Starting in kindergarten, like most children of the 1980s, I had a series of cheap watches. None of them lasted very long. Little analog watches that eventually had their thin plastic crystals cracked. Cheap digital watches with LCD displays that leaked. A couple that fogged after a swim.

Finally, the summer between my 5th and 6th grade years, I got my first “real” watch. It was a plastic Sharp brand “dive watch.” It cost $40 in 1990 which was probably more than all of my previous watches combined.

This was the first time I realized that a watch could do more than tell you how long until lunch or make sure you didn’t miss curfew after your evening bike ride. Watches could also impress your friends and make you feel a little bit cooler every time you put it on your wrist. I mean, this thing was armored. It had luminous hands and indices. It had 100 meters of water resistance. 100 meters! Between my new watch and daily swim team practice, I felt like I was basically ready for BUDS.

I wore this watch every day for years. I wore it to bed, in the shower, playing baseball, hauling hay and riding my bike several miles a day. On the rare occasion that I took it off, it’s ghost remained in the form of the pasty white silhouette on my otherwise sun bronzed arm.

One of the few occasions that I took it off was for karate matches.  Which is where it was eventually stolen from my locker. No doubt by some sinister Johnny Lawrence wannabe. I was both crushed and furious. That watch had been my constant companion for nearly three years and I felt naked without it. It had stood up to all of the abuse that a preteen boy could throw at it and never missed a tick.

A couple months later, in 1993, my parents replaced it with a stainless steel Swatch for my birthday. The Swatch was a much nicer watch and I loved it, but I still missed that Sharp. Years later I got a Seiko, then another then a Tag Heur and eventually a Rolex, but I still thought about that Sharp. It was my first love. The one that got away.

When I was a kid, one of the coolest things about that watch was it’s uniqueness. None of my friends had one. They all had cheap Timexes and Casio calculator watches. I’d never even seen another one.

Until today...

While browsing vintage watches for sale online, I stumbled across something that stood out among the Omegas and Seikos. My watch. The same exact one. Even the same colors. 32 years old, but factory fresh, still in the packaging. At $15, I couldn’t hit the buy button fast enough.

Now, the wait begins. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a new watch.

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Nice!

I too started wearing a watch in kindergarten. Made it all the way to a calculator watch - Casio databank, before switching to analog.

But the one watch I remember from childhood was never mine.

It was the full page advertisements for the Rolex Sea-Dweller in National Geographic.

It would take the announcement that they were discontinuing it in favor of the DeepSea to spur me to get it.

Cool. Some of those old Swatches are becoming collectible.

This was my first watch. Probably 1977:

Very cool story! Post pics when you get it.

OP - I can relate ?? Here is me in ‘73.

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That’s where my love of watches started.

This was my first. I really wanted a digital watch, but my mom was adamant that I had to learn to read a clock before I could have a digital. Same plastic band and all.

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This was what I finally got after I could reliably read a clock. I saved a while for this one. I must have hit that button a hundred times a day to make it light up.

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After that I went back to analog and remained there until today. I had Swatches, Fossils, and various "fashion watches" though high school.

My mom was smart in that regard. My wife works with people wanting to get their GED and it's amazing how many of them can't read an analog clock in this day and age.

OP, that is awesome, looks like even in the original packaging.  Hoping it just needs a battery.  It deserves a place next to your Rolex, just for the memories sake!

Awesome story, OP!

The one that got me hooked on watches was a bit…gaudier. Orange-faced fossil.

DT.

I had a star wars model of the digital one.  1975 I think.

Starting to think I’m not going to get this watch after all. Two weeks tomorrow and still no shipping notification or communication from the seller.

This morning I got a refund with no explanation.

Oh no! That’s terrible.

Nice.

Citizen Promaster Aqualand for me.  Saw it in the PX several years before I was ever able to get one.