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BECOMING A COLLECTOR
When I was in 7th grade, I had a Casio calculator watch. I don’t remember where I got it; probably was a Christmas gift from one of my uncles. I do remember feeling that it gave me some sort of superpower. Like it was an external brain upgrade. Not only could I access the time and date at a glance (even in the dark with the light up function!), but I could also time things with the stopwatch, or I could perform basic math accurately as long as my fingernail could press the correct little rubber buttons. But best of all, I could spell “hELLO” upside down by entering the numbers 07734. This, of course, was very useful.
To keep my superpower somewhat secret I devised clever ways to wear my watch clandestinely, such as underneath a white and red Wilson sweatband on my wrist, or (my favorite) on my ankle – then I could cross my legs in math class and secretly access my superpower. Yeah, I was the cool kid in Junior High (I even carried one of my dad’s old suitcase style briefcases. Later I upgraded to a fanny pack.). The Casio calculator watch can still be purchased today for about $25.
In high school I went through a few fashion watches (“mall watches,” as they are ignominiously known by serious collectors), but eventually I quit wearing watches when I started carrying a digital pager or mobile phone in the late 90s.
Then in 2015 I started working with a successful businessman who purchased luxury watches as trophies to celebrate success milestones. He showed me the Rolex Oyster Perpetual (silver dial) that he was wearing, and I showed him the Samsung Gear Fit 2 that I was wearing. I’m not sure either of us was that impressed with the other’s choice. For a Rolex, I thought the stainless-steel Oyster Perpetual with silver dial looked rather plain and dull. I couldn’t understand why someone would spend $5,000 on it. He explained that he chose that particular model because it was very subtle and didn’t attract much attention. Ok, I guess.
This began to open my eyes and mind to a world with which I was only vaguely familiar due to occasional interludes with magazine advertisements seen in waiting rooms. I knew the names Rolex, Tag Heuer, and Breitling primarily, but I didn’t really know anything about them. I could see by the ads that very cool people wore them, and I surmised you had to be rich to own one. Of course, culture had informed me that Rolex was the best brand out there… assuming that “culture” itself is well informed.
Because I respected this businessman and wanted to form a bond with him, I sought to be more informed regarding luxury watches. I had a friend at church who was a watch enthusiast, so I asked him where to go to start learning. He pointed me to hodinkee.com, and thus began my journey to becoming a watch collector. As an engineer, precision metrology as well as the incredibly manufacturing techniques necessary to produce such tiny machines fascinates me greatly. On top of that, being left-handed I have an acute affinity for the artistic, and I discovered in mechanical luxury watches a melding of the pinnacle of mechanical engineering with the pinnacle of art and design.
Today I own about two dozen watches. Am I a watch collector? No. I don’t think so. I am an owner of watches, and this disappoints me. I have an assortment, but not a collection. I can look at my watches and trace my education in horology and the evolution of my tastes. I see purchases I regret and purchases of which I am fond. Even some of the watches I like (and will keep forever) are not watches I would buy today due to how I have grown in understanding and personal taste. However, I have an emotional attachment to them because of what they meant to me at the time I purchased them. But they just don’t get the same amount of wrist time anymore. The watches I regret are those that represented a brief phase in my journey where I was obsessed with a new niche of understanding. For the most part, they are very inexpensive and quirky watches that fall below the level of quality that I want to own in a watch collection. But they were cheap, and I bought them impulsively without thinking about whether they should be in a collection.
This begs the question, what is the difference between an owner of watches and a collector of watches? It can be summed up in two words: Intent and Discipline.
A true collector will have a clearly defined reason(s) for collecting that gives harmony to all the pieces in his collection. It could be a certain style of watch (like pilot or dive watches), a specific brand, a time period (for vintage collectors), unusual functions (like perpetual calendar watches, chronographs, or moon phase), etc, or any combination thereof. The possibilities are endless. The really hardcore collectors get so narrow in the focus of their collection that at first glance all of their watches look identical. However, under close observation minor variations can be seen to differentiate them. And I guarantee that you will find no group of people more obsessed with minor variations than watch collectors!
This brings me to the second point, discipline. A true collector with clear intent will exercise restraint in purchasing watches and will wait for the right buying opportunity for exactly the right piece. The collector will also understand that sometimes less is more. Just because a watch could be in the collection doesn’t mean it should be in the collection. Knowing what not to buy is possibly more important than knowing what to buy, because you will do a lot more “not buying” than buying. A restrained collection is more enjoyable than a broad-ranging assortment of watches.
(continued in next post)
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