Tony Andexler

September 27, 2000

Daniel,

Wow, I’m trembling right now with excitement! I have been looking for this watch for a long time and never found it.

Why do I want this watch so bad? When this watch came out I was around eleven years old. It was the first time I used my hard earned money (mowing lawns) to buy sometime so expensive. I guess you could say I’ve always been a techy-nerd. I had a computer around me all my life and loved any kind of high tech gadget. Living in Ohio (Streetsboro, OH) I took the money I earned and had my dad drive me to a store (No longer in business) called BEST. It’s like a Service Merchandise but not Best Buy. There I bought the watch for around $50.00+.

After having the watch for sometime, I can’t remember what happened to it. Did I break it? (I usually took apart every electronic thing I could get my hands on.) Or did I just lose it?

Anyway, I never found the watch again, and for the longest time never considered it. I’ve been through a lot of watches and computers in my life (Which my parents just didn’t understand) so one lost watch didn’t mean anything. So I thought.

My family and I then moved from Streetsboro to the Chicagoland area and there I graduated high school at Wheaton North. During my high school years I wondered what happened to that watch and thought, “man that watch was cool, so advanced for its time”. My parents didn’t like Chicagoland very much and moved back to Ohio after I graduated and I stayed behind eventually moving downtown Chicago.

Living downtown I went to school at Columbia College studying Graphic Design never realizing what my life had in store for me. A few years later I started an Internet web Development Company called Andexler.com and last year we finally moved into an office space on Ashland Avenue in the city. I guess you could say my geeky techy childhood finally paid off. From all the computers and weird geek watches my life finally brought me to whom I am today.

I’m twenty-six now, and still to this day I can remember that watch and wish I still had it. Even in the 21st century I can still say this watch is techy cool. (Having five alarms and the neat little graphics it would do when the alarm sounds.) I’ve had Rolex’s, Movado’s, Gucci’s and other high-class watches, but nothing was as enjoyable as this Casio watch.

For the longest time I was searching for this watch and never knew the Model number, so trying to find it was like a needle in a haystack. Until a few months ago, I wrote to a Japanese watch forum and described the watch I was looking for. Someone replied back and knew exactly what I was looking for and said it was called a “Twin-Graph”. (Aha…. that’s right!) And the model number was AE-20W. I was thrilled just to have this information. Unfortunately, I found out this person DID have the watch and would not even consider trading/selling or anything for it. Must have the same momentous value as I considered it.

I’ve been on eBay, Casio, Japanese web sites, and all over the web and can’t find it anywhere. (And believe me I know where to look, I do this for a living.) I had a good feeling this was going to be nearly impossible to get a hold of. Until just the other day I was on the “Google” web search and typed in “Twin-Graph” there your forum popped up regarding a message that someone saw you wearing a Casio “Twin-Graph” in a photograph of you on the back of one of your books. (Amazing!)

So this is where the story leads us now. Back to you! Maybe you have some universal force that makes everything lead to you. I don’t know.

Right now I am so very impressed with your gratitude and politeness on this matter. It’s astounding that I happen to run into this meaningful piece of my childhood from such a fundamentally renowned author. Your interest in the matter is greatly appreciated.

So you ask me why I want this watch so bad?

My answer: I can’t say for sure if it brought me to where I am today, but it did have a major roll [sic] in my life as a tech/entrepreneur. It was the first time I used my hard earned cash as a child to lead me further into the computer technology industry that we all rely on today.

Again, I want to thank you for your sincere and quick responses to this subject. I will include my mailing address and information in a following email.

Thanks again!

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