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Seiji Lépine
·What is wrong with #2? Don't you like paintings? I could spend days in a museum.
Why do you collect watches?
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Pastorbottle
·What is wrong with #2? Don't you like paintings? I could spend days in a museum.
Someone nailing a mouldy fish head to the wall of a gallery isn't an artist in my book, unless of course you include a bullshit artist in your definition of artist.
Some modern art is just a cynical con fest, of bullshit, on the other hand some modern art is absolutely striking and magnificent, but most of it is rubbish. I s'pose there was a hell of a lot of rubbish about in the classical era too but over time most of that ended up in the rubbish dump where it belonged. Unfortunately the rubbish amongst the modern stuff hasn't had sufficient time for the attrition rate to have taken its toll yet!
I can go to a gallery or a museum to see it, I don't have to spend good money to buy it at inflated prices.
Investment potential aside, there is not a lot you can do with art beyond it's decorative aesthetic.
And sadly the values of the best pieces is so great that a lot of it in private hands is hidden away in vaults so it can't even perform it's primary function of being seen to be appreciated.
Where as a collection of cars, boats, planes, antique furniture, guns or watches etc. can not only be beautiful, but fun to use and be practical to varying degrees, these items are more hands on, just looking at them on display is not enough to get the full enjoyment potential from them, though for most of us we have to settle for just looking at them, though sometimes we can get lucky and to see and hear something like a classic car or plane etc. being used either out in the wild or at an event.
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NGO1
·
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drpaul
·Because i can’t afford to collect cars. At the risk of being sexist, I think it’s a man thing. We appreciate the effort of mind and skill put into making these things. We are not complicated creatures and quite simple minded too. The most we can pry to see the beauty of things, is to open the back cover of the watch or open the hood. If it’s more complicated than that, like abstract art or poetry we will loose interest. In body building too we get sincere appreciation and admiration from men than from the original intended gender😂.
Watch kind of falls in the sweet spot of the majority I feel, it’s simple enough( to open the back cover I mean) and affordable enough, else we would have collected airplanes or tanks or battleships even.
Watch kind of falls in the sweet spot of the majority I feel, it’s simple enough( to open the back cover I mean) and affordable enough, else we would have collected airplanes or tanks or battleships even.
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goudaville
·I was something like 10 years old when Goldeneye came out so nobody will ever be cooler than Pierce Brosnan.
I always assumed a watch like that was unattainable and didn’t think much about it. Flash forward two decades and YouTube introduces me to Wristwatch Revival. I start learning how movements work and it clicked that now, in my late 30s, I make enough money to buy The Bond Watch.
I don't have an SMP, yet. My fun is learning everything I can about the different references, looking at prices and spending a hilarious amount of time looking at photos online. Ive got a handful of other watches—a Constellation, a Hamilton, a GShock—and just love looking at them and talking about them. I’ve also got a few screwdrivers and an ST36 I tinker with.
But when I think about why I started collecting watches, it’s because it’s fun and it’s also become a handshake, of sorts, with that awkward younger me who loved the movie (and game, of course). My watches remind me I’ve done ok, all things considered. Cheers!
I always assumed a watch like that was unattainable and didn’t think much about it. Flash forward two decades and YouTube introduces me to Wristwatch Revival. I start learning how movements work and it clicked that now, in my late 30s, I make enough money to buy The Bond Watch.
I don't have an SMP, yet. My fun is learning everything I can about the different references, looking at prices and spending a hilarious amount of time looking at photos online. Ive got a handful of other watches—a Constellation, a Hamilton, a GShock—and just love looking at them and talking about them. I’ve also got a few screwdrivers and an ST36 I tinker with.
But when I think about why I started collecting watches, it’s because it’s fun and it’s also become a handshake, of sorts, with that awkward younger me who loved the movie (and game, of course). My watches remind me I’ve done ok, all things considered. Cheers!
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Spruce
··London sunburst dial fanBecause ………..
Watch kind of falls in the sweet spot of the majority I feel, it’s simple enough( to open the back cover I mean) and affordable enough, else we would have collected airplanes or tanks or battleships even.
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peatnick
·A misguided attempt to deny mortality
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hen
·I was promised a watch for my 5 year birthday, I was a sign that I was growing up and becomming an adult. Since then I have loved watches and never been without one although I dont consider myself to be a collector I have got two Omegas and two Citizens. The fisrst was a Timex automatc that lost its self winding weight when I saved a really hard football shot, alas it could not be repaired.
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Waltesefalcon
·My great grandad's Illinois. My dad wore it when I was a kid and I was fascinated by it, and it is a fascination that I have never outgrown.
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Stini
·I wish I was around for this conversation when it started up 10 days ago... I've always been fascinated by the reasons one collects anything, but wristwatches seem to have a particular kind of fascination. I am also very taken with a few of the responses here and hope to get more insight if anyone is willing to answer follow-up questions about their specific collecting (or accidental collecting) experiences and feelings.
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Stini
·I collect watches because I like collecting generally with interests in several different collecting fields. I collect watches for most of the usual pack rat, hoarder, vintage aficionado, styling, and admiration of mechanical design kinds of reasons.
Underlying all of that however, is the fact that mechanical watches (especially round faced watches) are my friends. They need me to wind them and set them and bring them to life and I need them to keep me grounded and oriented throughout my day. Watches are always along for life's ride and the experiences gleaned, both good and bad.
I remember being eight years old and being bored with third grade class lessons so would take sneaky glances at my Caravelle watch on my wrist, timing how long beyond a minute I could hold my breath, counting down to lunch or afternoon recess, or else just idly watching the sub-second hand describe its labored circuit.
This carried on into adulthood and the farther I advanced in my career the more I found myself afflicted with boring and interminable staff and board meetings. I am religious and appreciate a good expository sermon, but there can be such a thing as a long and dull or sloppily composed sermon. A surreptitious glance at the watch-of-the-day offers a bit of cheer. Very few watches other than round faced ones are kept on hand here. It's the round faced watches that somehow give me an impression of cheerfulness. This feeling translates to pocket watches and mechanical clocks.
It's round watch faces that is the root of the watch appeal for me.
The Caravelle from the third grade no longer works and any watchmakers I petition to rehabilitate it's low jewel count movement seem to possess faces with mouths that curl up into a sneer of contempt when I inquire. I still have it though.
I probably could use psycho-analysis about my watch habit, but am of an age to not be too bothered about it.
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elephantcage
·I'm too afraid to fly one of these.
The watch and Serial Number plates is the closest I can get right now to owning one 😀
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bsowers34
·I don't think of myself as a collector, as much as a binge buyer. I went years and years with nothing new, and have bought 9 since 2022, 5 since the white speedy in 2024. Nothing since Snoopy 50 in February 25. Who knows what's next?
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Duckie
·I don't think of myself as a collector, as much as a binge buyer. I went years and years with nothing new, and have bought 9 since 2022, 5 since the white speedy in 2024. Nothing since Snoopy 50 in February 25. Who knows what's next?
Interesting reaponses in this thread.
For me it started with my Grandfathers pocket watch from 1911 and the layers to the story around how he came to posess it.
Now i toggle between being a collector and a binge buyer. But i will say that collecting in general and carefully curating a rather focused collection of a particular brand and line of watch can be very different things.
Then the binge buying is also a product of seeking a particular brand in a style that has a suite of qualities which i admire and are good value. IMO. So i have had to seek them out and jump on opportunities which have come in fairly quick succession. But i think the binge phase is over and i have to focus on the last 2 remaining watches i want to own, so that will be the end of it at some point.
I think. Lol.
So maybe i'm a little obsessed as well, though i have covered the full spectrum that i have listed above.
Also diversity has its merits.
Edited:
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JimInOz
··Melbourne AustraliaBecause it's more cost effective than collecting wives.
But only if you have ironclad pre-nups that exclude watches from any future legal "discussions".
But only if you have ironclad pre-nups that exclude watches from any future legal "discussions".
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Shabbaz
·I already told this before. But my father collected clocks, pocketwatches and wristwatches. The whole house was full of it. All the time you could hear the pendulums of the clocks ticking away. Me and my brothers hided the cigarettes of my father in one of his clocks from the 19th century. Now that clock is standing in my livingroom. My oldest brother has also a collection of wristwatches with bulova, IWC, Jaeger, zodiac, seiko, etc. All of the (grand)kids are wearing watches as well. My son has a 168.004 and a seiko. My girlfriend (still not married after 26 years and two kids) is wearing a speedy. My mother has a UG, Raymond Weil tank and other watches. My mother gave me the omega pocketwatch from my grandfather. It was one of the few things he could take with him when he fled nazi Germany to Amsterdam.
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gbesq
·This is why …
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noelekal
··Home For Wayward WatchesLovely reason contained within that collection right there gbsq!
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pdxleaf
··In Art We Trust@Shabbaz , you beautifully captured the essence of watches and clocks. Few inanimate objects besides clocks and watches make us more aware of our humanity. Maybe it's that they spark nostalgia, which reminds us of family and friends, which many different items could do. But watches and clocks seem more connected because we know they rubbed against the skin of loved ones for years. Anyway, your story is a great illustration of the attraction to me of watches.
This was our house growing up. My dad was career Army and we were stationed in Germany for two tours when I was young, which meant I grew up with wall clocks like the one below. That ticking sound transports me. My grandparents had mantle clocks that constantly ticked away.
Couple years ago I bought my own Chelsea clock. Very heavy, very accurate, and very long running. Winding it with the key is nostalgic.
Unfortunately, my wife and kids say the sound is too loud and complain about the ticking. It's tough for me to argue with them because I'm hard of hearing in my old age. I'll sneak a wind in every now and then.
The whole house was full of it. All the time you could hear the pendulums of the clocks ticking away.
This was our house growing up. My dad was career Army and we were stationed in Germany for two tours when I was young, which meant I grew up with wall clocks like the one below. That ticking sound transports me. My grandparents had mantle clocks that constantly ticked away.
Couple years ago I bought my own Chelsea clock. Very heavy, very accurate, and very long running. Winding it with the key is nostalgic.
Unfortunately, my wife and kids say the sound is too loud and complain about the ticking. It's tough for me to argue with them because I'm hard of hearing in my old age. I'll sneak a wind in every now and then.
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Canuck
·My first watch was a Westclox Pocket Dax. In the first grade (1946), I took the watch apart in the classroom. Teacher took it away from me, and phoned my mother. That evening, my watchmaker father asked me how the watch was doing! I don’t recall how that ended. My next watch was a Westclox wrist watch. By about 1955, I was wearing Bulova automatics, and by 1964, I was wearing a Bulova Accutron 214. I still have that one. Runs fine, looks like new. I see myself as a repository for wayward watches. I hate to think of an unwanted watch being turfed since nobody wants it. That has led to a collection approaching 150 watches, including one I collected on Thursday (30th) shown elsewhere in the WRUW forum, posted this morning. My situation is such that I can buy a dead watch for little, (or free), put some sweat equity into it, and voila’, the collection grows again. My soft spot is American railroad standard pocket watches which fascinate me. I also collect the odd clock, and I have two marine chronometers. Right now, I have 8 timepieces in the living room. Four clocks, two chronometers, and two wrist watches. My wife is concerned that she may survive me, and not to know what to do about my collection.
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