New Watch Day
I've been trying to be more thoughtful with my watch purchases lately, and I'm so happy I have been, as this latest addition to my collection is just stunning.
It was recently my birthday, and now my wife and I are over 40 and been together around half of our lives, we don't really bother with presents. Instead, we just buy ourselves something. This year, my present to myself was a new watch.
When I first started getting interested in watches, I bought every single watch I came across, which has resulted in a very large collection. Now, a few years down the line, I have a much better idea of what I like, so I'm trying to be more thoughtful with my purchases.
I really like vintage automatics. If you have a look in my collection, many of my watches have a somewhat vintage aesthetic. But for my next watch, I wanted something really different. The requirements were:
- Legit vintage watch (has to be older than me).
- Not cost the earth - I'm not into ostentatious tokens of wealth.
- Preferably Swiss or British made.
- Have a unique design.
So for the last year, I've been trawling the internet looking for my next timepiece. I subscribe to Horological Underground and a few months ago I saw this beautiful Tissot Seastar Blue TV. It was perfect and ticked all the boxes.
- Made in 1973 ✅
- Less than £400 ✅
- Swiss made ✅
- Unique design ✅
Problem was, it had already been sold. Gutted that I'd missed the boat, I resigned myself to continue the search.
Then a few days ago, another one turned up, and I wasn't going to let this one escape! It's was a little more expensive than the previous one, but is a 1972 and still has the original Tissot crown, so I think it's worth the extra money. Here's some pics from the Horological Underground site:
I can't say how gorgeous this thing is; the pictures do it no justice. I absolutely love it. I keep staring at it and finding more little details - the beautiful applied indices, the patina on the hands, the applied Tissot logo, the way the outer most number on the date window is ever so slightly taller than the inner number. The brushed effect on the dial, and the brushing on the "TV Screen".
I'm so happy with this thing.
It also came serviced with a 1 year guarantee. So it should keep on ticking for many more years to come. Here's the watch on my wrist:
What's next?
I think I'm going to start reducing the number of watches in my collection ,and continue to be more deliberate about what I purchase in the future. I'm far more excited about this watch, and the watch my wife got me for my 40th last year, than the majority of the rest of my collection. And I think that's a result of my really knowing what I want, and slowing down with my purchases.
I think if I can reduce the collection down to, say, 15-20 watches, I think that will be a good number to manage. It also means that these beautiful timepieces will get more time on my wrist, which is kinda the point of all this.
So I'll be dusting off my eBay seller's account over the next few weeks, and will be putting some watches up for sale. When I do, I'll be sure to post here, as I know there's lots of other watch nerds that read this blog.
In the meantime, I'm going to wear the shit out of this Tissot, and really enjoy it.