It was 1983 or so, I was 12 back then. Watches were a expensive, very expensive commodity. Not something you would give to a kid that would break it in the very first time he plays soccer.
But at 12, many of my classmates had already a watch. It was some kind of "symbol of status". I wanted one bad, so I told my parents what I wanted for Christmas: a watch. They told me I would get it if I passed all the subjects at school.
But that december I failed at math. It was the first time ever that I didn't pass a subject. Talk about bad timing. My father told me that I knew what the deal was, so I was not getting my watch.
In the morning of Jan 6th -we used to get the gifts on the Three Wise Men day, now it is both Christmas and the latter- I went to my shoes expecting some lousy action figure, when I discovered a box..... it was a watch!!!!!! At the first time I was a little disappointed, with that brown colour -resembled s1ht very much to me- but I got used to it that very same day. It was an adult watch, seemed huge in my tiny wrist. My dad, who had a brain and tools but never used them in that sequence, got a screwdriver and removed a couple of links..... from the same side. So the buckle was always assymetrical from that day. It never mattered to me.
It was a self-winding watch; if you don't wear it for a couple of days it would stop. So I wore it 24 hours a day, even during bedtime. Soon it was scratched, as the glass was not glass but acrylic.
A few months later, in my mother's village, I removed it to do something -for fear of damaging-. I left it somewhere and when I wanted to get it it was gone!!! I asked my siblings where it was and my sister played the "uninformed". "where did you left it?" "No, I haven't seen it". "Sh1,t, somebody must have stolen it". She didn't look very convincing, so I knew that she wanted to give me a bad time so I better look like if I don't care, so she would give it back to me. And so i did.... for four months!!!!!! One day I said: "stop this, it has been enough!!!" "give me my watch". And so she did.... she had just forgotten she still had it!!!!!
I went through three or four glasses. The last one was just pressure-inserted so I could remove it anytime I want. It was then 1988, I was again at my mother's village and met who is now my wife. We were not officialy dating then, and one day she proposed me to trade our watches for a few days. I was dying to wear something from her, and I guess she felt the same, so we exchanged watches. That very same night she phoned me very sad. She didn't know what she did but the glass was gone. I told her not to worry, it was only a watch -what could I tell the girl I was in love with-. It was not only the glass, but the needle for seconds, and the bezel. We went where she noticed the glass was gone and found the glass, but not the other parts. A few days later I proposed her, but that's another story....
I continued with my watch for a couple years more, until one day it stopped. It was an old watch by then, it was not worth to pay to have it repaired. Being a tinkerer, I opened it and found a plastic piece that keeps the mechanism in place was broken. Tried to glue it with loctite.... and a big drop fell onto the mechanism. The watch was officialy dead!!!
I bought another watch soon, but kept the old one as it had been my trusty first watch. And then my girlfriend gave me another watch, and then I bought another, and now I have 14 or so. But I always wondered what could have happened to my watch had it fell in more careful hands.
In 2002 I heard about eBay and the first thing I thought of was in my Citizen watch. Searched for it and found tens of pages, but none like mine. I was new to eBay, thought I could buy another Citizen for one dollar and registered. Never got those watches, but started an eBay experience that lasts until today with more than one thousand purchases.
I kept a search on eBay, but after months I just deleted. I was tired of searching for that elusive watch. Then, I would create another search again. I would search for "citizen automatic" in english, spanish, german, french, but nothing. Searching by the model code would not get hits neither in eBay nor in google. It became an objective, the thrill of the hunt.
I also thought some jewelry in Spain could still have some left unsold, so i started to come into jewelries -specially those who looked not to have been renovated for long- and ask whether they have by any chance any old citizen watch. Most of them gave a blank stare, but one -probably the closest to my home- told me "wait a moment, I may have something I left just in case I need spares. He showed me a couple of them, they were equal but not like mine. Well, it was the closest I could get. Asked him for how much and he told me he would make me a 20% discount on the price tag..... of the eighties. Seemed good to me, but believe it or not, the price tag was the equivalent of $55 in the eighties!!!! Well, $40 seemed too much for me, but after the man had searched in his safe, how could I say no? I bought it and wore it a few times, but I later stored it.
With my original watch I always kept the warranty receipt. One day I thought I could go to the address of the seller's shop -stamped in the warranty-. Obviously, the shop closed years ago. None of the surrounding businesses remembered that there was ever a jewelry there.
So my search in eBay continued intermitently. 10 days ago or so, while routinely -and quickly- scrolling the citizen watches, I found one that seemed familiar. It was one like mine!!!!!!
Well, not exactly. The only difference was that mine had date but no day, while this one has day/date. I knew one day I would find it!!! It was in Italy, and the seller had just a couple votes. But I had to take a chance.
I knew I would win the auction. It was not that collectable as to anybody willing to pay what I was willing to pay. But even if I didn't buy it, I didn't need it. I had found it.
Just to avoid forgetting to bid, I placed a conservative bid -so I could win if nobody else bids- and expected to increase my bid in the last minutes to the three-digit range. I really had not even read the full description. Used google language tools to learn that..... the watch was from a collection and had never been worn!!!!
I won the auction at the starting price -not the lousy $1 but a fair price-. I asked the seller to pack it carefully. She did and today I received my watch. You can't imagine how I have felt when I put it in my wrist, 20 years after my wife lost the bezel and the needle.
What a blast from the past!!!!! When I put it, I came back to that christmas morning. I almost cried.
