Early on in my watch collecting arc, I developed an obsession with caseback engravings. A lot of folks have very strong opinions on caseback engravings from a collecting standpoint, whether it adds or subtracts value or what it means in terms of originality. I frankly don’t care about any of that. To me, the engraving is the first breadcrumb in a larger trail that I always feel compelled to follow. It became an obsession, specifically finding watches with engravings from WWII soldiers, when it was a common practice to inscribe an identity on the caseback. Sometimes there was even a note or a well-wishing, or a date. Those all helped me trace the history of the watch, and more importantly, the person who wore it. I tried to find out who actually wore trench watches from WWI or issued watches that are highly collectable today.