What a great post, and some great memories of the old days when we saw that transition from obvious replicas to bona fide replicas...some being indistinguishable from the real deal. And, it's great to see some familiar names of those decade old times
Things have really changed for me over the last 5-6 years - for the better. I've left corporate and am working for a NFP in Australia. I do miss England, but mainly my friends and family rather than the place itself now.
My collection is very basic now...Pam 111, IWC Portuguese, and a Tag Link Chrono Bourne version (gen) and a SMP 2541 (gen) that I had from the old days of being more frequent on here.
Milestones to celebrate - in this crazy time just being alive and mostly sane is my recent milestone.
I think similar to Andreww, I too drifted away due to some designs of watches just not resonating with me as much as they used to (particularly Breitling like Andreww eluded to). However, I'm finding a new taste for it now, and really like the smaller/thinner watches that actually fit my wrists....the Tudor BB58, the IWC's etc..
Anyway, great post and great to see some people from the "old times" still posting.