Welcome to the inaugural post of Talking Tick Tock! I’ve started writing this several times over the last few years, but having suddenly found myself in possession of a great deal of free time, it’s finally become a reality. I hope that through this site I can share some of the interesting things that I’ve learned along my journey with others who have been sucked into this hobby.

First, a little bit about myself and my horological leanings, for which we will have to travel all the way back to my formative years in the mid 80s. Every morning my dad would (and still to this day does) put on his stainless steel Rolex Date 1501, which he had bought on a trip to Geneva in the 70s with his summer earnings as a lifeguard (which is much more difficult to do today without a significant purchase history). Noticing my interest in this watch, I awoke one Christmas morning to my very own Swiss stainless steel timepiece: a Wenger SMT Design dive watch, which I still have to this day. I wore this, and subsequent Christmas gifts (mostly other Wenger models) all the way through high school, and they came with me to college, even after the prevalence of cell phones had made them a relic of a past time. When I turned 21, my parents took me to an old jewelry store in Chinatown, where we haggled out a good deal on my first “real” watch: a Rolex Date 15223 (which I have since given to my brother to carry on the tradition). Since then, I have often marked significant milestones in my life by parting with my hard earned money for a shiny relic of timekeeping technology (and sometimes for somewhat less significant reasons too).

So What is “Talking Tick Tock” All About?

In short, I’m not completely sure yet. I’ve found myself going down enough rabbit holes in this hobby that I feel like I should do something useful with that information, even if it’s just putting it out into the ether with the hopes that someone else may find it interesting. While my hands-on horological experience is mostly limited to having once taken apart a pocket watch (and realizing I should have taken pictures of what it looked like before that step), the focus of many posts will be more about the details of watch making and less about the latest trends or brands. When I do post about particular brands, it will mostly be focused on either areas of historic interest or innovations that I find particularly interesting. I will most likely not be posting anything about who wore what when, even during awards season.

I have also managed over the years to inflict this hobby onto many of my friends and family, and some of the timepieces (a word my wife has recently learned and now refers to all watches as) that I will show here will be borrowed from their collections. I am also hopeful that others will guest post from time-to-time on whatever areas of horology most interest them (although this may result in breaking my no awards show posts promise). Eventually, we might even have a forum for anyone to discuss things, but one step at a time.

As I make improvements to the site I’ll try to add a quick post about them. Once I have a way of contacting me from the site I would welcome any suggestions or input, which may or may not be taken. Until then, I hope you enjoy the site as much as I hope to enjoy making it!