I am Macosie

[macosie]

So... who am I?
I'm a son of a Swiss 'mechanic'. Dad used to install printing presses and heavy equipment into buildings. When he moved to Canada in the 60s, he became a steamfitter and eventually was a partner in a company installing heating and cooling systems in office towers. He built a 44 ft sailboat in the backyard of our house in Calgary (1000km/620 miles from the nearest ocean), and made it out of steal, welding the hull himself and doing all the electrical and woodwork too. I was steered away from engineering by my father's hatred for the local engineers who eventually drove him to retire. Dad often disagreed and argued with the engineers, thus many loathed him. After being forced to follow an engineer's instructions (or else have the job shut down) the company basically lost the profit on the job because the engineer's way didn't work. He was 60, and had it with the BS, so he sold his half of the company to his partner, went to work for a friend in a different industry, and then sailed around the world with my mom. What does that have to do with watches? He did it all while wearing a '64 Omega Constellation c-case, a watch I loved and now proudly own. I also inherited my dad's ability to build stuff (though not to the level that he was trained to do.)
When I drowned a Phone-watch a few years ago, I found myself looking to replace the SKX033 I had worn for almost a decade. I saw a Seiko SNKN39 at the duty-free in Bangkok and suddenly found myself addicted to watches. In three years, I managed to build my one watch collection to near 50 watches. Once, I saw a Japanese Tokkotai and thought that it was exactly what I wanted, so I got involved with a WUS project. Towards the end, I didn't like where it was going, so, I decided to build my own. That led to the 'experiments', and that led to HF.
Other than that, I'm a utility teacher. My last gig was 5 years of teaching grade 5 at an international school in Bangalore, India. Before that, I taught various middle/high school classes in Bangkok, Brunei, Kazakhstan, the UAE, S.Korea and the Canadian Arctic. Since I move pretty often and live in school supplied accommodation, it's hard to have project cars and motorbikes. Watches was a really good creative outlet for me. I started nice and easy and have been trying to advance to more complicated stuff. I have 5 projects 'finished', and several more at various stages.
This summer I'll be moving back to Canada with my wife and kid after being abroad since 1999. I already have an electric bike/scooter ready for me to play with, but I think watches will be my main creative outlet. I'm thinking about taking a watchmaking course, but we'll see about that. (I also want to get into beekeeping.)
Thanks to everyone here who has helped me on my watchmaking journey with advice, instructions, goods and services, but also for all the inspiration I get from seeing your builds. This is a very cool community and I'm glad I was able to join back when I did.
BTW... any Pacific South West Canadians on here? (I'll be in Nanaimo) Actually, if there is a Pacific Northwest US GTG, I'd possibly be in for that as well. Cheers.

[Tanukjaju]

That’s a really great story.... you sound like the perfect candidate to fall into this deep abyss.

You won’t have any regrets though.

[Luminor]

Yours sounds like a life worth living.

[macosie]

That’s a really great story.... you sound like the perfect candidate to fall into this deep abyss.

You won’t have any regrets though.

Yours sounds like a life worth living.

Thanks. I'm enjoying this trip into the abyss of watches, and life in general.

[Emilio]

Thanks for sharing this with us. We are glad to have you here.