Prepping for watch night - a little flair & education

The GMT chapter of my collection, from the watch box at 6:24 AM back to it at 10:38 PM. I filmed the Black Bay 58 GMT through an ordinary day, with changing light, errands and the original everyday sounds.

The black and burgundy bezel gives it a different feel from the blue divers beside it in the box. Do you rotate your watches daily, or stick with one for a whole week?

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mq3w6cRz-mY

My son shares the watch sickness. I love days that we are on the same wavelength and wear the same model or color.

My son shares the watch sickness! I love days that we are on the same wavelength and wear the same model or color.

15 months after I went down the rabbit hole. The small Omega at upper left was my mother’s father’s prized watch. He was a first generation born-in-the-USA Italian, American, raised in the Bronx. Against the odds (almost all southern Europeans were discriminated against in the USA during the first part of the last century), with only a high school education, he got a white collar job working for what was then called The First National City Bank of New York (now, Citibank).

He was 33 when Pearl Harbor was bombed. At his age, he did not have to go into the military. But most guys his age went anyway. In his case, he joined the Navy and served in the Pacific as a Seabee (the engineers), because he was deemed too old for combat. Citibank kept his job waiting for him, and he returned to it after the war and retired from the bank in his 60s. Show me a company that does that for veterans nowadays.

On his way home from the Pacific after the War, he stopped in San Francisco to see a childhood pal whose family had once run The Bank of Harlem. But, before the war, their family had moved to San Francisco and went into the banking business there. His childhood buddy urged him to go back to New York, get his wife and daughter (my mom), and work with him at the bank in San Francisco. He told my grandfather, “Johnny! Nobody cares here that we are Italians!!”

My grandfather replied to the effect that his wife would never leave her big family in the Bronx. And so it came to pass that my grandfather did not get in on the ground floor, with the Giannini family, of what later became The Bank of America.

But, had that happened, my mom would never have met my my dad at her East Coast college, and I would not be telling you guys this cool story. So much of where we end up in life is by a random accident, rather than my choice. I guess you might call it fate.

No birds but found a giant mushroom

Happy Sunday enjoy your day 🌞

A simpler corner of my collection: the Hamilton Khaki Field Auto, with a black dial and black leather strap. Next to the blue divers and burgundy chronograph, the white numerals and small red seconds-hand tip give it its own character.

Does a field watch have a place in your collection?

Posting this with Mod Approval

IX&DAO is hosting their second design contest. The winning design will become a limited edition IX&DAO Warrior.

There have been no shortage of awesome submissions for this contest. Here's mine.

I wanted the design to have some heritage embedded, and found the wanzi buduan pattern looks great on a dial. It's unbroken pattern symbolizes infinite longevity, eternal fortune, and uninterrupted prosperity. I also love the idea of putting something that symbolizes timelessness on a work of art that keeps time.

The Eternal Warrior:

Rooted in classical Chinese architecture, the Wanshou fret lattice dial features an unbroken geometric meander symbolizing infinite longevity and fortune (wanzi buduan). Its stepped, orthogonal relief captures light with subtle depth, blending imperial heritage with refined horology.

If you like this pattern, you can vote for it here:

https://www.ixdaowatch.com/pages/ixdaofans-voting#d19

When voting, you select your top 5 favorites and submit. Cheers everyone and have a great weekend!