Watch Story Submissions: A Roundup of Some Favorites

Watch Stories

Our watch stories campaign kicked off a couple of weeks ago, and the submitted stories are amazing. Some of them feature watches passed down from loved ones. Some stories have watches given to celebrate life events. Others are purchases marking career milestones. These timepieces do more than tell time, the watches all hold sentimental value, and each is as different as the story they tell. Each scratch, ding, and nick holds a memory and makes the watch more special.

You can share your watch story and be entered for a chance to win a pair of Speedmasters. As a celebration of the book A Man and His Watch, here are some of our favorite submissions so far:

Shared by natale_chris406:

Every watch has a story and mine is no different. I have had this watch almost 5 years now and it has served me better than I ever expected. When I was 15 I decided that I wanted a nice watch so I spent a summer mowing lawns and splitting wood and planting flowers to save up. I knew I wanted to have it forever so I spent weeks looking for one I wanted and settled for a mechanical one with i white face, so it would never stop and I could wear it with everything. The face of a good watch sees everything, the good and bad, the happy and sad and I think that is why watches become so important to someone. It was on my wrist when my parents told me they were getting divorced it was on my wrist when I went to my grandmother’s funeral it was there when I was in my car wreck. But it was also there when I graduated highschool, when my dad got married, my first day at my first job. I wore it the day my mom dropped me off at college, and to my first college party. It has seen countless family dinners, parties, weddings, concerts, and hikes. 4 Christmas mornings, 4 Easter Sundays, 4 thanksgiving dinners and 2 summers as a camp counselor. It has heard all the laughs and seen all the tears. Someone told me that I should send it off to get a new crystal so it doesn’t have scratches, but every good watch has scratches and every scratch is a memory. When I bumped it on concrete moving into my freshman dorm, when I dropped it and it fell down the steps of my childhood home. When I look at my watch I no longer see just it’s face I see all the memories that I have made wearing it and the scratches are a daily reminder that sometimes bad things turn into the best memories. I can’t wait to one day pass it on to my son so he can put memories into it too.

Shared by @jbonezilla

My 95 year old grandmother escaped Nazi Germany by way of a Kindertransport in the early 1940’s. After a time in Britain, she made her way to NY. There met my grandfather (her English professor at Fordham) and raised her family. I partially inherited my love of fly fishing and the outdoors from him, but my eye for watches from her. She never liked to wear women’s wristwatches because she thought they were too small, and she enjoyed larger faces. She has a small collection of watches like this Longines that she gifted to me a couple of years ago, and when I visit she always lets me tinker. This is my sentimental favorite!

Shared by @boostedstig

Story time for crownandcaliber – When I was little, my Grandmother and I would watch old James Bond movies on VHS and she would sing all the theme songs to me by heart. I remember her favorite one being Goldfinger, where Sean Connery wore a Rolex Submariner with a famously poor fitting nato strap. My Grandfather always had a different watch on and he really sold me on the idea that it was cool to have one. He gave me my first few, so he’s really to blame for starting this fascination I have with them. Fast forward to 1995 and me being 10 years old. Now there’s a new James Bond and a new 007 movie. In comes Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye wearing a blue faced Omega Seamaster and it had a laser! Then of course the Nintendo 64 game comes out and became the definitive time sink of my childhood and there’s the watch again! Front and center in all of the game’s user interface. You couldn’t miss it if you tried. At 10 years old I knew I wanted this watch, and it might have taken me two decades but I finally got one for myself. It serves as a reminder of how much fun my friends and I had playing that video game together. It reminds me of my Grandpa always having a different watch and always being the coolest guy I knew. It’s a reminder of spending weekends watching old movies with my Grandma. This is why we love watches. Not because they tell time, but because they tell stories.

Shared by @lets_watch_movies:

My Rolex Datejust was given to me by my wife as a wedding gift. The watch had originally belonged to her father, who received it as a birthday present from my wife’s mother. My father-in-law passed away when my wife was young, and this Watch was very important to my wife. I am extremely honored to have been given such an important family heirloom, and am taking care of it for the next generation!

Shared by @eveldnitsky: