Biggest mistakes are following the crowd and getting a watch just because other people have it, and not seeing what else is out there while enjoying your current collection.
I have been into watches since the late 1980s and my conclusion is its more satisfying to have a small collection of high quality pieces that all get worn rather than a large collection of lower quality box tickers (pun intended) that just tick away in the watch box & rarely get any wrist time.. But buy what you love and love what you buy. 👍🏻
I have a decent sized collection and keep a core of versatile higher quality pieces. So my core consists of a black dialled, black bezel dive watch, navy dialled chrono, gold cartier tank for a dresser piece amongst some others. Then I have the cheaper lower quality stuff that doesn't get worn as often like you say, as in my Seiko alpinist, longines conquest heritage etc. I have a vintage gold plated tissot moonphase I just acquired. That was a total box tick. It wasn't expensive because I knew I wudnt wear a moonphase that much, but still wanted one in the collection. It was new old stock so immaculate too. Quartz though. Tbh, when it comes to moonphase I prefer quartz cos its a pain to set and if it was auto it be stopping all the time.
@@pb8876 ooo you've got some very nice pieces there. Very nice collection, sounds about the "right" size for variety and different situations too. You have good taste 👍🏻
@@stevefox8605 thanks man. I'm a box ticker collector like you referenced. I can't help myself, I just love watches of all different types and price points, and learning about them etc. I like to have a very varied collection that I'll always have the perfect watch for any occasion. I like to have dark dialled sports watches, light dialled sports watches, gold tone dress watches, polished steel dress watches, new ones, vintage ones, different colours, variety on bracelets and straps. Different movement types, different complications. Brands from different countries. Case shapes too, so my next purchase is going to be a tag heuer monaco because I don't have a square watch. You name it, I try and tick that box somewhere. Sometimes 1 watch can tick several boxes. I do try to stay sub 40mm on case size though. I've got watches on the limit of 40mm and some as small as 33mm. I recently sold all my 40mm plus watches cos I've gone off those bigger sizes. I used the money to buy a brand new 39.5mm omega planet ocean last August. I don't have a gmt either. I'm thinking of getting a ball roadmaster marine gmt in pepsi colourway. Love that watch and its just came out. Check it out if you've not yet seen it. I've been struggling for the longest time to decide which gmt I want to add and think I've found it with that watch. Like you say, I do struggle to give them wrist time. Even more so with these lockdowns.
@@pb8876 😂 yes, absolutely - lockdown, that is too much free time, and the Internet are a fatal combination for the bank balance!! My main lifelong obsession is bikes, I got a classic Ducati 900 money pit on the day before lockdown started so the spending on watches has eased up (I'm furloughed, but consider myself lucky to have a job seeing my friends loosing jobs they've had for upto 30 years)... The latest addition being an Aquis I got a couple of weeks ago.. & that's the last one for a few months. (🙄🤣) Watches are a fine obsession, with infinite possibilities and combinations,& no right or wrong. We all strive for our own perfection & drawing our own "line in the sand" that determines whether we attain contentment or are mostly derive our individual pleasure fromthe thrill of the hunt.... My "line in the sand" has been redrawn many, many times!! Enjoy the hobby/obsession, it's great 👍🏻👍🏻
I wished I had practiced restraint in my first year. I think I gave into the high of the hunt that I didnt have enough time to enjoy them. However, going through so much so fast did help somewhat in identifying what I liked and what I didn't like. Thankfully, I had set a reasonable annual budget so I didn't go overboard.
Great vid again. Love the quality of your videos It's not clear if you made any of those mistakes and what they were? My thing was to buy too quickly. Got a speedy at retail... didn't connect with it. And when I tried to sell, I lost 25%... that really hurt and nearly put me off the whole thing. It's very true what you said.... taking my time next time
IMO, the first point is one of the most common. Many people think that an everyday watch means 100M of water resistance and tough as a brick while being able to be dressed up. While I think of an everyday watch as one that fits your daily lifestyle. So if you can't swim, then your watch only needs to be splashproof. If you're always in formal attire then a delicate dress watch maybe the perfect everyday watch for you etc.
Great advice!! And great vid AB! One of mine was getting a watch that was way, way too big without actually seeing it and trying it on in person. And now gonna have to sell that puppy just because it’s just looks way to ridiculously big! Second, was getting a quartz watch as one of my very first real watch without actually knowing anything about the brand, without knowing more about the watch world in general, and just doing my homework before hand. Although I still have that same quartz watch, I should have waited bit more till I was a ‘bit more familiar about other potential purchase alternatives, the pros and cons, etc.
Very good video and advice. Sometimes we get so excited with this hobby that we forgot that the reason for it is to enjoying it and learn from it. Quantity is not what this hobby is about is the love we got for it and the learning we acquire through it.
Good points. Re the first point about wearing a watch to suit your lifestyle: it’s a shame that you mainly see dress watches worn by ‘non-enthusiasts’ these days. Judging from the watches featured on most watch channels, it seems that 90% of enthusiasts never wear a suit or cuffed shirt and many are very keen swimmers and divers! I feel a little sad that dress watches receive so little love in the watch community when they have so much heritage.
When ever I think I need another watch I just wear the ones I have. I fall back in love with them and my desire to buy another goes away. This is my way of dealing with the watch lust.
I believe you must making mistakes, because you must find your own way to watches. my main recommendation is avoiding watches beyond 1000$ for a while until you will find out what is your real test.
If you are not keeping it forever and like myself; will probably move to on something else in a year or two -the best deals are on the eBay pure auction ( no reserve -low starting bid) ITS ALL ABOUT BUYING IT RIGHT
I do actually think 80/20 rule applies here but in a weird way. I would say for 20% of what you own pay 80% of your budget and make sure you have retention value in mind and play with the other 20% of budget and buy whatever you like; so let's say you have 20k to spend, what I would do is spending about 16k on watches that hold their value well and 4k on watches that I enjoy; now that 16k is probably a Rolex Sub that holds value and the other 4k could be a GS or ....
Haha! If you like the look of a watch and it functions well i think that’s a great strategy. Part of me wishes I hadn’t sold a beautiful green dial Seiko quartz kinetic i bought at the beginning of my watch collecting journey. I gave it away because it was quartz thinking I only wanted mechanicals. Really miss it now.
@@jacc88888 Quartz are great. And there’s a decent number of good quality Quartz watches. 6 of my watches are Quartz and they are all ticking away in perfect unison ready at a moments notice to wear. Admittedly there’s a much greater variety of watches once mechanical are included in a collection, but anyone that turns their nose up at Quartz is being a bit narrow minded.
Classic first year mistake. Just got into watches and learning about them. Saw a watch with all the bells and whistles and bought it purely because of it’s complications and uniqueness. It was an Orient Star SDK05004K0. I just saw the open heart, sapphire crystal, AR coating, display back, power reserve, brown dial, rose gold indices. All these points I thought made it cool, like it was fulfilling an exhaustive tick box exercise. Received it and I’ve kept it in it’s box ever since! I think it’s incredibly ugly. I’ve never worn it and now need to enter the new frontier of watch selling!
My greatest mistake in watch collecting is depending to much on logic, trend, others opinion rather than my own heart. I should hold the watch & literally listen to my own heart beat before buying any.
My biggest mistake was buying an omega seamaster professional without trying it on first!! Rookie error learned a big lesson, to always try on the watch before buying. If you don’t and it works out well you just got lucky.
AB, Quick question- I’m considering getting the new Seiko 5 SRPD51 as my reliable and go-to “beater” watch, however, my concern is the considerable plus/minus daily seconds discrepancy of their 4R36 caliber that I’ve seen in many reviews. Do I have to be constantly worrying about the time precision of that caliber? Or worrying about having to constantly hooking it up and check it with a time-graph because the time is always out of wack? Feel that if I’m going to go through all that bs, that price point is just NOT worth it. I’m would be better off looking at something bit more $$.
My experience with the 4R36 and the equivalent NH35/36s is that they tend to run within -10/+10 seconds a day on average. So, much better than the stated and conservative parameters Seiko publish. That said there will always be some that are out by +25 or 30s a day but this is less common. They are also quite consistent: they seem to always be out by a similar amount and don’t fluctuate that much. I think, for the price, it’s a solid enough mechanical movement. If you don’t mind adjusting the time once a week (or maybe more often still) then go for it although there is always a ‘lottery’ aspect to buying a non COSC certified automatic/mechanical watch. However if you want a low maintenance ‘set and forget’ watch then quartz is the way to go. Seiko and Citizen have some fantastic quartz models that look the part (although obviously not in the same league as most of the watches featured on this channel). EDIT You have to remember that money doesn’t necessarily buy you accuracy as well. You can get relatively expensive TAGS and Oris models that still have cheap and fairly inaccurate movements inside. Always check the accuracy parameters of a movement before buying.
Most of my "mistakes" did not cost much at all. No more than $150. A few of them I just gifted to family during holidays which gives a level of return because you probably would have spent $50 bucks on buying a different gift. All my watches from $300 up, I love.
