collectors
collectors
By Logan Hannen
Invicta Initiation
How my first automatic watch opened my eyes to a wider horological world.
I
’ m sitting in my subpar excuse for a college dorm room, endlessly perusing YouTube( at a time well before I knew resources like About Time or Theo & Harris existed) trying to wrap my head around why anyone would spend thousands upon thousands of hardearned dollars on a Rolex or an Omega. I adored and admired those brands, don’ t get me wrong, but I knew jack about movements, haute design or horological value at that point. To me, if it wasn’ t made of 24-karat gold with diamonds all over it, it didn’ t need to cost as much as a decent used car.
So it should come as absolutely no surprise to some of you that my first official watch purchase, not including the endless stream of no-name Wal-Mart watches, was an Invicta.
I’ ll say it now: I was an idiot. It takes a special kind of uninformed consumer to assume that the Pro-Diver( currently on my wrist as I write this article) could ever have been close to a thousand-dollar watch, marked down to the incredibly low price of $ 89. But that’ s the thing; I WAS that uninformed consumer. I think, on some level, we all are uninformed when we start out. I ordered the watch with some well-earned summer job profits, and anxiously awaited its arrival via USPS. When the box came, I was ecstatic. I frantically shredded the cardboard box it was shipped in, tore away at the bubble wrap( to be popped at a later date, of course), and laid hands on what I still think is an awesome looking box. Bright yellow, with a kind of wave pattern, it’ s eye-catching if nothing else. I
102 | AboutTime Magazine