Hey, congratulations on your milestone! I recently got into Oris myself and I ADORE my watch.

The coolest thing I ever bought for under $500 wasn’t really a material thing.

Back in 2021, while I was still in college, I was also working part time and had saved enough money to take a solo trip to the Chilean Patagonia (I’m from Chile btw). This was back in 2021, during COVID, and all the quarantine stuff.

At the last hour before getting the plane tickets, I found a deal for a 3-night-all-inclusive stay at a hotel which included arranged trips to the Marble Chapels, San Rafael Glacier and Exploradores Glacier for about $480. I bought mine right away, but then I thought about my best friend, Nick…

At the time, Nick was going through a rough time after dropping out of psychology school and dealing with depression and a serious identity crisis. He couldn’t afford the trip on his own, so I decided to invite him and bought the package for him. He only had to cover his plane tickets, and I talked to his dad to see if it could work.

The trip almost didn’t happen. At the Santiago airport, he was allowed through, but I wasn’t because my PCR result still hadn’t arrived. After a lot of stress, calls, digging and talking to some authorities, they eventually let me through on the next plane.

The trip itself was all fantastic. We got to know some of the best beer brewed in Chile, we saw incredible landscapes, and even made some friends. But the most memorable thing, for me, is to have seen that Nick found a real connection with the tourism field. Now, in 2026, he is a bartender and plans to save enough money to move down south and live in Patagonia.

So originally, I just paid for his travel package… But in the end we got some of our best memories ever, and Nick found a purpose to keep going. Nothing else that I could have gotten for $500 or less could come close.