Forgive Me for Telling Myself I Already Have the Holy Grail to Save Some Money

I'll concede sometimes I try to delude myself for the sake of economic continence. Also, if I buy a Holy Grail watch, it had better be good because it's going to take wrist time away from my affordable Seiko Monsters. 

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Comments

[jonnybardo]

I think its both, Jeff, so forgive me for coming down too hard on the other side. If anything, I agree more with your perspective overall but that's just it - it depends upon how you look at it. The true ultimate Holy Grail is seeing and enjoying what you have, but the less-true Holy Grail is whatever is beyond your reach, of increasingly fine quality. The difference is one of focus and consciousness; the former is a matter of being open and embracing, the latter of being focused and discriminating. Our modern Western society tends to orient itself around the latter, to its great detriment I might add.

What watch aficionados miss is that they're actually screwing themselves by refining their sensibilities to such a degree that they can't enjoy anything below a certain level of quality. I've done that with beer; Budweiser tastes like pisswater to me and I can't enjoy even really enjoy a Rolling Rock or Corona (no real loss). For me to enjoy a beer it has to be of relatively decent craft quality - something like a Sierra Nevada. But in reality, I much prefer higher quality, small-batch beers (since you're in CA, if you like IPAs try to get your hands on Russian River Brewery's Pliny the Elder for a truly great beer).

I can enjoy my Black Monster for the great watch that it is. But I can also look at my Orient Revolver and recognize it for being of overall superior craftsmanship. And of course it goes up from there. But no matter how fine, I'll (hopefully) always enjoy the Black Monster as being a great watch, if I'm able to switch my consciousness out of the hyper-focused/discriminative mode into the more open/embracing mode.

So while it may seem paradoxical, I think it is both, it just depends upon how you look at it.

[herculodge]

Indeed, it is paradoxical, as you say. I'm just trying to be critical of my watch hobby, taking stock of how easy it is to up the ante for more and more expensive watches when already I have 2 Velaturas and a Citizen Pro Diver that aren't getting enough wrist time, so it seems insane to get a Tuna or a Sumo or an Orient M Force or whatever at this point

[jonnybardo]

I think you're right and, psychologically speaking, your attitude is very healthy and I wouldn't want to discourage it!

My slightly-less-healthy view is that as long as I have watches that I really want in the affordable (under $500) range, there's no point in going after a more expensive (~$1,000) watch.

My March wishlist is a mixture of $300-500 affordable watches and $800-1200 pseudo-luxury watches. If and when I get to the point that there are no watches in the former category that I really want, I may do what you say you're doing: save up some cash, enjoy what I have, and then maybe go after a pseudo-luxury watch after not buying anything for a few months (and building up a PayPal stash). But until that point, my main goal is to be more discriminating about the watches I do buy.