I know the exact sensation you describe here. But I can never decide whether it's a property of the thing itself, or where I was in my life when I stumbled onto it. My hunch is that it's mostly the latter: artifacts feel seminal when they hit as a formative time when we first gained a new capability.

I'll always have a fondness for the Apple IIe and the early Macintosh because those were what I had when I first started using computers to create. I'll always love late 90s electronica because that's when I fully discovered my love of music. My Lodge Dutch oven will hold a special place in my heart because I got it right when I was really learning how to cook.