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At what point did you - or will you - scale back or sell your collection?

gbesq
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I’m approaching retirement. As an attorney, collecting vintage watches has been a fun ride and a great hobby because I dress well for work and I’ve been able to rotate and wear a medium sized collection of vintage watches. When I stop working, however, I envision selling off most of my collection and keeping just 3-5 of my favorites. What did you do or what will you do with your collection and when?
 
YY77
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My watches will all go to my brothers' children, maybe when they turn 25 or 30 one on their birthday and the rest when I leave for the happy hunting grounds.
 
Pastorbottle
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Unless I have a great catastrophic financial disaster, I don't see any likelihood of me cashing in
 
cakey007
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I am currently getting prices on a old Rolex that I am thinking of selling - primarily to release some money as I am buying another car but also my tastes have changed and I just don’t use it so rather than it sit there , make use of the money elsewhere.
Longer term I think watches will be sold off more slowly as taste and use change . There is always the idea of leaving watches to my children but that’s so far off and their tastes are not the same as mine so cash would be better.
 
hen
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You would have more time for watch collecting. Sell everything, regret and start over from scratch.
 
p4ul
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The first thing to do is send me an inventory with ‘mates’ prices shown!

Seriously, I have acquired more since retiring, so I would take a lot of time to thin the herd, sell the least worn/enjoyed first. Unless of course you know the 3 - 5 now, and are certain that choice is set in stone?
The great thing about retirement, stating the bleeding obvious, is having time to sit back and appreciate what you have and where you are in life.
Best wishes, enjoy it.

About that Ranchero……
 
gbesq
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p4ul p4ul
The first thing to do is send me an inventory with ‘mates’ prices shown!

Seriously, I have acquired more since retiring, so I would take a lot of time to thin the herd, sell the least worn/enjoyed first. Unless of course you know the 3 - 5 now, and are certain that choice is set in stone?
The great thing about retirement, stating the bleeding obvious, is having time to sit back and appreciate what you have and where you are in life.
Best wishes, enjoy it.

About that Ranchero……
lol. I said “envision,” not “will.” And if I do thin out the herd, the Ranchero will be in the 3-5 group.
 
M'Bob
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gbesq gbesq
I’m approaching retirement. As an attorney, collecting vintage watches has been a fun ride and a great hobby because I dress well for work and I’ve been able to rotate and wear a medium sized collection of vintage watches. When I stop working, however, I envision selling off most of my collection and keeping just 3-5 of my favorites. What did you do or what will you do with your collection and when?

Great question. When you do retire, how will you fill the time? Usually, with hobbies. Are you a golfer? Painter? If not, what about the possibly that the new free time allows you more time and interest for horologimania?
 
blufinz52
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M'Bob M'Bob
When you do retire, how will you fill the time?

As one who has been retired now for 4 years, I can attest that the 'honey-do' list expands sufficiently to keep one quite busy.
 
Tony C.
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When they pry the the Multi-Centerchrono from my cold...

nah, just kidding. I've been scaling back for years, but still have a long way to go to reach the 3-5 level. 😁
 
Pascal S
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I have the unique perspective of having had to pretty much start over after being forced to sell almost all my watches a decade ago. Financial circumstances left me no other choices, and the pain I felt then led me to a self-imposed "exile" from horology which was finally lifted when COVID struck.

So now I am slowly rebuilding my collection, having had the unbelievable fortune of buying back two of my actual timepieces (my birth year Speedy and my dad's Cosmonaute) and recently finding a replacement for my departed Tutima F3. Given how the market has soared over the last 10 years, I know that I'm unlikely to get back examples of the watches I cherished most (my "Holy Grail" Speedmaster or the Heuer Audi Sport to mention just two) but I still hope. And my tastes have evolved as well, so other things are on the radar as well.

The thing is that I wear all my watches. Some more than others of course, but I love all of them and just cannot imagine getting rid of any. Some of the watches I sold during the great cull are not really missed, so I will not pursue them again, but others still leave a void. So I guess that unless another period of financial hardship was to affect me, I'm keeping my watches until the day I die. And retirement will just give me more time (though less means) for hunting new ones.
 
jshopper1
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I retired 10 years ago, moved to an island on the SE US coast. The island is a vacation and retirement destination.

After a couple of years of “being on vacation” my wife and I started volunteering at a local not-for-profit thrift store. At the store my duties include inspecting donated watches and clocks and preparing them for resale. Most of the donations are costume jewelry pieces and I install new batteries.

But, dadgum it, we get a fair share of collectible time piece donations as well. My collection has grown since I started at the store. Working there is like being a kid in a candy store.

I found that being retired gives me more time and resources to add to my collection. I really need to do some thinning.

My point being that retirement may allow your collection to grow. The lure of these things doesn’t change just because you are retired, dadgum it.

I hope that whatever retirement brings for you and your collection it works out to your satisfaction.
 
YY77
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Dan S Dan S
I'm taking them with me.
Could you share your location so I'll know where to dig?😗
 
gbesq
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YY77 YY77
Could you share your location so I'll know where to dig?😗
Cremation and deep water, Dan …
 
Larry S
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gbesq gbesq
I’m approaching retirement. As an attorney, collecting vintage watches has been a fun ride and a great hobby because I dress well for work and I’ve been able to rotate and wear a medium sized collection of vintage watches. When I stop working, however, I envision selling off most of my collection and keeping just 3-5 of my favorites. What did you do or what will you do with your collection and when?
So I retired in April 2019. I used to wear every watch in my collection. Since retiring, I’ve managed to find time to sell two. I know I should get busy selling more. It’s not a priority, I don’t need the money and it’s a PITA. Irony is that a large percentage of my collection came from offshore, but those markets are pretty much closed to US members unless we want to eat the stupid tariffs, lie and risk seizure or we find a buyer willing to pay up. I’ve been asked to do the first two and refused. The other issue is that the watches are in my collection for a reason. I like them and some have good stories and memories attached. It’s hard to let go. I’ve had advice to just go to an auction house and be done with it. That may happen. In the meantime I will continue to chip away.
 
YYTIN
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Well I’m still 20ish years away for ‘normal’ retirement time… so that’s not this perspective that pushes me to do something. Rather the fact that I’ve been « hoarding » too many watches (more than 50) and that I am now looking after either finer or rarer models and examples. I love all of my watches but not equally and if I want to improve my collection it can’t just be addition. So consolidation is needed to afford some newer grails.

Regarding numbers, I doubt I will be ok with less than 20 ; I actually like rotating and having to chose a watch for the day. Also I intend to keep some collections just for the sake of collecting not « only » to wear.

Regarding models selection : this is still a process and not a definitive list for me. There are watches like a 5513, an A385, an omega chrono 33.3, a 30 T2RG, early carrera with v72, an ingénieur etc that I wan’t to wear/own for a while… before knowing if it should stay or not in my own hall of fame. but for that I need to sell off a few : a third to half of what I own. And I am not quick to sell.

What I know is that I don’t care so mush about genres 😀 I realize I can wear any kind of watches with a pair of jeans and a T shirt and feel completely good with it. From 32mm to 44mm, from gold to steel, From dressy watches to chronos and divers…It’s all good with me. It just have to please my heart.

But then it is an evolving process I may change taste or views in the coming decades ;-)
Edited:
 
river rat
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When I retired, I thought I could not afford this hobby since less money will be coming. Even sold a few because I was moving to Montana and thought I might need some more money for the move. And Montana watch collectors is a rare breed not many. Found out the hobby not dead when you retire it's a hobby and when retired you got more time to collect the web is your friend got a few large Chelsea Pilot House deck clocks I could not afford when working they went down in price to be affordable added a lot more vintage watches after retiring before the price on them shot up. Have slowed down due to the price going up later in retirement. But still ad stuff when I see a deal and sold off some of the pocket watch collection since I am more into vintage wristwatches now. Now the ones I sold in early retirement now I can't afford to get them back like a Depollier trench watch with the early screw down crown. So be careful what you let go because this itch of collecting watches will come back when bored and you will wish you did not let certain ones go. See you will remember the price you paid for one you want back and if it's double or more you can't in your right mind pay double or more and forget about getting it back. I even got a incoming it's a bad habit to kick.
 
seekingseaquest
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@gbesq are you sure that retirement will impact your desire for cool watches, just because you won’t have a “need” for them? For me, watches are far from necessary, so if anything, more time will have an inverse effect 😀

I imagine the number of watches I have will decrease as my collection matures, which helps with sales strategy. I’ll probably continue to sell off pieces I don’t appreciate enough and then keep the rest until death.. after which they’ll either be passed on or sold via a trusted friend or dealer.
 
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