Sometime last week, I entered a contest on a watch website I frequent,
www.watchuseek.com. On that forum, I've become a frequent poster in F71, otherwise known as the
Affordable Watches forum. Every once in a while, when a member hits a milestone of posts about watches (it's up to the poster), they'll do a contest.
In this case, a member named KrisOK started a
contest where the prize was a Citizen NY2300 automatic diver watch with a Pepsi bezel. He posted some pictures and I liked how the watch looked. He wanted us posters to note that we wouldn't flip the watch (worth about $90-120) and explain how we got into watches in the first place. He said he would choose a winner at random. Here's what I posted:
Brother, I would wear that with pride. I can't promise it to be an
everyday wear, but it would make its way to the top of the rotation, for
sure.
I've worn watches since at least high school. I wish I had photos of the
ones I had back then. I remember a Patek Philipe homage of some sort I
got from my folks when they visited Taiwan.
I remember Casios, both digital, analog and digi-analog. I remember a green Timex digital, likely an Expedition of some sort.
I got my first "real" watch when I got married. In fact, I got two. One
was a Rolex from my parents. It was gold and beautiful, but not my
style. The other was an Omega Seamaster, which was given to me by a
family friend. That became my daily wear for 14 years or so. During that
timespan, I did get a Timex Ironman ana-digi (the one that Will Ferrell
wore in "Stranger than Fiction") and that made it in the rotation for a
bit.
Even so, I wasn't "into" watches; I just wore them to tell the time.
About 2 years ago, I started talking to a guy at work who always had a
different watch on. He told me about a "world" of "watches" website, so I
started looking there. Like a previous poster, I had no clue about the
markup on watches and thought these deals were fantastic. As well as the
ability to pay $30/month for a few months for a watch. I never did buy a
watch from there, though, just started looking.
Then, through the power of the internet, I discovered WUS. I started
reading and researching and really found a home here on F71.
As I had a birthday coming up, I took that occasion to purchase myself a
Casio EFM-100 diver, orange bezel, incredible bracelet, off of eBay.
That started me down this path. I've probably purchased between 20-30
watches since then, sold 10-15 of them, and have settled on my current
rotation of 16. I've given my 11 year old son my Casio Royale (on a
red/blue NATO!), my wife a Timex Weekender chrono and a Withings
Activite Pop, and my daughter my pair of Old Navy specials (2 field
watches found for $5.98 each).
This year, I started a Project 365 for watches. I've posted many of them
here at WUS in the WRUW threads, but I have every watch I've worn since
1/1/16 in a photo album at Flickr. (https://www.flickr.com/gp/gwonchang/oBKS05)
I am on F71 several times daily, perusing the WRUW threads, the epic "Is
there no love for Timex" thread, Huunuu's "$20 and under" thread, and
many many others. The respect, obsession, humor, dorkiness, and passion
we all have for our timepieces (and each other) is what keeps me coming
back.
A week or so passed and I checked into the thread from time to time. There were a lot of cool stories about how people became enamored with watches. A few days later, I got an email notification from Watchuseek.com. Usually I get these when I'm selling a watch or something. I had forgotten about the contest.
Needless to say, I won! KrisOK had used a random number generator website and out of 63 entries, my lucky number 18 won the watch! It just showed up today, and I had the pleasure of opening it up when I got home from work. Here are some photos.
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| A nice note from KrisOK |
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| He had this thing wrapped nicer than watches I've purchased! |
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| Free microfiber cloth and more bubble wrap. |
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| He also gave a soft denim NATO strap along with the watch itself. |
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| Brand new Citizen NY2300-09G, unworn! |
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| Watch and tag. |
|
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| Tried to put it on, but couldn't. Check the buckle. :) |
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| After a quick strap flip, the time is set and the watch is on! |
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| The stock, rubber strap. |
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| Super stoked for this watch! |
So there you have it, the new Citizen on the wrist. Other things I loved about winning this watch:
- I don't have any Citizens, so this is my first!
- I don't have a Pepsi diver, so this is my first! I've been eyeing a Seiko SKX009, but never got around to getting one.
- KrisOK found it too small for his wrist. I think it's perfect for my little wrist!
- Getting a free denim NATO.
Now I need to plan for my giveaway. I'm coming up on 1000 posts as well and I'm looking forward to paying it forward.
