Omega

My 1000th post: The Beginning Revisited

 

Many thanks to Art, Graham and Respo for reminding me that my 1000th post was coming up. I wouldn't have noticed otherwise!

 

I'm sure questions like "how did you become addicted" or “what drew you to watches” are asked every once in a while in online and real-life watch collecting communities.

 

My beginning is quite hard to explain. But it has a lot to do with my father and the poor relationship we have always shared. It’s not as if we are not on speaking terms. Let’s just say that we hardly agree with each other and he has this tendency not to speak nicely to most family members and also to openly voice his disapprovals. I felt neglected and mistreated, especially compared to my younger sister who could do no wrong and whose wishes were always satisfied. There were times when I was moved to tears when I saw other fathers and sons enjoying a Sunday in the mall and stuffs like that. I wanted to be those kids. I didn’t want to be treated the way I was. Deep down I knew my father loved me. He just didn’t know how to show his love. And I didn’t know what to do about that. Then the situation worsened in 1997 when the economic bubble bursted and my father had to find another job to fund the operation of his business. I gave up trying to connect with him.

 

But as I finished high school in 1998, I worked up the courage to ask my father for “that gray watch with many orange hands” he used to wear when I was much younger. I remember him taking it off and put it on his desk before he went to bed every night. In more recent years the watch disappeared from sight, only to be replaced by a black Casio analog/digital watch. To my surprise, my father agreed to let me have the watch without hesitance. He even taught me how to wind it by the crown. And so the eighteen-year-old came to be in possession of his first real watch –Omega Speedmaster Professional Mark II.

The Hirsch Carbon strap was put on later. The watch was on a stretched vintage bracelet in a worn out condition. He said he got tired of having to wind the watch every day, and, that the Casio was more practical and water resistant. The Mark II was bought new in the early ‘70s back in when he was in the airlines industry. I can’t remember if he said he bought it in Switzerland or Japan. But it wasn’t bought in my home country that’s for sure.

 

Anyway, back to the eighteen-year-old Ruckdee, who quickly logged onto the Internet to learn all he could about the watch and the Omega brand. The searches led me to a prominent watch discussion forum at that time where I got to know many fine and helpful people including Chuck Maddox and Derek Ziglar (may God rest their souls) and Bill Sohne (thankfully he will be with us for many decades to come). It was there that I learned the differences between quartz and mechanical watches, their pros and cons, and, believe it or not, that “a self-winding watch” is “a watch that winds itself” and not “a watch that I have to wind by myself”. You have to give me some slack here. I started learning English seriously only ten years or so before that time. And even with my broken English I somehow managed to become acquainted with these online friends. My limited understanding of the English language and the western cultures were amicably noted by Chuck Maddox in his Speedmaster Mark Series article < www.chronomaddox.com .html>.

 

One day in maybe 2000 someone started a thread about how we became addicted. And I told this same story about my father and many members came out to express their concerns. The general consensus was that I should at least try to reconcile (which I did for a few years afterwards). Some said their father had already passed away and they missed out on the chance to start anew. I felt sorry for them and I felt sorry for myself. But any attempt on my part proved futile. My father was not open-minded enough to believe that everyone has the right to have a differing opinion. He was angry at everything from where the family dog slept, where my mother hung clothes to where I had my car repaired. When I told him I paid USD 40 for the service of the Mark II, he was furious and said he paid twice the amount for the whole watch in the ‘70s. He wouldn’t listen to the fact that the watch was already worth some USD 1,300 at the time of the argument. Imagine the pain…

 

I value this Mark II very dearly because it is probably the only gift I had from my father. The journey to learn about the watch did not stop there but led me to the acquisition of many watches subsequently. Among them are a few Speedmasters like…

Speedmaster Replica 1957

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Speedmaster Professional Moonphase

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And Speedmaster Professional “sapphire sandwich” which I still have

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My parents are now separated for the obvious reason. I can speak to my father a bit more comfortably now that I know what subjects to avoid, what comments not to make and what information I should not share with him. Best of all I learned that saying “uh ha” in a friendly, approving tone can get me through any unnecessary headache. That’s probably as good as it gets. I wish he came across this post by chance one day and understand how sorry I am about how things turned out to be and how much I care for him.

 

So, to those who are in the same situation with their family members, I wish you better luck. Just let go of whatever grudge you may have and try to do the right thing before it is too late. All the best to all fathers and sons out there. Thanks for reading!

 

Ruckdee

This message has been edited by Dr No on 2009-10-09 09:45:22

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