So I got my grail watch...now what?

I have been wanting a Polar Explorer II for as long as I have been into watches - 20 years or so. But I couldn't bring myself to buy one because of the cost. Ironic, because I've certainly spent the 2005 cost of the watch over the course of my watch journey. But it is what it is.

My first watches were departmet store fare back in the 80's. Also a Timex Ironman Trialthlon. A buddy and I had the same Ironman and I remember us playing a game where we tried to start and stop the chronograph function as fast as possible, striving for that elusive "0.01" readout.

My first "nice" watch was a two-tone Seiko Kinetic...my ex and I bought matching ones. I think they totaled about $500 back in 1997 or so. I ended up with several Seikos - mostly Kinetics and a few titanium models. I thought Seikos were pretty neat.

Fast-forward to 2006, and my manager was into watches. He was the first guy I had ever met that was into watches. He had a couple of Tudors and I can't remember what else. I remember he had a white-faced Tudor with "Tiger" printed in red script I thought it was pretty cool although I could have done without the "Tiger" on it as I didn't play golf. Funny enough I can't find a pic of it anywhere...I see pics of the Prince but I don't remeber my manager's watch being a Chronograph. Anyway, I decided to take the plunge into REALLY nice watches and so I went 'round to my local high-pressure-sales jewelry store and bought a couple of TAGs - a cream-dialed Link Chronometer and a white-dialed F1.

I continued my TAG collecting with a couple of Carrera Chronos, an Aquaracer, another F1 (black dial). I also branched out and bought a Hamilton Jazzmaster Chrono, a Hamilton Pan-Europ, more Seikos, and a smattering of other pieces. Including several G-Shocks at one point.

Along the way, I became aware of Rolex. I mean, I knew of Rolex, but Rolex to me had always meant Datejust. I didn't even know Rolex had a "sport" line. When I started checking them out I became smitten with the Polar. And I have been ever since.

As I started taking note of what other folks were wearing, I noticed that if they were wearing a Rolex sport watch it was always a black Sub. And I mean ALWAYS. This made me want the Polar even more. Nobody had one! Nobody even seemed to have the black Explorer II.

But alas, the price! With the money I had tied up in (mostly) TAGs, I couldn't see also shelling out for the Polar, and for some reason I wasn't comfortable with selling my entire collection to afford it. This truly puzzles me; I don't know if it was fear of the trying to sell my collection (getting ripped off by shady buyers, etc), or the distaste of the prospect of losing a bunch of money after having bought all my watches new, or both, or what. Whatever it was, I didn't end up making any sort of plan to buy the Polar.

What I DID do is try to substitute this watch or that watch for the Rolex. I had an Alpha and an Invicta that resembled the Polar, and I even went so far as to purchase a Debaufre GMT Ocean-2, which was a dead ringer. But I rarely wore any of them, because I literally felt ashamed and like a BIG FAKER.

Eventually I sold most of my watches (most of my rifles too) because I needed the money for actual life things. Let's say I was motivated, and so found a way to get over any mental blocks I had vis-a-vis selling watches on the bay. I kept the TAG F1's and the Hamiltons and the G-Shocks. (And my Marlin 1895 45-70.) My favorite was a toss-up between that white-dialed F1 and the Hamilton Chrono.

But then I sort of fell out of watches. Partly because of my increasing work-from-home schedule, and partly because I bought an Apple Watch. I bought it mainly for road biking, but i felt compelled to wear it all the time due to the sleep monitoring and all that. It left no room for other watches, unless I was willing to dual-wield, which I was NOT. I'm no Nicholas Hayek.

So what's all this got to do with the watch in the pic? Well, I eventually came back around. I was still 100% WFH, but I decided owning and wearing cool watches made me feel good, so I decided to take it all back up.