I will cut straight to the chase. I have bought yet another watch. But this time it was a big purchase watch. I finally obtained my first proper luxury watch. I have a Rado Diastar Original 38mm, which was my first luxury grail watch purchase. However, given Rado's not so well beloved reputation in the West, I considered it a "pseudo-luxury watch." My first luxury that I bought is a.... Cartier. Not just any Cartier, the first iteration of the Cartier Roadster 2510. I promised myself I would not get a new watch for a while, especially not until I get a proper luxury watch. Recently, my friend sported an Omega Aqua Terra he recently bought. He bought it pre-owned with the original box but no papers. It looked like a masterpiece on his wrist. He recently purchased it as a treat to himself. I was quite happy for him making such a nice purchase. Then I thought, maybe it is also time for me to tap into watches again. Life can be cut too short not to enjoy the little things, so why not, I thought. As long as the watch was priced under $4,000, I am very willing to consider purchasing. But which one shall I go for. Like my friend, I browsed for pre-owned luxury watches. I appreciated Cartier watches, but never bothered to look closer into them. Then one caught my eye. A Cartier Roadster. An automotive themed watch that takes styling cues from cars from the 1950s. I never heard of the Cartier Roadster before. It was one Cartier's more obscure watches, it did not have a long standing heritage like the Tank, Santos, or Pasha. It is a design and philosophy that is as old as Gen-Z (what I am). I thought the automotive cues on the watch were beautiful, along with Cartier's jewelry like look, it is a must have. The one I found was a tad bit over my budget, and did not come with original papers. So the hunt for a better priced Cartier Roadster was on. I was continuing doing research on the watch as I was hunting down the one Roadster for myself. The watch came in several different styles and dials: the Vegas style Roulette dial, the speedometer dial, Chronograph, GMT, etc.

Many thanks to @Brett Sutton for posting his outstanding blue Longines HydroConquest and sending me down yet another horological rabbit hole. At roughly $1,600 retail, I wasn't planning on adding one anytime soon, but Jomashop had other ideas, and after stacking a few discounts, I couldn't resist bringing this 41mm home for just under $900. Mine came on the stainless steel bracelet instead of the signature blue rubber strap, so naturally I enlisted AI to visualize a few alternatives. The results were so convincing that I've gone from deciding whether to buy a blue strap to debating which blue strap—or perhaps all of them. After all, every watch collector knows that the real cost of a watch is rarely the watch itself...it's the accessories that inevitably follow.

Sporting the Cartier Roadster 2510 in the spirit of fun

I have been in contact with a Casio repair shop about my broken A-158 Casio. I have had the watch for about a year before the reset button broke. The repair shop could not find replacement parts for my Casio, so it sent me a replacement watch instead. Fortunately the frugal A-158 is still circulating in my collection.