After a Bump in the Road, the Quest for Authentic Manly Watches Continues

About a year ago, my watch tastes shifted from the oversized garish to the functional toolish divers, a very good move. My collection went from 55 to 14 by the summer of 2013 and I was very happy with my streamlining. But then like an alcoholic, I craved the attention-seeking phony fashion watches a month or so ago, only to be quickly full of displeasure for this "bump in the road," compelling me to put many of these fashion watches on the selling chopping block. 

If the watches I have for sale move on to happy customers, my collection will be thus:

Nine fashion watches (which shall remain unnamed)

Three Seikos

Two Citizen Eco-Drive Divers

Two Orient M-Forces

One Deep Blue

One Molarity (a big watch, a sort of Nicorette to get off the nicotine of cheap fasion watches)

That's 18 watches in total, not bad. I could see myself selling a few more fashion watches, which I'll keep in a red watch box, hidden under a cloth on top of my book shelf, unseen, like those curtained rooms within the video stores for discreet shopping. My little shameful chamber. 

I still want another Orient M-Force or two, a Boschett Harpoon, and perhaps a Deep Blue Juggernaut or two. These acquisitions, I'm sure, will compell me to sell more of my fashion watches. 

With my legit watches getting all the rotation, I'm sure it will be easy to "die" to my fasion collection and eventually sell them all off.

No looking back, as Ulysses has said on this blog. 

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Comments

[StarHalo]

You put that Citizen "ashtray" up for sale?

[herculodge]

I"m keeping my two Eco Zillas. I never heard of them referred to as Ashtrays before. That's Seiko I believe.

[jonnybardo]

That Velatura is gorgeous. I saw one of those go used on Ebay recently and was tempted to snag it but held off.

By the way, here's another micro-brand you might like:

http://www.irreantumwatch.com/

I'm not crazy about the "beads of rice" bracelet but that's a nice case. Here's a used one for $415:

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/irreantum-magellan-blue-dial-898918.html

[herculodge]

Those look fantastic and 100 dollars cheaper than the Harpoon. Now I've got to make a decision.

[jonnybardo]

I prefer the Harpoon, but that used blue dial Magellan is tempting.

Back to the topic of your post, it reminded me of a term from transpersonal psychology: "regression in the service of transcendence." The idea is that in our lives we sometimes NEED to regress in order to jump forward developmentally. I suppose you could say that this is related to the idea of needing to get to rock bottom before changing one's life.

The point being: don't be alarmed if this happens again, although the key would be that the "next time" (if there is one) should probably be more minor. Just don't be surprised if, come next May or June, you find your eyes lingering on a new Invicta Venom...We won't judge, ha ha.

[herculodge]

Jonny, that's interesting that in regressing or in having a regressive episode one can really see the vileness of the action in ways impossible previously. I buy that doctrine.

[Angelo]

I'm troubled by all of this. You guys want to be Sparta. I want to be Athens. You're culling the herd----tossing out anything you perceive to be "weak." You think that will leave you with a strong core and no waste. Don't come crying to me when you are bored by a few "high quality" watches that basically look the same, with no variety, no excitement. I can see it now---Ulysses, Jonny and Jeff, each down to their last $20.00---with a handful of expensive watches they're bored with----relenting, and spending $15.00 at a street festival, on one of those fakes with chronograph hands painted on so that the watch looks like it has a lot of functions----but the hands don't move, it's just cosmetic. And keeping $5.00 each to split a taxi ride home.

[jonnybardo]

There's a spectrum, Angelo. One extreme would be an ever-increasing of tons of watches of all types - diversity reigns supreme; the more the merrier. The other extreme would be the quest for the One Watch to Rule Them All; the collection gets smaller and smaller, all lesser watches are alchemically transformed into greater watches, fewer and more expensive, until one comes to The One (which will eventually be sold to fund and even Greater One). It may be a bit simplistic, but in a way this is a quantity-vs-quality spectrum.

None of us, I would imagine, is at one extreme of the spectrum or the other, but I have noticed that I for one have trended towards quality over the last couple years.

When I look at my current collection of 25 watches I realize that I could sell everything and buy an Omega Seamaster or even a used Breitling Avenger or Blackbird. But I like diversity. I like being able to wear a dressy sports watch one day and then a slick Japanese diver the next, then a chunky micro-brand diver the following day.

But I also realize that I'd rather have a dozen watches that I love and wear then three dozen watches of which most gather dust and are lost on me. So I am consciously trying to whittle that collection down again and shooting for a dozen, although really see my future collection settling somewhere in the 10-15 range, with occasional bumps up to ~20, before selling a few off.

I also see a continued trend of transforming two lesser watches for one greater watch (and often its 3-4 lesser watches for one greater watch). I believe I sold five Invictas to fund my Orient Saturation Diver.

I do see a place for fashion watches, though. I've even recommended to Jeff that he be open to the possibility that buying a new Invicta once or twice a year isn't a bad thing. It keeps one young, playful, and softens the seriousness of the Watch Quest.

[Ulysses]

First of all, I wouldn't pay a high price for a watch that didn't excite me and that I would quickly get bored with. Hell, I DON'T get quickly bored with a lot of things that I perceive to have value. Second, i've seen cheap watches and owned a few and they don't satisfy me any longer. Even when I was young I wasn't taken in by the garish impulse items. Watches aren't Pokémon - you don't have to catch them all just to build up an eye-searingly colourful menagerie of freaks to gain satisfaction. Collections of things are nice but watches are too expensive to be frivolous about - even those that are worth a hundred dollars or so. I try to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them, and it isn't hard for anyone to do the same unless they're cripplingly impulsive.

The problem here is that people make the mistake of assuming everyone is cast from the same mould. We are not all the same and don't react the same way to certain situations. The truth is, I would never ever be "down to my last $20" because i'm not an impulsive spender who wastes money on gaudy items of limited appeal. It simply would never happen with me, because i've learned about the false economy of going through life making purchases without engaging one's faculties.

If I am satisfied with my decision I won't relent. This watch i'm wearing now has been on my wrist for fifteen years. It was beautiful then and whenever I look at it, I still think it's beautiful. I bought it on sale, one third off, but I haven't seen a watch like it since. I have paid to have it serviced to repair damage caused to it by a clumsy battery change, more than the watch was worth when new. I have Googled this thing over the years and found no reference to it - I couldn't replace it, but I feel connected to it over all those years, so despite its humble origins and mass-produced nature, I cannot part with it and continue to wear it. I have other watches but they tend to stay on the shelf because there's no bond there. I like variety too believe it or not, but I don't think I could handle much more than say five watches. Beyond that, I just don't think I would care much about the others. Imagine if you avoided buying four or five "fashion" watches and spent all that saved money on a single handsome diver, something you could wear on the beach or with a suit or to the office without it looking out of place, and with the confidence that it was durable and tough enough to tolerate life's knocks. Would you really need much more than that in a watch?

There are plenty of other watches I like that I can't afford, but that doesn't mean i'm about to rush out and buy something/anything just to satisfy my lust for the new.

[herculodge]

I don't believe in a one size fits all watch style for people. I have my passions, which evolve, and I don't impose them on others. If someone is a fanboy for this or than brand, that's cool. I can only be honest about my motivations for buying a watch and what is an evolution from attention-getting watches to those that are functional and appeal to my changing tastes: now it's lume tool divers with a few business style watches by Orient and Rado, for example. But I would never proselytize others or mock them for having different tastes than I.

[jonnybardo]

Ulysses, on one hand you say that "people make the mistake of assuming everyone is cast from the same mould" and then you go on to paint a somewhat negative picture about people who have different approaches to watch wearing and collecting than you do. This leads me to think that when you say that everyone isn't cast in the same mould, that you're not talking about diversity of styles but a kind of hierarchy of approaches with, presumably, yours on top. I can live with that, I'd just like you to clarify this point.

Personally speaking I will fully admit to a few too many impulse buys and not being thrifty enough in my purchases. But part of the point of my previous post is to point out that the different "moulds" that people are cast from are actually different stylistic preferences relative to diversity. Some people have a narrow range of taste, some more broad. Some people like listening to one or two styles of music, some are more eclectic. Imagine the spectrum of one person who loves one song, has figured out The Perfect Song, and only listens to that, versus someone who likes all music and listens to everything.

I'm not saying that either side of the spectrum is superior to the other, but that we all exist along it in some form or fashion. Its also probably wrong to equate this with "quality;" if anything we could say that its the X-axis of a quadrant, with the Y-axis being refinement of taste.

In a way we could say that everyone has a kind of "optimum collection size" that reflects this. I think mine is around a dozen - that's what feels right to me, or what I aspire to. You seem to be saying that yours is less than five. I've got no beef with that, and actually my tastes have evolved more and more towards your end of the spectrum, and may continue to do so - who knows. But I do know that I like some degree of diversity, so that even if I found the "perfect watch," I'd like a few more in the collection for different moods and, if nothing else, to mix it up.

[herculodge]

I can only speak for myself: My watch tastes began like a child who begins eating Cap N Crunch and evolved into pesto-grilled salmon.

[jonnybardo]

Right. I can agree for myself with two caveats:

1) There's further refinement possible with pesto (organic pine nuts, quality of olive oil, home grown basil, etc), salmon (wild caught), and the process and skill of grilling.

2) I don't only want to eat pesto-grilled salmon. I don't want to eat Cap N Crunch, but a bowl of homemade granola with yoghurt or pizza or palak paneer, etc.

[Ulysses]

Jonnybardo, I was merely responding to what Angelo said. There was no need to belittle us (Jonny, Jeff and myself) by painting us as some sort of slaves to our emotions likely to break down and betray our principles once temptation came along. Thus my slightly hostile reply. Angelo may be like that, but as I said, we are not all cast from the same mould. I just wanted to point that out. Sorry if it came across as a little preachy. I am clearly in the minority here, and it appears I have out-stayed my welcome. I'll continue to read quietly from the sidelines as I am genuinely interested in what this blog has to say, but there's no need for me to ruffle any more feathers. I like watches and radios, that's it.

[herculodge]

Angelo can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think he or Jonny were ruffled by Ulysses' comments. Ulysses's comments are always welcome here.