40 years ago I was working in a harberdashery in Downey, California, called Miller's Store for Men. An independent men's clothier, it was owned by Bill Miller and Kevin Kelly, and though Mr. Miller was still around, Kevin was the one that actually ran the day-to-day operations. He was possibly the best salesman I've ever seen. Many of the customers were regulars, and would often come in to talk to Kevin, and he knew what he could sell them. But even when it wasn't a regular, if you came in for clothes, he'd set you up well. Kevin wasn't heavy handed by any means, but worked with the general philosophy that if you were, say, buying a shirt for some event, that you'd likely need pants, and if you needed pants, a new belt would probably look sharp, and you wouldn't want to ruin the look with beat up old socks. So he'd lay everything out for you, show you how you could use your purchases and add a few other elements to make it more personal, let you decide what you wanted, and in the end, whether you just bought the one shirt or the whole outfit, you left feeling good. I tried to use that same philosophy when I worked at Nordstrom in later years.
In the store, Kevin was always dressed in a custom made, tailored Le Baron suit and tie. But he didn't do tie bars or cuff links, instead opting for nice watches. I asked him about it, and his feeling was that since he didn't wear jewelry, nice watches were in order. 
The first vintage watch I purchased for myself was this Elgin, bought in a vintage clothing store in West LA in the late 80s. I was about to graduate from college, and though I knew my Mom was going to buy me a new Seiko that the UCLA Alumni Association put out, I saw this watch and thought it was simple and classy. The owner of the store refurbished watches as a hobby, and I remember that he was asking $150 for this. Sharon, from the last entry, was with me and said she liked it, so I bought it. It's hard to tell, but the best guess for it's manufacture is sometime in the 1940s, USA made, and a quick check on Wikipedia reveals that Elgin went out of business in 1968.
The next two were also purchased with Sharon, this time on a trip to the big island of Hawaii in probably 1989. We stopped at a 2nd hand shop, and the owner had several watches on display. I liked both of these, and couldn't decide between the two. I knew I'd wear the one on the left more, but I liked the flash of the one on the right. Neither are name brand watches-the equivalent would be knock off watches you find at Kohls, but they both have a vintage look. The Crestwood on the left is Swiss made, and imported by some company in New York. It's likely from the 50s or 60s.
I've seen other Louis watches, but can't find any information on them. I vaguely remember the owner saying it was a knock off of a Cartier watch from the 20s. I think the shop took cash only, and we didn't have any cash on us when we first stopped. We came back later, just as he was closing, and the owner gave us a couple of the beers and told us a few stories, and I ended up buying both. Sharon bought a watch, too, but it was a better one-I think an Omega-and she paid $200. I think I bought both of mine for $125.
I liked those three watches and wore them a lot all through the 90s.
I bought a more vintage watches, and I overpaid for all of them. I have a couple of others that pretty much fell apart after I bought them.
And the ones that fell apart:
Which brings me to this one:
I picked this one up in an antique barn of a store in Arizona in '95. It quickly became one of my workhorse watches. I liked the 60s vibe of it, and I think I paid far more than it's worth when I had it repaired about 10 years ago. I just liked the look. This brand still exists and seems to be on junk watches at WalMart mostly. But I like it and I wear it frequently.
I was given these two Bulovas recently. The one on the left looks like it's seen a pretty hard life, but the one on the right is pretty nice-I added a new band because the old one was too small. I wear them, but these days I'm pretty hard on my watches, so usually wear something a bit more substantial. The one on the right has a marking of 'L2', meaning it's from 1952.
I wound all these watches up this morning to see how they're all running. The newest one, I think, is the Pierre Jacquard, and that one is at least 50, and was serviced last 10 years ago. All of them are keeping reasonably good time. The cool thing now, though, is that I don't really need my watch to keep time. My phone does it better, so the watch is really now just for show.
Watch Gang 4
Spinnaker is the first watch of the four Watch Gang watches that I'd heard of before I received it. They constantly advertise on Facebook, and I'm on their mailing list. They have some great looking watches, and a quick look at the Spinnaker website shows a variety of quartz and automatic watches ranging in price from $199 to $650. Still, dropping a couple hundred bucks is a difficult concept for me, and though I have many watches in that price range, I haven't seen a Spinnaker watch that makes me think 'I need that.'
The packaging for this one was rather ordinary. A Spinnaker box inside of a plain white box.
But the watch inside was pretty nice. This is the first automatic that I have received, and I really do like automatic watches for no other reason than I never have to worry about a dead battery.
But the watch inside was pretty nice. This is the first automatic that I have received, and I really do like automatic watches for no other reason than I never have to worry about a dead battery.
It's water resistant to 200 meters, though with the hunter green leather band, I'd never wear it in the water. The power reserve is at least 24 hours
I don't know that I would've ever picked green, but I did take it on a recent trip to New York City, and comfortably wore it. I like the feel of it on my wrist-heft, but without too much weight.
