On The Cheap

       

         Today's On The Cheap watch comes courtesy of a local pawn shop. One sunny afternoon, on a whim, I stopped and decided to see if they had anything interesting. The selection was small and occupied by mostly fashion pieces. In the back corner something caught my eye. A gold tone Seiko 5 sat lonely and untouched. Years of grit and grime adorned the bracelet and the crystal had seen better days. I gave it the seiko shuffle and it instantly sprang to life. For $10 and some change I had a new-to-me watch which just needed a little love.  PolyWatch handled the majority of scratches and elbow grease handled the rest. After all was done I'm happy to say it's been a staple of my collection to this day. In fact, I'm wearing it as I type this article. Surely the movement could use a service but it keeps excellent time as-is. Seiko makes a great budget beater that will last. This one dates to the 70's-80s which proves how robust a cheap Seiko can be.   

        The great thing about being a horological addict are the many avenues one can use to get your fix.  Great pieces can be had with large and small budgets.  If you follow YouTubers like Teddy Baldassarre, The Urban Gentry, Mad Watch Collector, etc many watches they feature cost as much or less than a night out at the movies.  My current pocketbook puts me in the "budget" category of collecting but I've found no less fun in wearing sub $200 or $100 watches.  Show me a real watch nerd who doesn't own the $16 f-91w or a cheap G-Shock.  Sure an Omega AquaTerra would be amazing to own.  Who knows maybe one day I'll find one in my watch box but for now I'll be content searching for deals and saving for "the grail", whatever that might be.