For nearly two years now, we have asked notable men around the world to bare their horological souls – and engage in some fantasy shopping – under the banner of the Three-Watch Wardrobe. We have spoken to Hollywood directors, NBA veterans, architects, tailors, museum directors, musicians and – my favourite – the only man who’s a trained marine and a fashion photographer, now reporting from the front line in Ukraine.

Now, after 26 fascinating interviews and 78 watches picked from MR PORTER’s virtual shelves, it is time to close the wardrobe doors. We will still be talking to interesting men about their watches, but will be freshening up the format. As a parting shot, it was modestly suggested that I, MR PORTER’s Watch Editor, step into the spotlight and talk a little of my own life as a watch enthusiast.

One of the first things people ask when they hear I work as a watch journalist is, “Have you always been interested in watches?” Absolutely not. I had no idea of the variety and depth of the luxury watch industry until I started working as a writer and found myself dispatched to Geneva to report on the latest trends from the SIHH trade fair for a national newspaper. But I have always worn a watch, from a red and blue Flik Flak through various adolescent timepieces of questionable taste to my first “proper” watch, an Omega Seamaster, which I received for my 18th birthday. Nearly two decades and several more watches later, I still don’t think I have ever felt so strongly about an inanimate object. I was comically proud of that watch and, although I wore it everywhere, madly protective of it as well. In hindsight, that was probably a sign, although the idea of owning more than one watch back then seemed ludicrously unnecessary. Does Indiana Jones have more than one hat? Does James Bond have more than one gun? No, they do not.

I’ll spare you a run-through of my modest watch collection. Suffice to say I am usually found wearing the Oris x MR PORTER 10th Birthday Edition or my Nomos Glashütte Orion. In the 12 years that I have been writing about watches, I have had far more interesting experiences via pieces that aren’t mine. I have worn the most expensive watch sold at auction – Mr Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona, $17.8 million – which is nice to say, but I can’t pretend it sent shockwaves through me. One of the oddest things about my line of work is how quickly you get used to very, very large prices. I must have held, conservatively, hundreds of millions of pounds worth of watches over the years and, while the price tag will always influence your view on a new design, long strings of zeros soon lose the ability to stun.

I have held the watch that survived a trip to the bottom of the ocean, the bulbous Rolex Deepsea Special, and watches that have been into space. I have handled the marine instruments upon which Panerai built its brand and had a private guide to Cartier’s London archives. I have carefully refrained from pushing any of the buttons on the most complicated watch ever made, Vacheron Constantin’s reference 57260, and I have tried my hand at assembling, polishing and decorating components to a Swiss standard (and failed, most of the time). There was also the time I fell off my bike while wearing a Breitling that didn’t belong to me, but let’s not dwell on that.

The other question I am reliably asked is whether I have a favourite watch. I studiously avoid giving an answer, because there are dozens of watches I would buy if my horse came in, and it changes every week. As part of this story, I must pick the three that make up my fantasy watch wardrobe, so here goes. (NB, this exercise took as long to write as the rest of the article and involved a shortlist of 16 watches that I somehow whittled down to these three. Honourable mentions to this Chopard, this Jaeger-LeCoultre and this H. Moser, which made the final six.)