WileyECoyote wrote: ↑Fri Mar 03, 2023 6:18 pm Your article certainly touched on a few chords with me as I will soon explain. Thanks so much for posting the story of your watch journey along with the photos. Like many of our fellow forumites, I started with that first CW & soon went down the watch rabbit hole with another, then another... Like yourself, I had worn the cheaper, mass-produced watches like the Timex expedition models that were functional enough. Operating a highway contract mail route for years, I did need a watch that kept accurate time & Timex watches did that. Interestingly enough, it was a pheasant hunting trip to Montana in which the crown was literally torn from my watch as I walked through heavy cover that served as the catalyst for me to investigate the luxury watch world. At my age & point in life, I had decided that I would rather own a few items of quality that would last rather than settle for less. Thankfully I had been blessed enough that I could afford to buy a nice watch. After reading about how mechanical watches with automatic movements function, I was intrigued. On a whim, I did an online search to see if any watch companies had survived in Britain & Christopher Ward's name was on the list. It didn't take long to figure out that the brand was producing a more affordable watch without sacrificing quality. It wasn't long before I placed that first order for a C60 Trident bronze limited edition & the rest is history.

Here is where your watch journey & mine follow the same paths. Like yourself, I was a fan of the original 1980's Magnum PI TV series starring Tom Selleck. I loved the Hawaiian location footage & the interaction between the series principal characters. And, like yourself, three years ago in early 2020, on a whim I decided to check to see any of the episodes were available to watch. At one time that wouldn't have been possible, but the streaming services have changed the way that we watch television. Sure enough, I found the series & started watching the episodes in the order that they originally aired. There was one particular episode that remained etched in my memory & after nearly forty years, I still remembered the details of that episode! That is saying something because much of the current television shows are quickly forgotten. The one that I remembered opened the fourth season & aired September 29th, 1983. It was titled "Home From the Sea" & told the survival story of Thomas Magnum after the wake from a passing boat knocked him from his sea kayak & the current pulled him out to ocean. The series is a classic in my opinion because it took the time to carefully develop all of the main characters by filling in their backstories. In this episode, Magnum had a tradition of spending the 4th of July holiday at sea in his kayak, so he was not immediately missed by his friends. This is important, the principal prop in this story of survival against time was the Rolex Pepsi that you have mentioned. I remember the watch so well as it was featured prominently in camera shots as Tom Selleck would check the time that he had been adrift as he tried to hold on. The story beautifully told through flashbacks to influential moments from his childhood with his navy pilot father. In my opinion, I thought this episode may have been the best produced of the series & was my favorite. It may have been easy to underrate Tom Selleck as an actor because one might say that he got by on his looks. Not true, he really was & continues to be an outstanding actor. There was that colorful Rolex Pepsi that obviously could take a lot of punishment as it was constantly exposed to sea water during the story. Now, you have me thinking that seeing that watch worn in my favorite television series, maybe a seed was sown long ago that germinated many years later with my Christopher Ward watch journey. Should I blame it on Magnum PI as well? Rewatching that episode after so many years had me wondering. You may have confirmed it!

Delmar