Thomas and his friend, Gooberz.

My boy, Alex has been wearing watches from the young age of 3 years. His 1st and 2nd watches were the el-cheapo Daiichi quartz watches from the Japanese Daiso store. They cost RM5 each, and lasted suprisingly well given my boy's active play-style.

His 3rd watch was the Thomas and Friends flip-open or reverso, which was retailed at RM80 (bargained to RM40) with Japanese packaging and instruction manual. Not that you need the manual as it was a very simple quartz watch.

He loved the Thomas and Friends watch, until I saw him looking into my watch boxes. He started to want to wear my G-Shock but mine were mainly collectible pieces. I later found out that he liked the illuminator function.

And hey presto, I got him the Gooberz military watch for kids. This was the navy edition with illuminator and 'laser pointer', which he loved playing with both functions. One controls fire and the other one controls water, he would say. It was retailing at RM200 but I managed to get it at just RM20. Yes, it's true- Watatime Mid-Valley was doing a clearance on Gooberz military watch and all pieces (probably circa 200 pieces) were going at RM20 each.

I'm already thinking what would be his first mechanical watch when he appreciates watches better...

 j