A question that people outside of the watch industry ask me quite often is “how did you get into watches.” The question is really wanting to know what happened in my life to result in me being so passionate about timepieces. I did, after all, arguably dedicate my life to discussing and reviewing watches, as well as carving a niche for myself in the watch industry. Oddly enough, this is not a question that watch lovers have ever asked me, nor have I overheard any watch collectors or fans ask this of each other. I am sure it has happened, but for some reason, it doesn’t happen enough. It isn’t as personal as asking where you met your spouse, and yet the question of how you found your mating partner comes up a lot more frequently than how people initially discovered and became interested in their hobbies.

I, on the other hand, have asked a lot of people how and why they’ve gotten into watches, and the answers I’ve gotten are honestly some of the most interesting stories I’ve heard from fellow watch enthusiasts. In fact, I have a guess as to why this question isn’t asked between watch lovers more often – and that is because the answers tend to be so long. I think the shortest response I’ve got to that question has been a few minutes, with the longest spanning over an entire dinner conversation. It is not uncommon for someone to spend over 10 minutes simply sharing the story of how they got into watches because, in most instances, it isn’t so much a reason that they got into watches, but rather an extremely impactful experience that they relish in reliving.

One of the reasons that stories about how people got into watches are so long is that the storyteller, I believe, is actively trying to figure out for themselves what it is that captures their attention about timepieces. Oftentimes, this cognitive process happens while they are explaining it to someone else. You see, most people who love watches are successful, smart, and overall very rational people. Spending lots of time and money on wearable antiquated ways to tell the time is not particularly rational at all. So, here we are as otherwise well-spoken adults who can’t always seem to put into proper words the justification (as much as it is an explanation) for why we like timepieces.

I’d like to pose the question of “How did you get into watches?” to the aBlogtoWatch audience. Not only because I am curious how people will answer, but also because I believe people will feel a new sense of familiarity with their the community if these stories are shared more often. In the poll, I’ll try to boil these experiences down to a few categories, but the real meat of this Ask The Audience article should really be in the comments below. If it is turns into “confessions of a watch addict,” then that’s OK too…