At 19 years old, I started my first “real job” selling cars in Queens, New York. I walked into the dealership and immediately found myself surrounded by coworkers who were twice my age and making ten times my income. Watches quickly became part of the conversation.

Around the showroom were a two-tone 36mm Rolex Datejust, a Rolex Thunderbird, a two-tone Cartier Panthère, a TAG Heuer S/EL, a two-tone Submariner “Bluesy,” and a stainless-steel GMT-Master II “Coke.” I didn’t even own a watch, and I would have gladly worn any one of them.

Then the dealership owner arrived for my first Saturday morning sales meeting wearing a stainless-steel Breitling Navitimer on a brown alligator strap, perfectly matched to his belt. The sharp bezel, the chronograph subdials, and the presence it had on the wrist blew every other watch in the room away.

I knew then that one day, I would own a Navitimer.

Two weeks later, I made my first significant sale and earned a $2,000 commission check. At 19 years old—and in 1995—that felt like a fortune. I went to Macy’s to buy some new clothes and spotted a two-tone Movado SE in the clearance case for $300. It was nowhere near the level of a Breitling, Rolex, or Cartier, but none of that mattered.

It was mine.

I wore that Movado nearly every day for more than seven years. It was the first watch I bought for myself, the first one that felt like an accomplishment, and the watch that started my collection.

Eventually, it gave way to an Omega Seamaster “Peter Blake,” while I continued looking at—and lusting after—the Navitimer. By then, Breitling had released the Navitimer World. At 46mm, with its five-link Pilot bracelet, it had everything I wanted. I was in love all over again.

In 2006, I finally found the Navitimer World I had been chasing. I traded my Peter Blake, added $1,000 in cash, and met the seller at a diner in Bayside, Queens. I was so nervous about whether the watch was legitimate that I made him write me a money-back guarantee on a piece of loose-leaf paper.

That was my authentication process in 2006.

Later that same year, my little brother Joe turned 21. Before taking him to Las Vegas to celebrate, I had my old Movado cleaned, polished, and engraved to mark his birthday. Then I gave it to him.

Passing that watch to Joe meant more than simply giving away an old piece from my collection. It had represented my first real success and the beginning of my own collecting journey. Giving it to him felt like passing along a piece of that story. More importantly, it helped spark his own interest in watches and welcomed him into the world of collecting.

I could never have known where that shared interest would eventually lead us.

Now, nearly 20 years later, Joe and I are one year into the Baker Street Timepieces era of our lives. What began with a clearance-case Movado, grew through years of chasing a Breitling Navitimer, and became something I could share with my brother has now become the foundation of the business we are building together.

To mark our first year in business, I recently purchased a stainless-steel Movado SE almost exactly like the first one I bought in 1995. I plan to have it engraved to commemorate BST’s first year—a fitting reminder of where the story began.