What are your watch collecting goals for 2026?

As has become a Christmas routine over the last couple of years, @MtV has posted his reflective look back on the year. I really enjoy this excellent thread as it forces me reflect on my collection and whether it’s going in the direction I want it to.
Several years ago, this made me realise it probably wasn’t and part of the reason for that was a lack of objectives or goals for each year.

So my goals for 2026:
1. I achieved on of my 2025 goals which was a vintage or neo vintage Rolex GMT with this 1675. I need to get it back from service and into my wrist.


2. More Camaro’s. A nice 7220 NT (I stupidly sold mine this year in a sales frenzy for reasons I still don’t understand) and an exotic dial or two. At least one of them with GF bracelet.


3. Another 321 Speedmaster.


4. Maybe another black/grey/blue dial vintage Datejust


5. Focus! Stop buying too many watches that don’t fit in with my plans and distract me from achieving them.


They’re the main objectives for me over the next year or so but I’m sure I’ll take some wild detours along the way.

What are your watch collecting goals for 2026??

In 2026 I hope to:

1. continue to cull the vintage Seiko collection (sold over 20 nice ones last year) and just keep the GS, Chronographs, and Seikomatics. And oh yeah also the Divers....

2. Hunt a decent Ed White

3. Keep eye out for GS 44

4. Add to Constellation box as opportunities come up

And I look forward to another year of OF member discourse! Best to all.

My main goals will be to address my project watches. My Gruen is completely screwed after its service early last year. I had it serviced with a local watchmaker, and not only did I take it back 4 times to fix issues with the day/date, total lack of water resistance, but now it has seized up, and the watchmaker closed his shop... Where i live, the very best person for a job is often pretty bad.



Anyways, get the Gruen serviced again, get a 176.007 serviced, an old beat up Ranchero serviced, a ladies UG serviced for a gift for thd wife, and finally, a weird Constellation case refinished to its original brushed finish, now that I've sourced its correct bracelet.

I’m not sure if we talking exactly the same details but I agree with the sentiment here. That’s why I started trying to set (loose) goals for myself.

I don’t want to be too rigid as that takes away half the fun and the option to strike when the opportunity arises.
However, in an attempt to limit my spending this year I found myself ignoring my main targets and buying watches that were less expensive (relatively). What that meant in reality was that I spent the same as I would have done had I focused on my preferred targets, but I just bought a greater number of (cheaper) watches!

When I started going through my collection a frw
Months ago I kept saying “oh I can’t sell that one, or that one, or that one”. But when I asked myself, “if I could swap them for a GMT, Camaro, different 321 Speedy, would I?” The answer was yes. So I had a strict cull. In hindsight I was too aggressive as there’s 2 I wish I hadn’t sold, but that’s ok, half the fun is finding them again anyway!

Hi

For me : same goals as in 2025 - focused on omegas

Top priority (looking actively for those) :

• 30T2RG
• T17

Priority 2 (Be ready whenever the occasion comes) :

• keep « completing » my Constellation collection.
• Seamaster with special dials like the ones shared on the 2577 thread here.

Not a priority buy still…
- upgrade my seamaster 300 165.024 to one with a creamy lume I like.

and start trimming the hedges ;-)

Well, the end of the year is always a good time to take stock ...

My watch collecting habits are bound to change quite a bit, as my watchmaker is retiring and winding down his activities. The cycle of "oh nice!" -> bought! -> in for a service is gradually coming to a halt, and I notice that it dampens my enthusiasm for buying quite a bit. Granted, I have someone else who is taking great care of my early quartz watches, which I have so far neglected (and my Seiko Grand Quartz models are definitely deserving of some care) ... and I'm also going to step into tuning fork watches because they interest me ... But the fact of the matter remains, I already have more watches than I can wear sensibly.

I keep a list of which watches I wear during the year, and at the end of the year I find that I wear quite a few watches only once or twice a year (some for longer stretches, up to a week, but some also only for a day or two). At times, this stresses me a bit, after all, I had all of these watches serviced, and was this a good use of my time and money? Or did I go overboard hoarding things that I'm barely wearing?

My feeling is that I need to get a bit more relaxed around my watches. I do tend to worry a bit too much about them, but I think I'm "getting there":

* Enjoying the things I have - which also means not worrying about the place a watch has in my collection, if it is "worth it" having it or not ... I bought all of them for a reason, so they can stay as long as I like.

* If I do end up selling something, letting it go isn't nearly as hard as I think it is. I have already taken "baby steps" in that direction this year (sold one watch in my family, and one to a friend who was very interested in a watch that I was hardly wearing at all). That's something I'd like to do more, a bit of "uncluttering", if you will.

* Wearing my "nicer pieces" more often - it is what they are made for, after all. Pretty much none of the watches that I have are "museum quality", so wearing them is not a crime against humanity.

* Not minding wearing them to work as well - I'm neither crawling through scratchy brambles there, nor am I getting inundated in torrential downpours. And if I do, I will have the good sense to put my watch out of harm's way, it's not rocket science.

* And yes, if I see something nice and it "clicks", I'll be the last person on earth to pass it by. Then again, that was always my way of buying things, I have a good idea what I like and enjoy the hunt + info gathering almost as much as the watches themselves.

So, these are my watch collecting aims for 2026. Definitely less about "what am I going to buy next", and more about "how to enjoy what I have".

Continue on the savings path that I'm already on. I'm not in the same boat as a lot of people likely are on here, in the fact that I don't own an Omega (My Moonswatch doesn't really count). One day I'll have a Speedy... but whether that'll be a modern Sapphire Sandwich, a vintage Speedmaster from the 60s, or a new Ed White 321... that's yet to be decided.