GOOD LUCK HDMI

blue5000 · 16-09-2018 10:25am #1

Best of luck to HDMI (who we mostly know by his first name) with the move stateside, I hope all your possessions make it safely too;) Never got a chance to meet you, keep in touch.

893bet · 16-09-2018 11:10am

Excellent! Opening up a whole new watch market to boards!

Best of luck!

HDMI · 17-09-2018 1:15am

Thank you for the kind words.

Through adverts and boards I have had the pleasure to get to know many of you, even had the pleasure to take your hard earned cash. Especially emo72 who has been a very good friend but I am sure his wife will be glad to see the back of me.

So many watches his wife doesn't know about, I think at one point she believed I didn't even exist and that I was like his imaginary watch buddy. :rolleyes: But I had the pleasure to meet her a while back and like all good wife's of us watch nuts she is very understanding of our addiction.

The meetups arranged by Carlton Browne will rank has awesome high points. Watches I can only dream of owning I actually got to try on and play with. My first gtg back in 2012 I was a little embarrassed turning up with my vintage Seiko divers. No watch snobbery at all from any of the guys there, awesome night with a McGonigle Tourbillion as the star. I believe Cyrus turned up with a few loose watches in his pockets, a Brequet chrono, JLC Reverso, Zenith El Primero and I think he also had something from Glashutte with him, jaw dropping stuff. CB has an excellent collection of vintage watches, so jealous I only wish I had the wrist for them, his knowledge is endless and was a real pleasure to chat with. Homer brought along a really nice collection also, oddly one of his watches has always stuck in my mind and it was a little Unicorn watch made by Rolex I believe. Grahame from SAS watches was also there and dropped me home, definitely on my list to own and it would be nice having a bit of Ireland on my wrist. I have a photo taken of the table with all the watches on it and in the middle of the shot the camera seems to have focused on an SKX009 on a red and blue stripped nato that I had previously sold Homer.

Myself and Homer have met on a few occasions over the years, really nice guy I just wish his buddy would have given back my Sumo

I had the pleasure of trying on my first Panerai watch that he owned. Last gtg he was wearing a Tag Monaco which is a stunning watch :cool: . Mitch brought along a Rolex polar gmt, still jealous of that one and for a few months it came down to buying one or putting the money aside to emigrate. Maybe one day if I manage to commit to one watch the Polar Gmt could be it.

Unkel and Ted were two really nice guys that I met on a couple of occasions to complete deals, but I think the chats we had were best part. Frankie5angels another really nice guy who I met with on a few occasions to probably complete the longest watch deal ever. He must have waited over a year to get my Longines diver. I wasn't prepared to part with it until my visa was approved. Blue5000 I unfortunately never got to meet but had the pleasure to exchange many a pm. Came close recently but I have been up to my neck in it the past couple of weeks. Yes blue, fingers crossed my household stuff reaches the US safe and sound, customs will look at the manifest and see a "box of empty boxes" it felt odd packing my empty watches boxes but there were too many to take on the plane so they have gone by ship. Made one silly mistake and shipped my bracelet adjustment tool on the ship also. I have a nice green Seiko in NC waiting to be sized.

Wibbs has been excellent but unfortunately we never had the pleasure to meet up. I was a little naughty not too long ago here on boards but he was very tolerant and understood my point of view. Good mods are hard to find on any forum, but to have one with his knowledge for our little watch community has been a huge bonus.

I have also met Eoin a couple of times, another really nice guy and it's been a pleasure to watch how his collection has changed over the years.

My apologies if I have missed anyone in this post but I will definitely add to it in the coming days, if not please feel free to bitch me out.

I will continue to be part of the community from a distance and even have permission to keep my adverts account active as long as I notify buyers that I would be shipping from the US. If I can be of any help forwarding watches or accessories from the US please free to send on a pm or email. At the moment its chaotic over there because of the hurricane and my in laws have been without electricity for days so no internet, mobile data is hit and miss but I will still try check in. I am moving to a little town you might have seen on the news called New Bern and it is on two rivers so flooding has been really bad.

Monday is my last full day to get organised because I fly out on Tuesday but I will try check in, now what should I wear for the journey? Jeez as if I didn't already have enough to worry about......

Frankie5Angels · 17-09-2018 12:09pm

Indeed, ádh mór ort, HDMI - definitely one of the good eggs. Thank you again for the advice since I started posting here a few years ago (and for not making me feel like a spanner with my pronunciation of 'Stowa' when we did meet up :pac: ).

Homer · 17-09-2018 5:31pm

Wishing you all the best pal.. Have always enjoyed meeting up with you and discussing all things watch related! If I ever get that Sumo back i'll pay you a visit! I am on the US east coast 4/5 times a year (albeit much further north!) so hopefully we will get the chance to meet again in the future. Im sure I will be on to you if I see something nice listed stateside to arrange shipping

Wibbs · 17-09-2018 9:46pm

HDMI wrote: »

Wibbs has been excellent but unfortunately we never had the pleasure to meet up.

A genuine missed opportunity on my part. For all sorts of life reasons I've sadly never attended a Board's watch meet. I did meet Carltonbrowne and compared watches and that was brilliant.