Reply With QuoteCannot help - my collection seems to get bigger and bigger.
Now over 20, and whilst I do keep saying that some will go, there are always others to add.
Must admit that I do tend to buy more "pricey" ones now.
Hi Guys
Thought I would introduce myself, and pose a question at the same time.
I have been a long-time lurker on this and several other forums. Initially discovered watches quite by accident, but over the last few years have learnt lots (and gained numerous watches at the same time!) from various internet based resources.
Am getting to the stage now though where I find myself selling the lesser value watches and am thinking of going for fewer higher value pieces. It feels like I have been through the "buy lots cheap" stage and am starting to think that I would rather have 2 or 3 higher end pieces that would all get regular wrist time, rather than 7 or 8 that mostly sit in the watch box. I have also been heavily into dive watches, but even that seems to be passing now, with my eye regularly being caught by some nice chronos and pilots.
Not looking for therapy :-) but is this something others have gone through? Does everyone's collection "evolve" or for those that have been collecting for longer than me, is this cyclical, and in a couple of years time I will be selling the 1 or 2 to buy 7 or 8 cheaper watches?
Thoughts or opinions would be appreciated.
Cheers, Gavin
Cannot help - my collection seems to get bigger and bigger.
Now over 20, and whilst I do keep saying that some will go, there are always others to add.
Must admit that I do tend to buy more "pricey" ones now.
Welcome Gavin, I still haven't worked out how to sell a watch so my collection keeps growing.
Whether my tastes will change in the future we'll have to wait and see.
If it does then I suppose I will have to do something.
I bought my last watch over a month ago and it hasn't been off my wrist since then,
but I have no desire to get rid of my other ones.
Regards, Jon.
Yup - for me it's a natural process in collection :wink: :D
I've been "collecting" since, well, March this year, in the sense of taking an interest in watches. I've got a number of low value pieces around but these have been "gathered", not collected. I am looking to get a few 'quality' pieces as I want to wear them and appreciate them [no more than 5, top limit]. The thought of having loads of watches on winders doesn't appeal at all, even if I could afford them.
I'm not knocking large collections, it just doesn't float my boat. Most of my play money goes into firearms. :roll:
A nice beater, a standard work watch and a standard off-duty watch will do me for now. Seiko, Sinn and Precista Italian LE by end of year, I'm hoping. :D Maybe trade up the Sinn for Damasko DC67 for my 40th. That'll do me for now
I wouldn't be surprised if you buy more watches in future, more surprised if you sell the expensive ones to fund them. That tends to be part of a lifestyle change, I think.
It goes in phases. Once you get some nice ones you can backpeddle and go for an inexpensive one from time to time to tackle an urge or a need.... Its a never ending battle. :wink:
Welcome to the forum, Gavin.
I sell or modify the watches which I no longer wear or cherish regularly - whether cheap or expensive or try out plenty of straps to pimp it or make it fit. At the end of the day some of them has got to go. One reason is that I've bought nearly all my watches online. Another reason is that my taste in watches has evolved and somewhat matured.
My advice is to keep the watches you like no matter the price, kill the benchwarmers :twisted:
Cheers
Henrik
I find it's a constantly evolving thing, which often takes some unexpected turns. I initially thought I was a chunky dive watch-with-bezel only kind of a guy, but this morning find myself wearing a copper-dialed pilot! I might even put my gold plated LED on later.....
Jim :?
I flit from expensive to cheap, big collection to small collection. divers to dress watches, there is no stopping me.
I do admire people with the patience, knowledge and dedication to have a "themed" collection but that will never be for me, we are all different.
I find my collection (counting down from 30 at the moment as I rationalise) evolves - but my gut tends to be right in the long run. I will buy a watch based on its features, design, heritage etc , but if it doesn't 'sing' to me it will end up getting sold on a few months later. On the other hand if I buy one because I just love it, it will probably become a keeper.
On style, I guess we are all different. Dive watches do not do it for me, but military and fleiger style do. Dress watches score highly for me too. My main buzz is vintage pieces though.
Price? I suppose I'm still at the cheap stage, if expensive means £1000s on one watch.
I've gone the opposite way, from expensive to less expensive. If a watch is fundamentally replaceable (within, say, 3 months) I can wear it and not worry ... a ?10k watch would be worn on the sofa for a few minutes each night when the kids are in bed and the dog on her blanket ... so I get to wear a watch I like every minute of the day, and no worries about much capital being tied up.
Max. no. is about ten, or so.
Cheers,
Martin ("Crusader")
I've got a strange mix of quite expensive (£1500 per item insurance limit :wink: ) to modest (the PRS range) to a very, very modest - a £20 Wittnauer off the 'Bay.
I find that the one's I sell on have an 'engineering' or functional flaw rather than aesthetic one. Worse case was the lovely Orange Monster with no hand wind :cry: - or the Seiko Flightmaster with the unreadable slide rule bezel :cry: . Usually expensive watches are keepers because I don't buy them often and have to work against my Yorkshire upbringing to fork out for them in the first place :lol:
My strange collecting theme is to get one of each movement. I waited for over two years for a Valjoux 7750 in a DC-66 8) . I got the PRS-6 because of the unusual FHF 1380 11 sub-seconds movement. I still seem to have rather a lot of ETA 2824's though from O&W up to the DN :roll:
Still I'm no Vulcan in my collecting - it's not logical captain :lol:
I've not bought a watch for a while, and expect it to be a while longer before I do again. (Sorry, Eddie.) I don't sell them either. (Although I recently did get 50 quid for materials. ;) )
I've become more interested in non-tactical watches. In particular, ones with light dials, and interesting numerals. I would like one with a deep glazed look, but I don't know how. In particular, I don't know how to have the deep glaze and readable numerals.
Another dial thing which has interested me is where there is a segment brushed in a different direction from the rest of the dial, or where the segement is brushed and the rest of the dial is polished. I think that the Richmond Spencer has something like that.
Best wishes,
Bob
PS I'm a bottom feeder. I don't have any expensive watches. :) Although I've taken a quite big hit recently with regard to tools. :(
Hi Glen
Hmmmmm.....
Kept a couple of vintage plastic glass Rolex - collection is now 100% issued military pieces for now :lol:
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
.
Hi Gavin, and welcome. Before you understand your watch interest it would be better to first understand the mind and it?s nature. All I can say about it is ... whatever your current particular watch-type interest is, it will be different in a few years. So don?t get too bothered about it ... before the end of your life you will probably get to experience most watches ... so don?t spend more than you can and sit back and enjoy the show.
john
Every watch a story.
Welcome Gavin
Interesting about watch collections. I just buy what I like but it has to be good quality.
Collection of about 200 at the moment.
Cheers,
Neil.
Oh my god. Two questions ...Originally Posted by Neil.C
................
Collection of about 200 at the moment.
1. How do you decide which one to wear?
2. Which one are you wearing now and why?
john
Every watch a story.
Welcome to the forum Gavin. Almost all the watches I own and wear are either vintage or vintage style. There's very little in modern design which excites me or hasn't been done before and even if it hasn't been done before, it's usually ugly or weird.
I think the golden years of watch design are the 1930s-1960s and even today, many successful designs draw inspiration from this era. There was a simple elegance to many of these watches and they saw no need do plaster their dials with "Underwater Demolition Special Forces Commando Killer" or similar mega-macho names.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
I haven't thought of it that way before ... and I agree.
john
Every watch a story.
Hi Gavin,
I have six mechanical watches that I try and wear each one about a week at a time in rotation. I have specific watches for specific activities. One for formal occasions, one for mountaineering, another for cycling, a fourth for skiing etc. I also have 4 quartz watches. The beauty of these is that you can just pick one up on a whim and wear it for a few hours without having to set anything and then go back to the current mechanical. My entire collection would buy me about half a new Rolex Air King!
Cheers,
Martin
Quartz. Casio Dual time: RLT 29: Astina 1000m diver: Seiko Perpetual calendar (196,698Hz)
Mechanical. Glycine Incursore: Glycine Combat: Zeno Army Diver:
Vostok Europe Komandirskie: Seiko Orange Monster: Seiko 5 superior.
(I bought most at bargain prices!)
Eddie - I want one of those! PRS-99? Can you do it in a Fleiger style? 8) :lol:
I have about 3 that I would keep almost regardless and that I wear most of the time.
But I am trying newer ones as well.
Started off with chronographs and then moved onto divers - not sure where I am now!!! Bit of a mix really. Reckon I will end up with an eclectic mix overall.
If I don't wear something then I try to move it on - that is the theory anyway!
Cheers
Hello Gavin,
Sounds as if you're ready for a chrono pilot diver watch or two then. Plenty of them around.
My collecting has gone from cheap quartz to Rolex sub and now to a middle of the road reasonable $500, mostly in that diver/chrono/pilot range.
I cannot have more than one watch at a time for some reason, and even tried having two this year - I have to sell the extra one, as I cannot get over it sitting there looking nice.
I divert my new watch urges into strap/bracelet buying and swapping out - keeps me happy and I enjoy getting those looks when I have a watch strap shaped package in the mail :twisted:
I am on the search for the ultimate watch - one that will keep me perfectly satisfied and not wanting another for several years or perhaps ever!
It, of course, doesn't exist. So I enter into a relationship with a watch as a young man enters into a relationship with a young lady - it will be enjoyable, it adds variety to life and inevitably, it will end.
Here's my collection/ultimate watch - it features a classic design, plain dial/markers/hands, strong lume/general readability, gmt function/time elaspse capability, auto movement with sweeping seconds hand, no polished metal anywhere and reasonably sized - not to big or thick. Just what I want.
But I also see the chick leaning against the bar with the that nice 'come hither' look and nice rack. I think her name is Suzie DN-GMT. Might be time to move on :D
1. I only actually wear about a dozen to twenty that I keep to hand, the others are put away.Oh my god. Two questions ...................
Collection of about 200 at the moment.
1. How do you decide which one to wear?
2. Which one are you wearing now and why?
john
Many times I have bought a watch, put it away and never worn it. :shock:
2. I have changed the SM120 I had on this morning and am now wearing a bullhead Seiko chrono.
PS. I thought I had 30 Omegas but I've just been up to check and it's 40!
I'm sure they are multiplying :lol:
Cheers,
Neil.
Hello Gavin,
I started with military watches and am now flirting with early Seiko and Citizen divers. I seem to get into 'restoration projects' hoping I'll end up with a low cost watch of some value, but in reality the reverse is probably nearer the truth. Having said that I still get a buzz from restoring a rare or unusually marked military watch. Good hunting.
Terry
Welcome to the forum Gavin.
I joined about 18 months ago and have been slowly buying & selling since then - going from two watches then to 11 now. My tastes have changed over that time; I've discovered a liking for dive watches, won't now buy anything under 40mm as a minimum and dislike watches with corners (i.e. square or rectangular).
I also like buying secondhand through this forum as I like the idea of getting virtually new watches for significantly less than the full price.
I also buy based on colours, so for example I have two watches that are cheap & cheerful, quartz, with one black face and the other blue, that I wear as beaters depending what clothes I've got on at the time. Oh God I need therapy...
I love automatics, couldn't care less whether or not a watch can be hand-wound and I actually bought the Seiko Flightmaster off docd with the indecipherable slide rule bezel
Three of my watches sit in a drawer and will not be worn again - but I probably won't sell them as two were gifts and nobody wants to buy the other one. Believe me, I've tried :lol:
Is any of this helpful?
No, I didn't think so! Whatever else you do, have fun & don't remortgage the house!!
Simon
Thanks for the welcomes and comments everyone.
Good to see that everyone else seems to have it every bit as bad as me (or worse!)
I take the points about relaxing and enjoying the whole experience - exactly what i intend to do....
Cheers
Gavin
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