I remember my first watch, a little timex which was ok for a while ( i was six ) and forever more after, it had to be better, not in a monetary sense, but the quality of the engineering, as long as the watch could do what it was supposed to without fail, i'd be happy, i wasn't happy until i got my first genuine Omega seamaster professional.
After that the obsession started To date, i own a gen smp, a lovely luminox which i consider to be a fantastic watch, a genuine tissot seastar from the early seventies, and three reps, which up until i joined TRC ( before here ) were just poor imitations, having bought my first PAM from a fellow member, I finally realised that a good rep can be had, which may not be " genuine" but is a fine timepiece in it's own right.