Horology Enthusiasts
I
owned an iconic café in the magnificent Queen Victoria
Building for many years.
One of the group of people who regularly
frequented my café was a watch club, a group of watch lovers or Horology
Enthusiasts. This group of dedicated men and women would
religiously turn up every Thursday night and order coffee and cakes and
then
sit there together discussing this watch and that watch. Usually one of
the
members would bring along a watch of some significance which would
become the
topic of discussion for the rest of the evening.
This group were just ordinary
men and women with a love of watches – all brands and all ages, ranging from
antique time pieces through to wristwatches which were the latest
in technology and fashion.The one thing these people had in common was that they were
all luxury watch enthusiasts eager to find watches they loved and share them
with the group. They talked about the brands we laymen all commonly know, as well as
new brands and watch concepts so that they were always up to date with the
latest developments.
Enjoying watches is typically not a solo activity. Watch
lovers or horological enthusiasts like the members of this group feel compelled
to constantly discuss or mention watches, much to the intrigue of non-watch
lovers like myself. When they meet together, the conversation quickly becomes
very animated as this shared interest unfolds.
In my experience as an onlooker, I realized that certain
types of people tend to appreciate watches more than others. The permanent
members of this group belong to several professions – a lawyer, a doctor, an IT
professional, a nurse, a pilot, a retiree and several business men. So it just
goes to show any one can become a watch enthusiast, or fanatic.
Because
it is difficult to find a group like this one you can meet with in
person I decided to see what Forums and Blogs were available for budding
horologists to join, and came up with this list:
Forums
Organisations (As listed in wikipedia)
American Watch Guild -
AWG
American
Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute - AWCI (United States of America)
Antiquarian Horological Society -
AHS (United Kingdom)
Association
Française des Amateurs d'Horlogerie Ancienne - AFAHA
(France)
British Horological Institute - BHI (United Kingdom)
Chronometrophilia (Switzerland)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Chronometrie - DGC (Germany)
National Association
of Watch and Clock Collectors - NAWCC (United States of America)
Find out more about the Science of Horology on my next post
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