The best part of looking for something that I have always wanted, at least to me, is not the moment of having that piece object in my hand finally, but the process of pursuing.
Starting like 6 or 7 years ago, I had my mind on getting a JLC Master Compressor Memovox watch, especially a one with the steel bracelet. JLC is known for its Memovox line and having it with the Master Compressor crowns and probably one the bests steel bracelet within all the watch brands was the thing for me. I searched high and low and finally found one on Chrono24 with a pretty reasonable price. On top of that, the seller is located in Fuji, Japan, a city which I had never been to. Before the pandemic, I had to be in Tokyo every 6-8 weeks for business, so I thought this would be a good buy since I could pick up the watch myself to save postage and import taxes. After exchanging messages, which was kind tough to do since the guy was not very good with English, with the store owner for a few days, we finally figured things out for the deal.
Fuji was pretty far from Tokyo, it was like a two hour bullet train ride for as long as I can remember. Because I could not speak Japanese at all, in order for the transaction to happen smoothly, I had to bring my Japaense speaking staff on the trip with me. Two bullet train tickects aren't cheap, but that was the price I had to pay and I could not care less since I knew I was so close to a piece of nice what that I was looking for.
It was cold yet sunny day in early Spring. I remember I was very excitied and talked none-stop to my staff on how I liked the watch very much and why I liked it. Now thinking back, I am pretty sure my staff probably was very bored and was replying to me nicely since he was just trying to be polite.
We arrived at the Fuji station around noon and when I walked out, it was like in the middle of nowhere. Don't get my wrong, the station itself was very beautiful and spacious, but I could see they just built the station over in that location probably becasue the masssive open and cheap land. We walked out, hopped on a taxi and asked the driver to take us to the watch shop. On the way there, the sceneries I saw from the taxi window were completely different than the ones I saw in Tokyo. Tokyo is city, if you don't know already, where has tons of people walking on the streets constantly with all these high rise buidlings and shops. Fuji is more like a midwestern US town that I am very familiar to, massive of flat land and most of the constuctions are only like 2 or 3 storeis high.
After like 15 minutes tax ride, we finally got there. To my surprise, the shop was in the middle of a residencial area and it was not a watch shop, but a very old antique store fully of different things, China, old stamps and different status. We walked into the place and my staff starting to told the store owner, who probably was in his 40s, we were there to buy the watch. The owner then turned his back to this huge safe, probably as tall as I am, and pulled out a old JLC box. He opened the box, took the watch out and handed it to me. The was the first time I saw the Master Compressor Memovox in person and I was just speeachless. By the time I had it in my hand, the watch had been out of production for I don't know how many years but the piece was in very good condition for its age. There was no scraches and dins fro the naked eyes and the famous JLC steel bracelet was just so beautiful. The only issue was, when I tried it on, the bracelet was too short to fit my wrist. I wiggled with it for a few seconds and figured out the way to extend the diver extenions on the bracelet. I now could wear it. I tried to negociate the price with the own and even asked for a tax refund, but the owner shut down my request with a polite smile. I was like "fine, I came this far for the piece and I am not going back to Tokyo empty handed". I paid with my creidt card and the watch is mine now.
Before we left the store, I asked my staff to ask the owner to see if there was a bus we could take back to the Fuji station since the taxi ride over was kind expensive. The owner gave my staff the direction and we walked thru the back alley of that area and found our way to the bus station. The station looks like it comes out of a movie or some sort of TV drama from the 70s. It was very small and old. We got to the bus station at the right time and was able to catch the ride back to the station right away for a small price.
Once we were back in the station, we still had about 90 minutes wait until our return bullet train to Tokyo. I and my staff went into this little cafe in the station for a quick bite and killed times. Of course, I took my watch out for the box and started to tell my staff again all the histor behind the JLC brand and also the Memovox line. I was so excited having the watch finally with me and I am sure my staff only nodding his head and replying to me again because he just wanted to be polite.
For the next few days in Tokyo, I did not wear the watch at all, but I took it out the box and looked and played with it over and over in my hotel room whenever I had time. I was so overjoyed for a chance to own a watch that I have always wanted, yet the whole process of finding and getting it was so unqiue and memorable. Even with this many years later, I still remember the whole process of how I got it and all the little details in between. The watch itself, for most of the people, especially the Master Compressor line, is a funky one that no one would care. However, for me, even after owning some pieces that are considered by manys to be the "valuable" ones, it is the still one of my favorite, if not the favorite, ones that I would keep it forever.
It is all about the process. Ain't?
