A Wristed Development

Every collector has a trail of watches they have lusted after, collected, then later moved on from. My collection is no different — it has had its fair share of casualties due to time and new intrigue. Most of what I have moved on from, I can still appreciate from afar. Heck, I’ve even repurchased a watch that I previously sold, which I caught the bug for again. It’s just part of the hobby — while it would be nice to keep every watch we purchase indefinitely, in reality, this isn’t practical.

08/17/2024 - Well, my friends, we are officially in the dog days of summer here in the Northern hemisphere. It is the time of year when it feels like we have one foot still firmly planted in summer, and the other in the approaching autumn season. I've been trying to make the most of the warm weather while it is still here. Monica and I hit Valley Fair the other weekend, and I went for a long open water swim in Cedar Lake with some friends just yesterday. 

Flights booked, hotel reserved, rental car locked in, gear serviced, 10 dives primed — my only remaining chore is to pack. As many do, I like to procrastinate packing until the absolute last minute. Alas, I sit here, on the penultimate eve of a long overdue spring break to the Florida Keys for two and a half days of scuba diving, ample sunshine, early June Florida Keys heat and humidity, and who knows what else — hopefully, a small sprinkle of debauchery.

Well hey there strangers, it's been a while! The absence of new articles hasn't been intentional, life has just been busy. While I'd love to say I have a good excuse for no articles in the last 12+ months, the reality is that I don't really have one. The good news is that I've got a backlog of articles I'm working on so keep an eye out for more regular posts over the next few months.

Where has the year gone? This is the question I always ask myself around this time of year as we are barreling ever quicker into another holiday season. 2023 has been a year of ups and downs for me. The front half of the year was headlined by a layoff in January, followed by a six-month job search, and finally landing in a great role with a great company. Since June, the tune of life has been markedly more positive than in the first half of the year, and I'm looking to 2024 as a year of unlimited potential.

One of the beautiful outcomes of the digital world is its ability to connect and foster a community for niche interest groups. My first experience with this came, as you might guess, in the form of my watch enthusiasm. However, more recently I got curious about another community — the Everyday Carry (or more colloquially known as "EDC") community. 

Fellow Northerners will commiserate with me, we are truly in the dog days of winter. That ugly time of year when the days drag on, temperatures fluctuate around the freezing point resulting in sidewalks turning into swimming pools by day and skating rinks by night, and roads riddled with potholes. Yes, spring and summer can't come quick enough, but at least our miserable outdoor conditions build some character, right? Right?!?

February in Minnesota is usually the ugly, dark side of Winter. It is often characterized by cycles of bitter cold and temporary ascension above the freezing point which allows for just enough snow melt to turn sidewalks and streets into skating rinks.

Looking back at what came and went from my collection in 2022, I would feel comfortable calling 2022 the "Year of the Dive Watch". As we saw in part one and part two of my SOTC series, I shed a portion of time-only and vintage pieces in lieu of adventure-ready dive watches. The Doxa Army was the only watch I purchased in 2022 that was not decidedly a dive watch. Even then, the Army still had all the necessary traits to take a plunge if called on.

In part one of this series, I mentioned that one watch, the Seiko SPB143, changed the trajectory of my collection in 2022. Indeed, the SPB143 shifted my taste strongly toward dive watches.

"Upheaval" — that's the word that jumps to mind when I think about how the past year has shaped my watch collection. At the beginning of 2022, my collection felt a little out of sorts; lost, and without direction.