We, at MONOCHROME, hardly ever publish so-called “visitor posts” and like to make use of our Collector’s Collection as a platform to share our readers’ adventures with a watch. In the present day, we needed to make an exception. The reason being easy. The story was simply too good to not be shared. It tells a story a couple of watch, one thing extremely private that, in some methods, will converse to loads of us, watch fanatics. This man, whom we are going to name “Sweeny Palms” (as he prefers to stay nameless), spent years looking for his superb watch. Opposite to many tales you’ll hear from collectors in search of vibrant and glossy new issues, Sweeny’s search appeared easy at first, however ended up being an virtually limitless, desperately not possible quest. And right here’s the story of his long-awaited Seiko Sea Horse 7625-8031.
Some watch collectors are dragons, hoarding the glitter for the sheer pleasure of sitting on it. Others are magpies, gathering a bit of of every part to construct a nest the place they really feel secure. The loneliest are the squirrels. They root round on the bottom all day. It seems to be like they’re in search of pine nuts, however pine nuts are in every single place. What they’re in search of is a pine nut-shaped dream, an ethereal superb that they’ve satisfied themselves exists someplace on the huge forest flooring.
A number of years in the past, I changed into a squirrel on a mountain ridge known as Satan’s Spine. It was a sizzling summer time weekend. For hours, I trekked on the naked, rocky mountain with a heavy backpack. My face was caked in dust. Sand wedged between my buttocks. Close to sundown, what was left of me collapsed in a puddle of sweat on my automobile seat. Dwelling was three hours away. I regarded down at my wrist. As an alternative of my watch, there was only a strip of pale, uncovered pores and skin.
The following day, I drove again to the mountain and climbed it once more. I turned over each rock, regarded into each shrub, however all I discovered have been pebbles. Till I misplaced it, I by no means gave my watch a lot thought. After it was gone, it was all I might consider. That night, I went on-line, intending to exchange my misplaced watch with one thing equivalent. It was then that I spotted how little I knew about my watch. I remembered it had a spherical, white face, a metal bracelet, and was in all probability from Japan. My aunt purchased it for me throughout a enterprise journey. I didn’t know its model, its dimension, to not point out its reference quantity.
I assumed that if I ever encountered it once more, I’d absolutely acknowledge it. I scrolled via limitless white, spherical watches on-line. The extra I regarded, the blurrier my reminiscence turned. Infrequently, I’d be satisfied that I lastly discovered it. A way of hope swelled up in my chest, progressively increasing till the day the watch arrived. I’d lower open the cardboard field, unwrap the bubble pack, and inevitably, one thing would go incorrect. The watch can be too broad, too thick, or too heavy. Similar to that, my hope whooshed out and the search began over, once more.
For months, I purchased and returned one watch after one other. To broaden my search, I began frequenting watch web sites, pondering that I’d not solely forage presently accessible watches, however all watches that ever existed or rumoured to exist. On these web sites, watch folks mentioned watches with a warped logic that solely made sense to different watch folks. They claimed watches as an funding, however usually offered their watches at a loss simply so they might purchase extra. Of their quest for one Go Wherever Do Something (GADA) watch, some ended up buying dozens of watches. Others fantasized about having a well-rounded assortment, a watch for each journey in life, however they spent all their journey funds on shopping for watches already.
Most watch individuals are prompted by an obsession to savour the limitless selection the goal watch world has to supply. It’s curiosity that propels them to chase after the gorgeous and the weird. Quite the opposite, I used to be compelled by my very own subjective and unchanging superb of a watch in all watches, my misplaced watch, an object that would not be described, however solely acknowledged. Others checked out watches. I regarded for myself.
In entrance of individuals, I don’t discuss watches. In actual fact, more often than not I wore an inexpensive digital watch, as my work often concerned being elbow-deep in blood and excrement. Late at evening, after I was alone, my face lit up by the laptop computer, I spent hours taking a look at enlarged watch pictures, mesmerized by the blued screws, the pulsating escapement wheel, and glittering steel plates adorned with stripes, spirals and swirling fleur de lis. Every watch is a vigorous microcosm of order, concord, and repose, tucked inside a tiny steel case.
Sooner or later, I ended pretending I used to be nonetheless in search of the misplaced watch. My search changed into a quest for every part I wanted I might get again in my life. I used to be at an age the place my future was now not a clean canvas, however the the rest of a e book that had been put apart. For the third time in 5 years, I left everybody I cherished and have become a stranger in a brand new metropolis. Most of my classmates have households and respectable careers. I used to be working eighty hours per week and barely making greater than a line cook dinner. I by no means acquired over my hump. I simply acquired used to residing on it.
The watches that me have been changing into an increasing number of comparable, like dots on a plot converging towards a clean house. They have been tiny, easy costume watches. I adored silver stick indices on a plain white dial, the considerate association of sharp angles and reflective surfaces, and the impractical class of prioritizing sparkle over legibility. I used to be additionally drawn to broad, dauphine fingers, a design that’s now uncommon as a result of it made no sense to waste battery energy pushing these heavy fingers. Half a century in the past, such watches was once ubiquitous. These days, they’re laborious to search out, particularly one the place all of the options come collectively harmoniously. Some would have the proper dial, however the incorrect hand. One other would tick all of the packing containers however was a number of millimetres too massive. I used to be on a quest for a watch I dreamed up, however I uncared for to verify whether or not it existed within the first place.
Then at some point, an image popped up on an novice British watchmaker’s weblog, a classic Seiko with broad dauphine fingers, easy rectangular indices, and a neat, white face: a Seiko Sea Horse 7625-8031. It was a stoic, fantastically balanced watch, which, till then, solely existed in my creativeness. The watchmaker had overhauled it and was promoting it for the worth of a flowery dinner, and I had nobody to dine with.
In contrast to each watch earlier than it, the Sea Horse didn’t disappoint. I ended taking a look at different watches, as a result of I had discovered what I used to be in search of. On a matte white dial, raised rectangular batons marked the hours, with a double-baton at 12 o’clock and a framed, recessed date window at 3 o’clock. The SEIKO emblem was crisply printed in geometric slab serif. Under, in the identical font, it learn “Water Proof, Diashock 17 Jewels.” I particularly loved the “Sea horse” descriptor. Its funky calligraphy added a component of caprice to the in any other case sterile dial. Regardless of the quite a few particulars, the general look gave an impression of fresh symmetry and easy class, bringing me again to a less complicated time at any time when I gazed at it.
Holding the watch in my hand is a wealthy tactile expertise. With the gentlest tilt of the palm, I might detect the spinning rotor via a refined shift in its weight, adopted by a speedy tug and pull because the rotor oscillated contained in the tiny steel case. I particularly loved operating my finger over its floor, the chilly steel again, bulging just like the stomach of a fugu, and the calming heat of the raised acrylic crystal. With out pondering a lot about it, I wore the watch in every single place I went. It required no safety, simply as we don’t shield specific components of our personal our bodies. The watch was part of me, even earlier than I knew that it existed.
Then one morning, a number of months later, I had a quiet morning to myself. I made tea, sat myself on considered one of my two chairs, and picked up a arithmetic e book. Each time I turned the web page, I heard a wierd, whirring noise. I attempted to disregard it and browse on, however the noise was making it not possible to pay attention. It seemed like somebody rubbing two knives towards one another alongside the sharp edges. I stood up and shook my fleece jacket, suspecting that the zipper was snagged on one thing. There it was once more, whoosh-whir-whir-whir. I shook my fingers within the air, whoosh-whir-whir-whir, and introduced my wrist to my ear. It was the noise of the spinning rotor, which I by no means seen earlier than. I put down my e book, turned on my laptop, and began in search of a white, spherical watch with out a rotor.
The featured picture on the high of this text was sourced from orologi.forumfree.it and made by member “Nike90” – Different photos have been discovered at www.watchpatrol.internet.
