My first Proper Watch

How it all began ….

I’ve written here before about my entry into the world of luxury watches which was mainly down to my dad and my older brother in the 1980s. When I was a trainee bank manager in the early 1990s, I found myself in a position to buy my very own luxury watch. So it was that I found myself on Saturday morning at Munsey & Co in Cambridge, with the intention of buying a Rolex. I discovered that I couldn’t afford a Submariner or a GMT Master. The £2500 or so that they cost was over my budget, so I remember looking at the Oyster Perpetual and the Datejust. At the time I felt they just lacked a certain something that I was looking for.

 

Obviously, I was disappointed, so I asked what else they had and was shown the Cartier Santos that you see in these pictures. I bought the watch and wore it every day for over 10 years, regularly having it serviced and the battery replaced. In the early 2000’s I fancied a change so bought a Cartier Pasha and sold the Santos to a good friend.

 

31 years later ….

Over the years, watches became an increasingly important part of my life. When Oakleigh began in 2013, I started mentioning to my friend that I would like to buy the Cartier back if he ever wanted to sell.

 

He held out for a long while and having owned the watch for over 20 years he approached me recently and said that he was ready to part with it. Of course, I jumped at the chance to buy my old Santos back.

 

I’ll be honest, it’s had a tough 20 years and is in serious need of some TLC.

 

I was however delighted to see that it is still absolutely complete in every way. All of the boxes, manuals, papers, wallets, everything. It even has six lots of service documents from over the years, all of which are in my name.

 

Serendipity

I bought the Cartier back on the 13th of July 2022. It wasn’t until I got home with the watch that another friend pointed out that the Saturday morning when I had visited Cambridge to buy my watch was the 13th of July 1991 – exactly 31 years to the day previously!

 

I do believe to some extent in serendipity and even if I didn’t, I would have to admit, that’s a hell of a coincidence.

 

My Cartier went straight into the Michlmayr workshops for a full service, a good clean and refurbishment and to source a replacement clasp for the bracelet. A month later it was back with me and as you can see from the photos, looking rather better.

 

I may rarely, if ever, wear it but this watch is special to me and the Massingham family won’t be parting with it anytime soon…