I pulled the wrong box out of storage...(eye candy follows)

eBay, last November

This has always been interesting to me as I am someone who doesn't typically collect more than one example of a particular reference.

What is the purpose of having so many examples tucked away in storage never to be worn?

Is this mostly an investment? A way to corner the market?

I would open that box every single day. Jaw dropping beauties, congrats!!

Good questions, I think.

At my core, I am a coin collector. That’s how I learned to collect, as a child. So, a progression of dates of manufacturing is of interest to me. I’m fascinated by small differences and the stream of changes. I’d rather know a lot about a couple of brands than a little about a lot of them.


Not my coin. Syracuse, around 400 BCE

(Side note: one of my most favorite things about the long gone Harrah’s Auto Museum was the long line of Packards he had, one from each year they produced cars, in chronological order. I remember dragging my wife along to show her the year by year progression of advancements — she was not that interested!)

Packard Twelve, not my car, just added for the heck of it.

I invest a lot of time, hours and hours over weeks, studying a reference before buying anything. But, once I’ve got a reference down, it becomes easier to pick out the winners. And, having four or five nice pieces of a reference allows me to learn, in hand, what cases, dials and hands should really look like. This has meant that I can now frequently discern, from shitty photos, a potentially nice piece from a poor one. I’m sure I’m not the only one here who’s doing this.

In my experience, my first purchases of a reference are not as good as my later ones; most of my mistakes have been firsts of a reference, because I haven’t yet learned enough.

Generally, I’ve made my rule that I won’t buy what I won’t wear — this has saved me from a lot of purchases. But, in this instance, the really pristine 105.001s won’t get worn because they are so close to mint and I have so many other watches to wear. As we’ve all seen from the common deteriorated ones, these are fragile pieces; I’d like to preserve a few, as they are, so that subsequent collectors may enjoy them as much as I do. Honestly, I react to these Seamasters the way I do to little kittens — I just want to protect and cherish them.

I don’t intend to hold onto all of them. I’m sure that, when I’m ready, I’ll list stuff here first. I’m not foolish enough to think that these pieces represent an investment, given the vagaries of the market, particularly currently. And, I had no interest in cornering the market or depriving any other collectors. All of the pieces were bought on the open market; some of them were listed for weeks before I jumped.

And, I haven’t been able to get everything I’ve lusted after either. For example, I will always mourn my failure to get this:

BTW, thank you everyone for the kind words about this collection! It was (mostly) fun doing it.

These beauties need to see sunlight more often and be worn. Thank you for sharing. You have exquisite taste.

Wow . There isn’t a bad one in the bunch

I can't stop coming back and looking at what (I think) "could have been"! Sob/sploodge! Lol. Not to worry too much as I've got something in the works and will post pics upon arrival.

Out of curiosity, what kind of box comes with the 145.005 Seamasters? (I'm assuming that at least one of those beauties came protected!)