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Tubber
·Mine has been reinvigorated by Seiko, of all things.
Do you know anyone who lost interest in the hobby?
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AnotherDon
·A watch buddy of mine lost interest and sold virtually all of his watches when he fell into the deep end of the collectible fountain pen pool. I've collected some strange stuff in my life (movie posters, baseball cards and vintage yo-yos), but for the life of me I just don't get fountain pens as a hobby.
😁
😁
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JimInOz
··Melbourne AustraliaHi.
I have lost interest .....
This is on my eBay watch
Dead Link/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/322878731141
But I am still a moderator
Bill
Hahahahahaha
KSR? Why not an ASR, or why not even go the big time with a Friden Flexowriter?
(Maybe that's why I'm half deaf 😁)
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Kmart
·As vintage sports/tool watch collecting becomes more and more the exclusive domain of those who are able to pay well into five or six figures for a watch, I find myself losing interest gradually. Fortunately there are more interesting new vintage-style offerings coming out each Basel these days than there were only a couple of years ago.
This, 100%. I'm definitely not losing interest in watches as a whole (quite the opposite, in fact), but my interest has shifted almost completely away from vintage watches at this point and onto modern watches instead. Like a lot of people I started out with aspirations of collecting vintage sports watches -- Rolex, Omega, Heuer, etc. -- because that's what really interests me, but it seems that I unfortunately arrived a few years too late for that. Even if I had the dough, I don't think I could ever stomach spending five figures on a vintage watch, let alone six figures.
But like you said there's been so many fantastic releases over the past few years in the sub-$5000 range that I can't be too mad. It may not be the best time to start collecting... but it's a good time to be a watch enthusiast for sure!
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jaspert
·Some of us go through phases. I lost interest in watches for just over 10 years but kept the pieces. Wandered into audiophile land ( another money pit) for a few years. The interest was rekindled 4 years ago after i brought a Black Bay and it is now back with a vengeance, mainly vintage now.
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sxl2004
·
😲😲😲😲😲
All I am saying is that vintage flex nibs are all the rage
😁😉😀
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tyrantlizardrex
·The more time I spend in the hobby, the more pockets of weird I discover that I don’t understand, and often don’t want to be involved in.
But that’s cool... different strokes, for different folks.
But that’s cool... different strokes, for different folks.
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cicindela
··Steve @ ΩFBut Dennis escaped and is still on the run - unless Trev and Ash are holding him at some black site on the Gold Coast.
No , I spoke to him the other day. He is still on the lose, still the defiant rebel. I think he is responsible for the delay in Speedy Tuesday shipments, but he just says, "prove it" .
Often he takes the food we leave in the backyard, so I know he is usually lurking
This time of year he spends a lot of time down in Florida, though I think his buddy Gator is out town.
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citizenrich
·Do you guys really feel like vintage is a money pit?
If you know me you know I'm not bragging but I've got more than a couple watches which are 10+ baggers. Believe me, any watch I've ever made money (on paper) is pure dumb luck.
Maybe it's because it seems like a lot of work and I'm incredibly lazy but a lot of my luck is because I never sell anything. Like I wrote: dumb luck.
Just like the stock market, I notice a lot of guys hold onto their dogs and flip their "winners" as soon as they can make a few bucks. This is a terrible strategy for success...😀
If you know me you know I'm not bragging but I've got more than a couple watches which are 10+ baggers. Believe me, any watch I've ever made money (on paper) is pure dumb luck.
Maybe it's because it seems like a lot of work and I'm incredibly lazy but a lot of my luck is because I never sell anything. Like I wrote: dumb luck.
Just like the stock market, I notice a lot of guys hold onto their dogs and flip their "winners" as soon as they can make a few bucks. This is a terrible strategy for success...😀
Edited:
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Nobel Prize
·I get it.
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STANDY
··schizophrenic pizza orderer and watch collectorI have not lost interest in the hobby but there has been a shift within the interest. After a 10 year buying spree I have not bought a watch for more than one and a half year. The quest continues and the thrill of the hunt is still there - but the urge for "the kill" seem to have stopped.
Very similar than above.
Last year I had bought 8 watches by June. This year I have bought 2 or 3 for the whole year ( couldn't resist a 39jewel GP the other week )
The game is still there but it's changed and how you play it has changed even more.
With great exposure, watch collecting has grown from nowhere in the last 5 years, just look at some of the early posts by many of the Mods from 2012-3 Only 5 or 6 posts per thread with lucky to be one or two likes ( basically a few mates chatting ).
With over 20k new members in the last few years , this has changed the forum some for good but some for ............
Like @tyrantlizardrex said also the longer you are in this game the more paths to unscrupulous collectors and sellers become evident.
And fountain pens are cool. Get yourself a nice modern Lamy for about $3-40 and try it before you jump in the vintage pool ( you will be jumping in that pool )
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tyrantlizardrex
·I find myself in the very fortunate position of talking to a lot of collectors face to face, and handling a lot of beautiful watches.
It’s had two effects:
1 - I’ve become desensitised to the high “value” of some pieces.
2 - I’ve become certain that if I had all the money in the world, I still wouldn’t be prepared to pay what some stuff is “worth”.
That now shuts out huge swathes of things that I would like to own - Rolex sports watches? Forget it. Vintage Speedmasters? No chance. UG chronographs? Did I lose my mind?!
But that’s cool... there’s a lot of other stuff out there that’s budget friendly, and to my taste.
This year I bought a Nomos... something I didn’t think I’d do, but the Club Campus design/fit/price just works for me.
And then got into early 1960s manual wind Seikos... again, cool things for £50-£100.
Priorities shift, ability both physically, and psychologically to spend prices asked change... you don’t have to bail out, you just have to adapt.
Kinda like the rest of life outside of this silly hobby. 😀
It’s had two effects:
1 - I’ve become desensitised to the high “value” of some pieces.
2 - I’ve become certain that if I had all the money in the world, I still wouldn’t be prepared to pay what some stuff is “worth”.
That now shuts out huge swathes of things that I would like to own - Rolex sports watches? Forget it. Vintage Speedmasters? No chance. UG chronographs? Did I lose my mind?!
But that’s cool... there’s a lot of other stuff out there that’s budget friendly, and to my taste.
This year I bought a Nomos... something I didn’t think I’d do, but the Club Campus design/fit/price just works for me.
And then got into early 1960s manual wind Seikos... again, cool things for £50-£100.
Priorities shift, ability both physically, and psychologically to spend prices asked change... you don’t have to bail out, you just have to adapt.
Kinda like the rest of life outside of this silly hobby. 😀
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Donn Chambers
·I was actually talking to a friend of mine and was shocked to learn he was a big watch guy 5 years ago. Rolex's, Omegas, etc. Then he lost interest in the hobby and sol all his pieces off. He now wears a plain Tissot watch daily. I was surprised since I have not heard of that before. Do you know of anyone who has done that as well? I always thought once bitten hard to permanently lose interest. I myself have gone through dry spells but have come back.
About 7 years ago, I had 5 Omega watches of various styles and vintages - a flightmaster, an 80s vintage Speedmaster, a Speedmaster Mark III, a Seamaster 300 from 1966 (not a Watchco, but had been serviced by Omega And they replaced with new dial, hands, and bezel, unfortunately; seller had the receipt), and a more modern Seamaster GMT (the only one I bought new, in 2005). I also had several old Longines and Hamiltons. I was always looking at the newsgroups and pursuing eBay, looking for new watches to hunt.
But every time I wore one of the watches, I always wanted to be wearing another one. And there was always something about each of them I didn't quite like (the white baton hands on the Speedmaster, the thick case of the flightmaster and Mark III, the fact the Seamaster 300 wasn't "all original").
I finally realized I wasn't happy "collecting" watches I wasn't going to wear every day. So I sold 'me all and replaced them with the First Omega in Space Speedmaster pictured in my avatar. For me, it was the right decision, and I am much more content today, knowing I'll grab my Speedmaster in the morning, wind it up, and go, without debating which of my collection to wear. I also like the hands on the FOiS so much more than those on the standard Speedy and there is NOTHING about it I don't like.
I still read the newsgroups time to time, looking at all the new Omegas, but that urge to buy another and start a collection again hasn't hit again.... although the new 60th anniversary Railmaster looks awfully nice. 😀
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Archer
··Omega Qualified WatchmakerI've seen lots of people come and go from the hobby. In my experience those who come in hard and go through the flipping of many watches early on tend to be the ones who sort of "burn out" the quickest and move on to something else.
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dan7800
·I can totally see why people burn out. It is an expensive hobby (to both get into and maintain). I kind of wish I never got started with it 😀
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Ninja2789
·You know, I feel like watch collecting kind of goes in two directions. One is more focused on the name-brand recognition and the status symbol of it all. As a result, the hobby is more focused on either:
1. Finding a good deal on a modern piece (Rolex Subs, Omega PO, Brietling Navis, etc)
2. Finding rare LE editions of modern watches
This may be just my opinion, but when you're focused on name brand or status, this hobby becomes very transactional. Very rarely do you have to search for 1-2 years to find a watch and it's just a matter of whether you can afford it. So you buy a $5k watch, then you buy a $10k watch and it's the action of buying itself that gives you the meaning. Unless you've got a solid watch community in your city (which is rare) you end up with a lot of expensive watches and not a lot of memories to attach to them.
I can see where the hobby loses interest in that regard. But that's why it's kind of interesting to see all these reissues hitting the market. It connects people to a sense of history and story-telling for the watch where a modern watch is more of a gateway to something deeper and more meaningful.
Or maybe you just end up becoming financially destitute and you have to figure out how to justify to your wife that you've somehow started an alternative asset fund in watches.
And for those of you finance guys you'll realize that statement isn't even true since watches probably reflect the same beta as the equity market.
oh well.
1. Finding a good deal on a modern piece (Rolex Subs, Omega PO, Brietling Navis, etc)
2. Finding rare LE editions of modern watches
This may be just my opinion, but when you're focused on name brand or status, this hobby becomes very transactional. Very rarely do you have to search for 1-2 years to find a watch and it's just a matter of whether you can afford it. So you buy a $5k watch, then you buy a $10k watch and it's the action of buying itself that gives you the meaning. Unless you've got a solid watch community in your city (which is rare) you end up with a lot of expensive watches and not a lot of memories to attach to them.
I can see where the hobby loses interest in that regard. But that's why it's kind of interesting to see all these reissues hitting the market. It connects people to a sense of history and story-telling for the watch where a modern watch is more of a gateway to something deeper and more meaningful.
Or maybe you just end up becoming financially destitute and you have to figure out how to justify to your wife that you've somehow started an alternative asset fund in watches.
And for those of you finance guys you'll realize that statement isn't even true since watches probably reflect the same beta as the equity market.
oh well.