Are they one and the same? My collection is modest and for me it’s my recently acquired 5513. I bought it from the original owner who is a friend and colleague. I told him that I will keep it for the rest of my life. How about you?

 

My FOIS is my least expensive watch but has the most sentimental value, being a couples watch with my wife’s speedie (in my profile pic) also my daily (which adds to personal attachment).

 

#PCA Speedy is my most expensive. My most sentimental is a 36-year-old Seiko Quartz that has been out of commission for 5 years now. It's demise is what led me to the watch hobby.

 

My most expensive is the Railmaster 60th LE. The only sentimental one I have is my dad's Croton wedding-watch, though I am emotionally invested in some of my others.

 

My Seamaster certainly cost the most, but it is my first mechanical watch that has the most memories. I got it at a thrift shop in a little town that my wife and I like to wander through. A nice 25 jewel Relide for $25. I first discovered automatic watches when I picked it up. And down the rabbit hole I went...

 

Monetary Value (cost to me): Grand Lange 1 Moonphase in Platinum with Deployant Strap (stupid me paid around USD60K back in 2018 I think to the local AD to have it ordered as they only carry tang and buckle straps; back then, i only wanted to buy hi-priced items personally and from ADs)

Monetary Value (market value): 5711 Nautilus in Stainless Steel with White Dial (got it at retail - about USD24K - from same AD above; now even worth more than the Lange; i can sell this now and buy a Lange - even the one above; if i sell the Lange, i wont be able to even buy a Nautilus)

Sentimental Value: Sandoz Diver in Stainless Steel given to me by my father when i was in college

 

My 2254.50 - I bought his and hers SMPs for my wife and I back in 2008 with a small inheritance that came to me from a beloved grandparent. It was my first luxury mechanical Swiss watch and I will never part with it.

 

I'd have to think about the most expensive one. My most sentimental are two from Dad. A SS Benrus Wristalarm from the 50's, and a Gold Hamilton tank from the 40's.

 

The first execution Carrera in my profile pic is the most expensive, although my father would have paid less than a hundred dollars for it when it was new. He was involved in motor sports and aviation, so it and his Glycine Airman have great sentimental value, but the Carrera wins because it looks so damn good.

 

Both monetary (today) and sentimental in one watch owned for 50 years from new:

 

Nah. The one with the most sentimental value is a big, '70s Sandoz that my father wore.

 

Nothing especially valuable here these days, but I suppose my 911 flightmaster gifted by my father fits both requirements.

 

My most expensive watch is Datejust from 2018 and most sentimental is my grandpas quartz from 70's

 

My sentimental watch is my Speedmaster which my wife bought me, just love that watch. The most expensive is my DJ41 that I bought myself to celebrate a recent birthday.

 

My father's watch

 

I have a hand full of watches I would say are sentimental to me but #1 would be the first watch I ever got. When I was a kid, oh I would say 9 or 10 years old we used to play in our yard as well as our neighbors yards in Hamden Ct. One of these neighbors accidentally lost his watch in his own driveway, and again accidentally ran over it with his own car. He was known to tip a few. Being a friend of my dad, and knowing he liked to fiddle with watches, he gave the watch to me figuring my dad could fix it back up for me. I showed it to my dad and he did indeed fix it up as what my dad told me many decades later it wasn't too bad. My dad wore the watch on and off over the years as I really had no interest in watches as a kid. However he ended up giving it back to me once I got into the watch groove back in the '80's.

Here's a few pictures I just snapped of the watch. As you can see the case back has obvious rash from the driveway pavement and my dad said the biggest job was pressing the case back into it's approximate shape to clear the rotor while not bending it and lousing up the thread coupling to the case. It also still has it's original chipped crown. While not a big collector brand I assume this model is probably from the '50's as according to what our neighbor said he had it for a few years. I should probably be respectful and refer to that neighbor by his name. He was Thornton Wilder.

We actually have a few more watches that came from fairly notable owners and will get into them in another thread, but ole Thornton's was my very first watch. When our 11 year old daughter was a toddler she used to refer to it as "the runned over by a car watch" and would delight in showing it to anyone visiting at our house.

 

This has the most sentimental value. Bought for my 21st birthday by my parents on a special trip to Zurich: my first proper watch and worn exclusively until I bought an SMP in 2004. I very rarely wear it but I do keep it serviced. I wish I had kept wearing it exclusively as that first SMP then prompted an explosion of flipping ever since

 

My 165.002 Seamaster that started it all for me and I plan to wear it at my wedding next year! I don't think I will ever part with it.

 

I don’t have a watch that is the most sentimental to me that has the highest value among the watches I own. The watch with the highest value (that I owned, but now gone), was a Rolex Oyster Daytona Cosmograph from the mid 1980s. There was little sentiment involved with that one. None of the watches I have that might be up there in value at present, am I particularly attached to. I do have favourites to which I am attached, but these are not particularly valuable.