Orient Star M34 F8 Skeleton Limited RE-AZ0104L.
So, I've been meaning to post this for a while but just never got around to it. This will sort of be my introduction to the watch community as a whole so i'm excited to put my thoughts onto paper. I have always loved watches. Always thought they were cool to look at and liked the perceived prestige I gave those who had ones I thought looked cool. That's why when I turned 15 and finally saved up enough to buy my first watch, I did so in a heartbeat. My first and second watch were both from Fossil, I liked the way they looked, liked the way they felt, and since they were the most expensive in the malls I figured those were the cream of the crop.
Fast forward nearly a decade, i'm slumming it down range and think, "Since I've bought a watch in every country I have visited thus far, I should buy one online while i'm down here." So, what do I do? Go to Fossils website and begin looking through what they got of course! (I promise we will get to the part where I find out the difference between fashion and genuinely well crafted watches soon.) So, i'm looking through their inventory and find like 3 I want so I go to my favorite autistic all-knowing machine (ChatGPT) and type in something along the lines of, "Hey, I know Fossil makes great watches, which of these 3 do people say has the best craftsmanship?"
Oh boy, that stupid little question born of ignorance would send me down a 2 week long rabbit hole of pure obsession. Long story short, ChatGPT called me an idiot, told me that there was a difference between fashion watch companies like Fossil and heritage watch companies like Grand Seiko, Rolex, or in my case, Orient Star. At the end of these two weeks of doing all sorts of research, I was essentially forced to realize that I knew nothing about watches and the Horological scene as a whole. That brought me to my decision that I wanted something that didn't just look good, but could also last as long as, if not longer, than I do.
You can probably figure out the rest. I searched damn near every website to see what brands I liked, slammed my head against a wall until I made a decision, and then bought it before I could find another that would make me repeat the process. All in all, I guess this wall of text is for me to say, I like this watch, I really like this watch, and I'm glad that I could share my story here today. I'll end this with kind of an essential question though, What tips and tricks do you all have to keep your watches running forever? Any help answering that would be greatly appreciated, thank you for reading!