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I was getting ready to go on a trip to Maui in the summer of 2015, and I’d even bought my first dive watch for the occasion. After much research, I decided to go with the classic Seiko SKX009, picking the “K” variant because it was slightly cheaper at the time. I’d been wearing the SKX for about a month on an aftermarket oyster-style bracelet, but switched it out for a cheap blue rubber strap to accompany me to Hawaii. While I’d be wearing my first proper dive watch for the entire vacation, I would also acquire another watch on a whim. That watch would ultimately spark my love of chronographs.
The Impulse Purchase That Sparked My Love Of Chronographs.
After a couple days into the Hawaiian trip, we decided to go to the mall. I caught sight of some watches displayed in jewelry store window, so naturally I had to go in for some browsing. This inevitably led me to an impulse buy. The jeweler, Na Hoku, had a large display in the center of the store with all sorts of “in house” watches – or watches with Na Hoku on the dial.
A chronograph with a sunburst brown dial and applied indices jumped right out at me. Despite its massive case size, which I think is 44mm or maybe even 45mm, it didn’t seem that big on my wrist (at the time anyways). It was also powered by a Swiss quartz movement, which I later found out it was a Ronda quartz movement.
I kept wearing the SKX for the rest of the trip, because I didn’t want to ruin the nice alligator strap that came attached to my newly acquired chronograph. When I got home, I did wear it quite a bit, but after a few months the battery died. It’s pretty much been sitting in its box ever since.
I still keep it around because of the memories it holds, however. There’s also a good chance it will soon be passed down to one of my younger family members as a gift.
My First Chronograph
The thing I loved most about the Na Hoku chronograph was playing around with the pushers. As weird as it sounds, I loved timing random things. I also loved resetting the central chronograph hands and watching it “rewind” all the way back to the twelve o’clock position.
This functions different than a mechanical chronograph, where the central chronograph hand “snaps back” into position. When I purchased my first Valjoux 7753-powered chronograph, it took me a little by surprise. I wasn’t expecting the central chrono hand to snap back (because I was used to the quartz chronograph’s way of resetting).
I’d always been a fan of Omega, and after realizing how cool chronographs were, this confirmed that my “grail” piece had to be a Speedmaster. There would be another chronograph purchase along the way, though.
Enter the Baume & Mercier Capeland
Fast forward about a year. After a big personal accomplishment, I finally decided to step up to a mechanical chronograph. That watch would be a Valjoux 7753-powered Capeland chronograph made by Baume & Mercier. It wasn’t technically my first “good watch”, but it was the first good watch that I purchased after careful research.
I knew that it could exist alongside a Speedmaster if I did end up obtaining one someday. The Capeland is an automatic chronograph with a white dial, which is quite the contrast from the black-dialed, manual-wound “Moonwatch”.
As I said in my review of the watch itself:
I’m still in love with the Capeland Chronograph after almost a decade of ownership, despite recently gravitating towards smaller, thinner watches as I’ve refined my taste over the years. I love pretty much all of the design elements of the watch itself; especially the way it can look and feel modern, but also subtly and seamlessly hint at design cues from the past, too.
Even though I loved my Capeland (and still do), I still really wanted a Speedmaster.
Grail Acquired: One Of The Most Iconic Chronographs
I was finally able to purchase a Speedmaster at the end of 2018. It was my biggest purchase yet, and came at a time when my life was changing quite a bit. I had a newborn at home, my first, and I was getting ready to start a new job in a new industry. I had recently purchased my first home. It was a time of “firsts”.
The Speedmaster isn’t quite as sentimental a watch as my Capeland chronograph, which I wore on my wedding day and on the day my son was born – but it’s still a very sentimental watch for me that I’ll never sell.
A 3 Watch Collection – Chronograph Style
I have all my bases covered when it comes to chronographs: a quartz, a manual wind, and an automatic. I still wear the Speedmaster probably more than any other watch during the colder months of the year, while the Capeland still gets brought out every now and again when I get the itch to wear it. All three watches have great memories associated with them. Each watch has some of my personal history embedded inside of it, too. I think that’s one of the best things about watch collecting.