Pretty much since the first day of taking up the financially ruinous hobby of watches in early 2022, I?ve had a bit of a thing for tool and sports watches. Granted, I haven?t been scuba diving and I?ll certainly not be scaling Mount Everest any time soon, but there is – to me at least – something romantic about wearing a watch that offers a sense of genuine utility, especially in the age of the smartwatch. What?s more, I believe that a watch should tell something about its wearer; a glimpse into their personality rather than just be a status symbol and a source of bragging rights. When the opportunity for my first ?proper? watch arose in January 2023, I chose a Tudor Black Bay GMT. It was a belated 30th birthday gift and whenever I look at it, it reminds me that firstly, my knees hurt more often than they don?t, and secondly, reconciliation exists and hope springs eternal no matter how rough things may seem at certain times.  There are also another two reasons unrelated to age as to why this watch is special to me. Several millennia ago as a student, I was fortunate to spend an academic year in St. Petersburg. That?s the Russian one, FYI, and that period from September 2010 to July 2011 kicked off a fascination with the awesome-yet-frightening city on Neva. In 2015, having also developed a love affair with the history of the Baltic States, I moved to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, to try my luck at Eastern Europe without the paternal hand of the universi...