Happy With Your New Watch?

I want to start off this week with a huge thanks to you all for reading! Each week, the subscriber numbers are growing, and readership is continuing to climb higher than I ever imagined! Thank you! It’s because you all are interested in reading more about watches that the content is provided, and I am thoroughly enjoying this journey of writing more and more about watches.

To that end, I’m also excited to mention that I’ve been provided an opportunity to start branching out and freelancing with actual watch publications. I was already happy to partner with our friends at SmallSecondsFP, but now I have bigger news! I’ve been talking to the wonderful team at aBlogtoWatch (ABTW), and my first piece is about to drop there as well! I could not be more excited to participate in the conversation at this level and with such a well-respected organization like ABTW! I’m so thankful to the team for giving me this opportunity! Thank you!

I also was fortunate to come into a couple of vintage pieces that have been really enjoyable to try out new straps on. To the point where I’m really excited to write a piece about all of these wonderful strap brands that I’ve been stumbling upon. I’m going to talk about the customer experience as well as the pieces themselves, but I’m so impressed with the quality and the way some of these businesses operate. Very customer-focused and easy to work with. It’s just nice to see brands committed to the watch community that are as fun to work with and talk to as anyone selling watches.

OK, to get into the meat of the topic this week, I’m harkening back to an article that was really well put together by our friend, KingFlum: Happiness Revisited.

The topic has to do with how happy you feel when you get your new watch. Are you happy when you’re shopping? Happier when you finally put it on your wrist? How long does it last? Days, months, or perhaps fleeting moments? Do you buy a new watch because it’s been a while or are you going to save up for the “right one?”

The answer within KingFlum’s piece came down to a greater amount of happiness from the constant additions of more affordable pieces. It seems there’s not a significant increase in the dopamine hit if you get a pricey piece you had to save up for compared to the used and affordable piece that satisfies the urge at the moment. I think, however, that while that answer feels right, the ability and way you buy watches is so personal, and I’ll walk through my methodology if you can even call it that.

To start, I keep a list of the pieces I think I want to go after. Some are pricey and others are more approachable. But I keep the list simply to be able to track how much I feel like I want a piece even after it’s been on the list for a while. If I decide it’s not for me, it goes off the list, and I likely won’t think about it until something new about it comes out and I feel the urge to put it back on the list. For the watches that are a financial impact (and I know this is a different bar for everyone), I know I’ll be having multiple conversations with my wife about timing and how likely they are to hold some version of value. I don’t look at these as investments, but I do look to trade them around, and I’m not looking to get a piece to have it be worthless if I ever want to move things around.

When I buy more affordable pieces, I either look for ones that I know I can move on eBay or Chrono24 relatively painlessly. You can also imagine that when you’re more into tool watches than six-figure dress watches, the locations I sell/trade are slightly different, too. If I had a very high-value collection like many of the fine friends reading this, I’d work with a dealer like Alon Ben Joseph and Ace Jeweler to move my pieces in a more thoughtful and methodical manner. I don’t have the need to consign my watches because, aside from my favorite Pelagos, they aren’t overly valuable on secondary markets.

So, let’s give an example of a real-world scenario I’m currently dealing with: I have my eyes set on a really well-priced Speedmaster Professional that a friend of mine has in his collection. It’s set at a very reasonable $4,500 USD. My family situation is one where we talk through purchases that are over a few hundred dollars because it keeps us both well informed and included in our financial status. It won’t break any banks (fortunate to be in this position), but it’s by no means a low-cost purchase for us. I’ve also been looking at several Tudor pieces in the same price point. I go back and forth in my mind trying to select which I want to try and obtain, but knowing it’s a bit more of a stretch to accomplish, I’ve been looking at alternatives that may also get the job done on great watches for my collection.

The more affordable pieces I’m exploring include a Doxa 300T and the Lorier Neptune (skin diver). Both are great-looking and are much more affordable in nature than the Omega or Tudor variants I’ve been testing out. But wait, there’s more. Now my mind goes a little further in the neurosis of watches because while I think the Speedy is a forever piece (or at least I’d always want a variant in the collection), I then start to downplay the Tudor because I also really, really want a few Rolexes in the collection. Those are an even higher lift, so again, I’m back to the age-old question: wait or go after something sooner than later. This is all while knowing that the thought-out, researched answer from KingFlum is that ownership today makes you happier on some real measurable level, and the value doesn’t matter. Whew!

I think I’m mostly convinced that the happiest anyone can be is when you’re pursuing the watch. Researching, trying it on, shopping for the best prices…whatever it takes to lead up to the steps before purchasing creates the most brain happiness versus that feeling you get putting it on six months after you’ve owned it and it’s been living in a spot in your watch box.

Another caveat here is that I can’t know what it’s like to be someone who can simply afford to go after the box of watches that I may very well consider grails, and for them, it’s a drop in the financial bucket. So for me, the impactful priced watches are typically under $10K for a frame of reference. Still a lot of money, and I don’t own one that has been anywhere near that point. But I wanted to give full disclosure of where I am typically making my purchases.

My Mr. Jones Watch makes me smile. My inherited vintage watches make me smile. My pieces with scratches and dents make me smile. I think that’s the key here. It’s truly not about the price point. I agree with that. It’s just making sure you truly want that particular watch, or you can financially dispose of it when the time is right. They’re too much fun not to have around, and the ones that cost nothing can be just as much fun as the ones that cost 10X. They can’t all be pricey, but they can all be ones that bring you joy. That’s key here.

It’s been a little while since I’ve made a purchase, and the desire to find a new one is certainly real. The practical part of me just wants to ensure that I can go ahead and be able to flip a piece here and there if the enjoyment wanes too much.

OK. Hope you all are enjoying your watch journey and hope you’ll share your story and what you’re searching for and how you make your selections!

Next week, I’ll share more about a great meet-up I just attended with a couple of really great collectors and friends. It’s a brief story but was a lot of fun and worth talking more about their cool pieces! More on that soon!

Thanks for reading!

-Adam