Dear all,
thanks a lot for all these really warm-hearted and friendly comments on and feedback to my post!
I'm ... overwhelmed.
That's the reason why I feel so "at home" on this website. Here I find not just enormous know how, experience and people from whom I can learn so much. Here is much more: a lot of spirit, education, life experience, heart, soul,...
I feel that all you do in life with heart, soul and enthusiasm makes your life better, happier, more successful,... deeper.
Some of my friends think that my interest in watches is a rather superficial hobby, a very .... "materialistic way" to spend and - above all - "waste" one's time.
But IMHO this is a too short-sighted view. For me a watch, selected carefully and with heart and soul, is far more than just an unnecessary luxury item.
It's history, it's art, it's a rather interesting counterpoint to our over-technological world and - last but not least - a way to express ourselves.
A watch you choose as your "companion" is in many aspects "near" to you.
Most of all you share so many situations in life, impressions, memories, feelings with this "dead material" that it becomes "alive"(?) and at the end a part of you.
Of course we all are very, very lucky in many ways (time, money, health,...) to to be able to spend time and energy on this subject. In this respect it is - of course - a luxury topic.
For me the key to deal with this is sincere gratitude and modesty.
Maybe that's the bottom line of it?
All the best and again many thanks for your warm feedback, Thomas