destrodan
506
Returning to 'classics' that we might have missed the first time around...
...my most recent acquisition falls into this category.
Back in 2004 (just a few years into this hobby), I was walking the streets of San Francisco after work and I saw what I thought was the coolest watch. The AD on Post Street had a massive window-sized picture of the JLC Compressor Memovox.
I read up on everything about the watch - the pros, the cons and the idiosyncrasies, the hopes and wishes for the next iteration...and I eventually moved on.
Fast forward a few decades and many watches later, I realized my heart still skipped a beat when coming across this watch.
So I picked one up recently and it's everything I had hoped for 20 years ago when I first saw it in the AD window. Idiosyncrasies and all. 
Do you have similar stories of delayed 'classics'?
Returning to 'classics' that we might have missed the first time around...
...my most recent acquisition falls into this category. Back in 2004 (just a few years into this hobby), I was walking the streets of San Francisco after work and I saw what I thought was the coolest watch. The AD on Post Street had a massive window-sized...
Nice one.
when I was a little kid there was a jewelry store at the mall that was a Rolex AD and they always had a display in the window. I looked at, and drooled over that display every time I walked by there, especially the two tone DateJust. Fast forward MANY yea...
Those were the days!
When the function of watches could be proudly displayed in a window without worrying about damaging an unobtanium watch! Imagine if Rolex had a Submariner displayed daily in a tank of water now? Or, better yet, if they had a Submariner on display at all!
Thatās awesome!
I once got a Panerai after 8 years of pining. And it wasnāt for lack of a local boutique or AD; just financial constraints. Needless to say, I know the joy that comes with that delayed gratification. So congrats! This JLC hails from an era of JLC might an...
I can understand the love for Panerai...
...I remember walking into their AD in San Francisco and just stopping and staring when I saw a Luminor Marina I think in 2002. My wife was so tired of me talking about Panerai that she bought me a 115 for our wedding...a very nice gift! Which Panerai did...
Wow. You are a lucky man to have such an accommodating wife.
I got a 359. Alas, it went to fund my wedding. Quite the opposite story (to yours) š¤£š¤£š¤£
Haha, my wife is very nice...and she's also acutely aware there's no cure for this WIS sickness of mine...
She knew of it before we were married so it's part of our unspoken 'contract'...motorcycles on the other hand...how I wish I had brought those up before the wedding. But your sacrifice is one of the best kind of sacrifices for sure.
I remember the first day I saw the ad on the JLC Master Compressor Memovox. It was love at first sight. But my delayed catch was this one:
When I was 14, I saw Tom Selleck, Magnum; wearing a Rolex GMT MASTER. I promised to myself that I would got one, one day. I had to wait 20 years to put my hands on mine. Well, in fact, I love this watch so much that ... ...
I love the GMT Master! And Magnum PI was one of the greatest shows of the era for sure.
What a beautiful collection!
Great move!
Back in those same bright days of the early 2000s I remember first seeing this watch... and being horrified! It seemed almost unbelievable to me at the time that JLC, which I'd known as the maker of the super classy Reverso, could produce anything so frig...
I hear you...
...the Compressor Memovox was such a departure for JLC in the moment...or at least a departure from a few decades of JLC design! It was a little bit of blasphemy or heresy at the time. But I also remember how folks really complimented this watch as a 'bea...