Is being a watch collector still fun?

repoman

I've been bored to tears with the hobby, since late last year. Pandemic hasn't helped I'm sure with no GTG's or events. I moved away from my local boutiques/AD's that I had good friendships with and that didn't help. Haven't acquired a new piece in over a year and haven't seen anything inspiring at all in that time. Price escalations haven't helped either as some of the things I was interested in got to unobtainium levels for me. I still wear a watch everyday, but tend to just wear the same watch everyday out of boredom, and too lazy and uninspired to fetch a different piece from the safe. I've begun contemplating selling off some watches to buy a boat (thinking I'd probably enjoy the boat more than watches sitting in a safe not being worn). Like @Taddyangle said, best part of the hobby has been the friendships I've made over the years, and I feel like those will remain whether I'm still engaged actively in the hobby or not.

kov

Okay, what's next?

airansun

But, there are plenty of watches that you don’t know enough about.

eugeneandresson

Vitezi

I scroll through online auction sites like eBay while on cup #2. Not as nicely curated as C24, but you're more likely to find treasure.

repoman

I've been bored to tears with the hobby, since late last year. Pandemic hasn't helped I'm sure with no GTG's or events. I moved away from my local boutiques/AD's that I had good friendships with and that didn't help. Haven't acquired a new piece in over a year and haven't seen anything inspiring at all in that time. Price escalations haven't helped either as some of the things I was interested in got to unobtainium levels for me. I still wear a watch everyday, but tend to just wear the same watch everyday out of boredom, and too lazy and uninspired to fetch a different piece from the safe. I've begun contemplating selling off some watches to buy a boat (thinking I'd probably enjoy the boat more than watches sitting in a safe not being worn). Like @Taddyangle said, best part of the hobby has been the friendships I've made over the years, and I feel like those will remain whether I'm still engaged actively in the hobby or not.

kov

Decided to start this thread as I'm really getting bored with the hobby and hope to get other members' thoughts on the topic.

2020 has been - for me - a blank year in terms of watch-related stuff happening. No GTG's, no fairs, no events, no auctions, almost no watch friends casual meet-ups, no brand factory visits, no museums, nothing. A void.

I decided to reshape my collection and open for other brands instead of Omega only for 10 years but now I realize that it didn't really bring the expected fun since the main component has been totally missing this year : sharing with real people. Yes, I still can share here but you will agree it's nothing comparable to the joy of opening a watch pouch in a GTG and talk about the new incomings with peers.

Funny enough, I am opening this thread exactly one year after Arial Adams wrote this article on A Blog To Watch : https://www.ablogtowatch.com/on-ariels-watch-is-being-a-watch-collector-still-fun/

I read his post again today and have the feeling that nothing has really changed so far, or maybe it even got worse, thanks COVID-19. 🥱

How do you guys feel?

Vitezi

Plenty of redials and frankens on C24 too

Larry S

I recently was invited to join a FB group. All Original Cars. Mrs S is already making threatening noises. 😜 .... Reading the comments there is very similar to dialog here sometimes. Noobs asking uninformed questions. Lots of shade thrown at dealers etc. Not having a pole barn or butler building is definitely a limiter on collection size.

airansun

To answer the thread’s question, my interest goes in cycles. I’ll get bored for a while and cease picking stuff up for some months. Then, some new aspect, a reference or brand, captures my interest and off I go again. Lately, I’ve been focused on WW2 era 321s, trying to understand the changes Lemania made early in their first couple of production runs.

This coronavirus hiatus is weird and disturbing, particularly the ways in which it has revealed our flaws as a society and as human beings. And the worst of it is that it probably isn’t yet even half as bad as things will get shortly. A very slow motion car crash. And I’m trying to not focus on my vulnerability to it, by age, medical history and blood type.

But, I will always remember this period as a sweet time because my wife and I have really found each other again, living alone together, in isolation, for the first time in years (adult children that keep coming back, sigh). Next February will be 40 years we’ve been together. I had forgotten how much I love her.

To put this in context: Twenty months ago, out of the clear blue sky, she’d told me she was leaving. Two months of hard hard conversations and much crying until she changed her mind. Now, we’re better than we’ve been in twenty years. I am so grateful for this and so sorry it took all of this pain to get here.

For better or for worse, life is a remarkable thing.

I found this the other night and really enjoyed the performance and the camera work. But, the big part was it giving me hope again that human beings could actually put their egos aside to achieve greatness together.