I have been a watch-wearer for probably fifteen years plus, ever since I was given my first watch as a little kid (I think it was a Christmas present when I was about eight or nine). But from then up until a couple of weeks ago, I was always just a one watch type of guy. I had my one watch that I wore and it was the watch I wore every day. Then, in anticipation of my upcoming trip, I decided to get a new watch, mostly because the watch that I had been wearing every day holds some sentimental value (which you can read about below) and I didn’t want to risk it getting lost or stolen. So, deciding that I wanted to really do my research and make the best choice I could, I started looking into watches. What a rabbit hole that was.
As I said, I was more of a one watch guy. Not strictly for any reason, just because it, I guess, was in line with my mother’s sensibilities (I got my watch-wearing side from my mother – my father, to my knowledge, has never worn watches), and I had never considered otherwise. Over the years I had only owned three watches, and each time I got a new one it replaced my old one as the watch I wore every day. I can tell you most assuredly, this has changed.
I’ve always loved watches. I’ve always been fascinated by them. A couple of years ago I dabbled in horology (not excessively, and interestingly, without ever really considering the watch side of things) and you’ll see the influence it has had on me if you ever read my book. So the effect my diving headfirst into the watch world just recently has had on me, I think, was inevitable, and I’m only surprised it never happened sooner.
So, I was looking at watches and trying to find the best watch for what I wanted and in the end I got two. I’ll explain them both in more detail below, along with my other watches, but in essence I got the first watch, which was an automatic (meaning it’s a mechanical watch that charges with the movement of your hand thanks to an incorporated rotor) and from the moment I held it in my hands, saw the movement, heard the faint ticking… I was gone. I don’t know if I’ll ever get another quartz watch, not because they’re particularly bad in any way (I mean, I’ve used quartz watches for the last decade-and-a-half), but simply because they’re not mechanical. It’s the romance, the technology, the human ingenuity that a mechanical watch encompasses… I’m just sold. I love it.
Let’s rewind a moment and go through my collection. Here’s a picture of it, almost in its entirety. Excuse the photography.
As you can see, at this point it can only be called fledgling, but I expect it to grow over time. I’ve managed to rein myself in from going crazy and buying a bunch of watches straight away, mainly because I’m trying to conserve as much money as possible for my travels, and let’s be honest, watches can get pricey.
Like I said, this is almost its entirety. The first spot is left open for my first watch, which should be in storage back in Australia. I say should, because my mother went through my stuff and got rid of some of it without consulting me, and I don’t know exactly what she got rid of. I’m hoping my watch wasn’t one of those things, and that I’ll be able to retrieve it sooner or later, because obviously it’s a special watch for me. It’s just a cheap, simple little watch, but I wore it for years and it’s worth as much if not more to me than any of my other watches.
My next two watches are both Citizen watches. The one on the left is a Promaster that I’ve had for… probably ten years, maybe a little more. It’s actually a windsurfing watch (not that I’ve ever been windsurfing), and not exactly worth much these days, but again, it’s value is definitely in sentimentality for me. My mother bought me this watch when I needed a new watch for some reason, I don’t remember specifically why (maybe I just wanted a new watch, even), about two or three years into high school (I would have been thirteen or fourteen). I still remember going to the jeweller’s down at the local shopping centre with her and picking it out. I wore it through to the end of high school and then for several years afterwards, until I eventually replaced it with the Citizen on the right, an Eco-Drive watch. This is the first watch I bought for myself, when I was on a cruise in the Caribbean with my family at the end of 2014, and it was my daily wear watch ever since, up until two weeks ago. It’s pretty nifty, because it’s solar-powered and radio-controlled, so it charges by being exposed to light and every night it receives a signal that keeps its time perfectly accurate. Since I got it I’ve never had to correct the time, nor has it ever stopped running. But to me it will always be my Caribbean cruise watch.
So that’s the old, now on to the new.
The first watch that I got, the one that has, for all intents and purposes, changed my watch future, is the one on the left, a Hamilton Khaki King. After searching for a watch and giving up on finding exactly what I was after in the price point I was looking at, I ended up going for the Khaki King because I like the way it looks, I like the simplicity of it, I love the day-date complication and its placement, and I felt like it would suit me for my travels. After having it for about a week I changed my mind on that last point, mainly because I like it so much and with only 50m water resistance it’s a little less robust than what I’m comfortable with – I have no idea what I’ll get into on my travels, but I don’t want to worry about my watch if there’s water involved. For example, 50m resistance can just about handle a shower, so I decided to keep looking for something that matched what I wanted in a travel watch. And I found it.
The watch on the right is a Christopher Ward C60 Trident GMT 600. It’s a dive watch, rated to 600m water resistance (which is insanely high, six times as high as what I would have settled for), and a GMT watch. That means it has the extra orange hand that shows the twenty-four hour time, and can be set independently of the main hour hand so you can keep track of a different time zone. Also, as you can see from the picture, the bezel has the twenty-four hour markings going around it, and I’ve rotated it so that the dial’s twelve aligns with the bezel’s seven. Right now the GMT hand is set to London time (right now GMT+1 due to daylight savings), the same as the main hands, since I’m still in the UK, but once I’m travelling I’ll set the main hands to the local time and leave the GMT time at UK time so I know what time it is ‘back home’. And by setting the bezel at seven hours ahead (GMT+8) I can also see what time it is in Perth, Australia, which is where I’m originally from and where most of my family still lives. So with this one watch, I can keep track of the time wherever I am as well as the time in both places that I’m likely to want to contact, which is one of the things that was on my list of things I wanted.
In fact, it checks off most of the boxes on my list. The one thing I wish it had is a day-date function, rather than just a date function, since I’m pretty sure I’m going to forget what day it is now that I don’t have a working week to help me keep track of it (and I think keeping track of the day is going to be pretty important, mainly when it comes to opening times and days of attractions and shops and stuff) but in the grand scheme that’s a minor quibble and I’m sure I’ll be able to keep track of the day myself anyway. Other than that, I like the look, I love the wave dial, I like the features, I like that it’s a GMT that didn’t cost me an arm and a leg like most would, and I like the fact that it covers everything I was looking for in a travel watch.
I think I’ve rambled long enough. I intend to write a review of how the Trident does on my travels, but that obviously won’t be for some time, since I have to have those travels first. If you’re a watch geek, let me know what you’ve got in your collection in the comments below. And if you’re not a watch geek, for starters, well done on making it to the end of this post, and secondly, watches are cool, you should check them out.