The Cost of Collecting

TLDR: How quickly did your tolerance for watch prices change throughout your watch collecting 'career'? Do you play the watch collecting game by certain self imposed rules?

----

After my recent Constellation purchase I have been thinking a bit about the 'cost' of my new Omega collection 'hobby'.

I only started collecting Omegas a year ago after my wife purchased me a gold plated Seamaster from the early 50s for our 10th wedding anniversary. As a result of a dodgy looking serial I checked it here in the forum and discovered that it had had a crown replacement, a bridge replacement, carried a replacement serial, and was in pretty rough shape.

Despite your calls for me to just accept the gift and appreciate the fact that my wife is an amazing person and gift giver (which she is). I returned the watch (with her consent) for a full refund (€1100), and set off on a journey to replace it with a watch that was as close to her original gift as possible.

After using these forums as a resource and scouring the internet for two months I found an almost identical 50's Seamaster in relatively great shape with everything intact for €240

Now, despite her original gift being over 4 times the value of this watch I still struggled to justify the cost of the purchase. Now some of you will laugh at this meager sum but this was my first vintage watch purchase, and I (my wife and I) had been burnt the first time around so I was cautious. With her support I pulled the trigger and the watch arrived a week later and was even more beautiful than the pictures had communicated...
Here started my love (read: 'addiction') to Omega watch collecting.

Over the last year I have accumulated 3 more vintage Omegas and with each purchase my tolerance for prices has increased to the point where €240 now seems like a joke.

Now I appreciate that all of us are in different financial situations but I'm curious to hear your views on 'the cost of collecting', how your views on price have changed as you've grown in this space, whether you've ever set yourself financial 'rules' to play this game by, and which watch started you on your collecting journey.

Thanks in advance!

Below is the watch that set the ball rolling.

Over time you notice the money less and appreciate the watches more up until a point, but the great thing is there are still great value pieces in the vintage world and even in the modern used market so opportunities abound.

Think this can be summed up in two words: "man maths".

Have I overlooked a similar thread?

Oh, I’m genuinely super sorry, please feel free to delete the thread

You’re good it’s not this topic it’s the “first watch” topic. But again there is only so much one can say on a topic things are bound to be repeated

You’re fine mate doesn’t need to be deleted

The watch that got me started on the crazy path is a late 80's Constellation Manhattan. It's what bit me with the watch bug again. Specifically, the Omega bug. The Speedmaster had always been my "someday" grail and I made it happen shortly after. That changed my money view a lot. Up until that point it always seemed like an absurd amount of money to spend on a watch. And it still is. Always something for the future. But almost immediately after getting the watch it didn't seem so bad anymore. Hell, anything less was damn near "affordable". Then I had to have a C-case Connie. Figured it would take a long time to find the one. Nope. Fell in my lap like a couple months later. Had to buy it. Then another fell in my lap. My rule right now is STOP.

I'm definitely learning from hanging out here that whatever watch I desire will probably come up sooner than later. Kaplan just posted pretty much my dream C-case for sale (if it was a 027 I'd be in deep shit). I just can't buy another watch. I don't even have mine back from service yet. I may cry about it a little bit later and lose some sleep over it. Maybe I need to get a watch fund reserve in the future so I can strike at unplanned watches. Or join Watches Anonymous.

I'm also learning about the servicing cost game. I'm in a position where I need a bunch of things serviced or need to keep in mind upcoming service costs in the next year or two. So watch budget needs to be allocated there on a consistent basis and can't just keep buying. I will now ungracefully end this long rambling post.

@Aroxx ! Loved your response to my question, thank you. The service cost as an ongoing upkeep aspect of watch collection is definitely something that I initially didn’t appreciate, especially as I live on a small isolated Pacific island where reputable watchmakers are few and far between (and charge accordingly), wait times are horrendous, and parts are even harder to come by. The local service fees make the initial watch purchase price pale in comparison.

After you have paid off your education loans, paid off the kids education fund(s) and house(s), maxed out your 401K, earned senior partner and can keep your Better Half exceedingly happy and mellow......feel free to buy, guilt free, a watch or two or..................

100.😁


Welcome to the Dark Side of the Moon.

Ouch that’s a tough one. Best solution… become a watchmaker. 😁


Or end up guilt free and buried with your one watch which is a Casio F-91W. Ok, maybe a MoonSwatch if you made senior partner.

I started collecting over 30 years ago. I actually joined the NAWCC around 1988/1989. Back then I was into Automata (mechanical dolls.) and facinated with the birds. A local clockmaker took pity on me and my poor cuckoo clock. (surprisingly I still have the parts in a paper bag.) For the first 5 or so years I mainly focused on clocks (and birds.) Then one day on a bus tour in Switzerland I got some Omega ephemera.

When I got back to the states and the Mart, I learned that there was not much demand in the early 1990s for Omega. Not finding formal training I informally studied with other members. Meanwhile I got addicted to the watches. I bought dozens.

Went cold turkey on watches around 2004 or so as I was into mechanical pipe organs. (Which I saw on another collectors tour.) Another Swiss trip in 2022 and I got re-infected with the watch bug.

So here I am a year later, and much poorer in the cash flow department. Seems this time around I have identified some gaps in the watch collection what simply must be filled.

One thing, is that while one misses out on watches. (or other things.) There are always other opportunities. The older I get the less I believe in free will. Why am I destined to have certain watches, but not other watches which are just as enticing.

Sometimes it seems the lesser auctions I win are rebounds when I loose the item I wanted. Usually a part to fix one of my existent watches. These are the dangerous waters to tread in. Sure I would like to have the watches I did not get. If I did have them then it would be added to the ever growing collection probably waiting for parts or some quality time.

On occasion I have drawn a line. There are some brands I simply do not want. Even to the point where when I do get such brands I do my best to simplify the items I do collect. Still I find it can be easier to untangle a hairspring than to sell a watch.

This makes for a better rule which I should have done, which is to target complete watches with cases, balance wheels and hairsprings.

Recently I got a job lot of 21 watches, plus 4 others to make it 25 or so. Somehow I seem to have parts for a dozen Landeron chronometers. 30 omegas and who knows how many A Schild generic 1950s white metal cased watches (think Doc Brown of Back to the future's generic watches.)

And I keep refreshing the tracking on yet another watch ...

Welcome to the madness where one is never enough, no matter how unique it is at the time.