Maybe it’s your first clunker of a car, your first apartment or that first hard earned paycheck, many of us hold a warm nostalgia for those personal landmark firsts. For TrueFacet founder Tirath Kamdar and A Blog to Watch editor Ariel Adams, their most significant “first”? Their first watches.

“There are a lot of people who will resell their watches, but they will never resell the first watch they got. It is a very emotional experience to buy and sell watches,” explains Kamdar. Avid and recreational collectors alike oftentimes feel that initial purchase is inextricably tied to a greater story—be it their own journey or a brand’s historic legacy. “It’s amazing that [a] brand is still able to offer this type of emotional experience, even before you buy the watch. So you have a certain sense of sentimentality prior to you ever even putting it on your wrist,” adds Adams.

Like many other collectors, Kamdar’s interest in timepieces began when he was 22 years old with a Movado watch he bought for himself to mark his one-year anniversary working in the banking industry. The black and rectangular-faced Movado was a commemorative and conversation piece for Kamdar and, although Kamdar has since made a business of re-selling and trading up watches, he admits, “I still have [that first watch] at home somewhere in Chicago, sitting in a box.” Fast forward through years of working in marketing and delving deeper into watch history, Kamdar founded TrueFacet in 2014 to share his passion and help enable more potential watch collectors find authentic and affordable timepieces.

Meanwhile, Adams’s journey to watch-aficionado status had a very unassuming origin. “I had Casio watches up until I was 18 years old and then I bought a Citizen watch. [… But] the first Swiss mechanical watch I ever bought was from a very small German company called Marcello C.,” says Adams. “I had to go out and I had to discover this brand.” Jump cut to Adams logging countless hours researching watches, learning the ins and outs of their mechanics and styles, and ultimately launching one of the most-read watch blogs, A Blog to Watch.

Today Kamdar and Adams remain avid watch collectors and were brought together through this shared passion. Check out the video below for a candid conversation between these two friends and watch enthusiasts as they reminisce about some of their all-time favorite timepieces and share how their passion for fine watches has evolved.