To preface this SOTC by saying that, of the watches I had two and a half years ago I have only got one remaining, my Marathon Navigator and two that I have sold and recently repurchased replacements; a C8 MkI Cream dial and C9 2011 FLE. I also have several of my older pieces from my initial STOC.
THE PROLOGUE
For most of my life I've been, like many people, a one watch person.
My oldest watch is a SEIKO Digital Alarm Chrono A158-5050 that, as far as I recall, was bought for me by my parents as a birthday present in my late teens / early twenties. Its still in good working order, although the 'light' button is a bit iffy and it currently needs a new battery (the display is flashing and doesn't show in the photo). I wear it very occasionally.
PS> This does work; just the photo was taken at a time when the battery had gone flat.
I was in the Army for 10 years in my twenties and during this time I predominantly wore an issued G1098 quartz watch.
Thereafter I had a couple of SEIKOs through until Christmas 1990 when my wife bought me a SEIKO Quartz Chronograph SQ100 8M25-603A as a 'Thank you' for looking after her following a bunion operation. This again is in good working order. Having worn it daily for nearly 20 years the links on the bracelet wore out and I was eventually able to get a SEIKO replacement that is close to the original in design.
In the meantime, I resorted to ebay and bought a couple of used SEIKOs to use for daily wear; perhaps this was the start of the slippery slope . . . .
EARLY DAYS
Both my parents passed away in 2011. Around this time, and for a couple of years before, I had begun thinking of getting a 'proper watch' (whatever that defines?) and was attracted to TAG Heuer. Having settled my Mother's Estate in early 2012 I decided to us my share of the value of her car (£3,500) to buy a watch and set about looking at TAGs etc. in earnest particularly a Monte Carlo. I then, thanks to the pages of EVO, discovered Christopher Ward following a short review of the C11 HRDC, went on-line, got a catalogue and thought ' why should I spent my watch fund on one watch when I could buy a couple of CWs and have plenty of change.
I therefore in late May 2012 decided to get a smart, distinguished watch that I could own In Memoriam of my Mother and settled on a C9 Chrono LE with a C11 MSL Black Manta as a slightly more daily watch; although at this stage I still had a couple of daily wear SEIKOs as well.
Moving forward, developing a greater interest in watches and still with funds in my fund, I looked for another CW watch to get and a C40 Speedhawk was my next addition. It was / is a good Motorsport style watch and somewhat similar to a SEIKO quartz Chrono that I had at the time which I wanted to replace. The new price was more than I wanted to pay but, as good fortune would have it, I found one on ebay at a good price.
at the same time, early September 2012 I joined this forum (The Asylum) and the slippery slope got even slippier!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-
THE COLLECTION
OK: let's fast forward to the present day . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . and start with this quick summation from the '10 Quickfire Questions about your Collection' topic;-
Bahnstormer_vRS wrote:Well . . . hold on . . . here goes;-
How many watches currently in your collection: 45(ish)
The most popular brand in your collection and how many: CW = 15
Your current 'best' watch: CW C9 Me109 SPC (or rather MP) #053/100
Your 'regret' watch that you sold and regretted: C11 Makaira Elite
Your 'beater' watch: Casio / Marathon Navigator
Your 'best buy' watch: Elliot Brown Canford Clipper LE
Your biggest disappointment watch: Not got one, or if I had I sold it.
Your most accurate automatic watch: CW C60 Trident Pro COSC
What's your favourite CW model: C60 Trident Chronograph Prototype and CW C9 Me109 SPC (or rather MP) #053/100
Your next watch: CW C8 SH21 Concorde TMB Art LE (with a couple in between perhaps )
Guy
First up, to say that I'm doing this SOTC a bit at a time.
PART I - CW DIVERS
Let's start with my CW Divers, which I keep in a leather CW watch box;-
and the contents;-
The watches are, in order top to bottom and left to right,
C6 Kingfisher Cream dial quartz
C6 Kingfisher Yellow dial Automatic LE - I had a C6 Kingfisher yellow quartz in earlier year but the opportunity to buy this rare Auto LE popped up earlier this year. Its currently on a CW Black / Yellow NATO which I find to be excellent (keep meaning to buy some others).
C6 Kingfisher Black dial quartz - this is currently steadily ticking away, has been for the last three months since I got it, with the seconds hand moving at four second intervals; a sign of a low battery. I'm testing how long it will run in this state before sending it in to CW for a service and new battery.
C6 Kingfisher Blue dial quartz - the start of my Kingfisher quartet, bought in the spring this year from our esteemed antipodean (relative to me) member, gaf1958. Strap is a blue Camo rubber strap from Watchgecko, which has a stepped profile adjacent to the lugs that sits really well against the lugs to give it a fitted look and feel.
C4 Phoenix Silver dial - bit of a rare one this, as it is an early 'Swiss Movt' model (pre Swiss Made era) CW and the welcome letter from Chris Ward is on headed paper from CW's pre Park Street office in Cookham. I've also got the original CW strap with twin pin buckle and another new, unused one. Its currently on a Di-Modell VENEZUELA.
C65 Trident Diver Black dial - I bought this on release by CW and chose the Black dial as 1. I feel it represents the Vintage ethos of the model better than the Blue dial version and 2. the Black dial is more versatile when it comes to matching up straps, for which I feel a NATO is the slam dunk choice.
C60 MkI Trident Pro Chronometer LE (of 500) - classic black / black version with COSC auto movement, bought Nearly New in the recent Summer Sale. Arguably a classic CW and I prefer the matt aluminium bezel, blog hour markers and date at 4:20 to the current ceramic, baton, 3:00 of the MkII Trident Pro 600. It is surprisingly slim with the caseback flat and level with the bottom edge of the case.
C60 Trident Pro 600 Chronograph Prototype #000/100 - aka The Hulk - CW held a Forum and FB Group exclusive sale of Prototypes in the Spring of 2017. Quite a number of unique watches were made available, a majority of which were snapped up in the first 24 hours. This Trident Chrono was though still available after 72 hours or so, when I took the plunge to get it. Why did it not sell earlier? Perhaps it was the style, perhaps it was the price (higher end of CW range) either way I needed a consolidation of five watches to cover the cost.
It is a complete pain to match a strap up to it (maybe that's part of the reason why CW didn't put it into production) and after about six months of many strap changes I gave up and put it back on its bracelet.
However, something still didn't quite gel until the penny dropped that it was the polished centre links that were at odds with the mostly brushed case.
Solution? Brush the bracelet leaving the sides polished to blend in with polished bevel edge of the case.
OK; that's it for now. Part II the CW Aviators to follow.
Guy