be a whole lot tighter than it has been. Its all good though. I've got a really great piece coming to celebrate my retirement in less than a month time.

I also have a bunch of other hobbies to keep me occupied. I am looking forward to doing some of the things that I haven't had time to enjoy during my working career, such as tying flies, fly fishing, wood working etc. A bunch of stuff on the bucket list including meeting Nick in March....I really want to meet the rest of the HT family too one day, but Nick is going out of his way to make this happen!

Perhaps my favorite watch is a cliche, my Rolex. But I've really developed a soft spot for GP, Omega and Zenith thanks to HT. I really love 70s cushion cases. Thanks to these guys I have built a modest collection of beautiful watches in very short order that includes GP, Zenith, Omega, and Bucherer as well as lesser brands.

As in life, mediocrity is adequate for most people. I'm pleased to have met a group of people who eschew mediocrity and only accept excellence.

Hi guys, I am from New Delhi. Been here basically all my life. Regimented upbringing thanks to my dad who's a retired Navigator from Indian Air Force. Done my schooling in science and maths but my first love was art. I enjoy painting and studying it. Took up casual photography to supplement the the art as that takes up a lot of time and space which I do not have. Photography for me is instant gratification. Professionally I am a commercial pilot flying the A320s in Air India. Started my flying training in '97 and been at it ever since. As far as watches are concerned, I started collecting HMTs after a pilot friend of mine gifted me an HMT Pilot which piqued my interest in the brand. These captured me for their old world charm. Eventually I organically gravitated toward vintage watches of foreign brands. I do own a few hundred watches and try and rotate them periodically. Believe it or not, I have been a part of MDWE since it's inception and learnt and enjoyed being a part of it. Uncle C and Brother D have now become good friends and vintage watch mentors so to say! I know i dont have to say more about these guys ad you all already know. I don't have a favourite watch as I'm not built monogamous.😉. But a lil birdie tells me 2 HT pieces may just fit the bill. It'd be great to know you guys better so fill this space up. Cheers

Hi! I'm located either in Japan or Norway, currently in Norway but moving back to Japan in April. About me.. I quit after my first year of high school and moved to Japan to study Japanese and practise martial arts. I've competed professionally in submission grappling and plan to have my professional MMA debut towards the end of the year or in 2021. My hobbies include freediving, spearfishing, cooking, movies and as the filthy weeb I am; anime. I've been a watch fanatic since I was 12 and I'm currently wearing a Grand Seiko SBGA001. My favorite brands are Seiko, JLC and Omega. I'm glad to be off the pc nightmare that we call Facebook and look forward to the discussions here.

Hi guys, I'm in the UK and am from a town just south of Bristol called Weston-super-Mare, which is based in the south west of the country where cider comes from! I like where I live very much and value being near the seaside, but I know that the town isn't what it used to be. Sure it's been done up over the years but there are more and more old folks homes and charity shops here which makes me sad as there aren't many things to do locally, so I have to travel.

What can I say about myself? Well, I'm a univeristy student studying Banking & Finance, technically in my 4th year as I failed one of my last modules which upset me greatly. Happily that module (investment management) was shit and I'm enjoying my financial crime studies a lot more.

Most of my hobbies revolve around watches, whether it's writing about them, talking about them looking at pictures of them or ripping on idiotic owners of watches. Outside of that I like to travel around, take pictures, I'm a black belt in Taekwondo, a morris dancer of 12+ years and I love to cook as well which passes the time.

My favourite watch is my 126710BLNR, which I wear most of the time, but I really love my Seamaster Aqua Terra as well as it's nicely understated, though it needs a service soon.

Great to be on the forum and not get watched by the overlord zucc!