the big question

So whenever I read a blog or watch a vlog from a couple that sail around the world , with a very nice yacht , I cant help but wonder ‘how do they do this, what do they do or did they do to not have to work for years on end, buy a yacht and just take off’

This is my story

I actually always had pretty good jobs , buying my 1st home when I was 22 or 23 (which I lived in for 20 years), working 40 hours a week for a decent salary . But when I changed jobs in 1999 I received a sign on bonus and that year I also received my 1st ‘real’ bonus. And with that bonus I bought a nice mid range swiss watch . Automatic , steel bracelet , black dial … the works . And as I was quite taken and proud of my first ‘real swiss automatic watch’ I joined an online forum dedicated to this brand . You know what ? .. that was a mistake .. I thought *I* had a nice watch but what I saw there just blew me away , nicer watches .. more spendy watches , watches with incredible stories behind them . So I sat there .. watched and learned , I learned that at that moment I could never afford to buy a nice new watch that I liked. But here’s the thing , the company that made my watch has a name that has been around since 1884 , and has been making beautiful timepieces since they started. These are called ‘Vintage watches’ and were generally much more affordable than their contemporary counterparts . So my focus shifted. I still wanted one of these nice watches with loads of history attached , I knew I could not afford a new one so I looked at the watches they produced in the 1950ies, 60ies and 70ies trying to find the best possible watch in the best possible condition that fell within what I could afford .

After a few years of studying all the intricacies of these ‘affordable’ watches (compared to their new counterparts) , debating in online fora what is ‘correct’ what is ‘incorrect’ I find myself with a few watches that I bought over the years and people start to ask me questions , as I had done before ‘is this one ok’ .. ‘does this one seem all kosher’ .. ‘would you buy this’ .. ‘is the price acceptable’ and all those things you get asked when others view you as someone that has a little knowledge .

Fast forward a decade and a half and we’re now in 2012/2013 . Over this period of time I have collected many (and when I say many , I mean many !) vintage watches of various brands . Most of them with some kind car racing or aviation connection pedigree.

And suddenly you see that watches you bought 5 or 10 years ago , for (what I thought was) a lot of money suddenly are being sold for x5, x10 or even x15 the amount you paid for them and I realized that I had quite a bit of a ‘piggy bank’ there. This realization came in the early stages of our plan to cast off , cut the lines , and sail away . And as I was looking at the watches I collected over the years , browsed online auction results , I realized ‘This does not have to stay a dream, we can make this a reality’

So, what I did is turn a hobby (my dad used to say ‘you know a lot about nothing’) that I had a little knowledge about into tangible assets as I collected them and sold them .. vintage watches , who would have thought that 15 years ago