💸 How much did your most expensive watch relatively* cost at the time of purchase? 💸

Nothing ends well thinking of impact on a monthly basis, IE why auto dealers love to screw people over talking about monthly payments vs total. I try to keep all hobbies and luxuries under 5% combined of total net worth.

An example, a $15k watch purchase one month might look like a high percentage with a short term view, but in the grand scheme could be relatively insignificant.

If the cost of a luxury product impacts budgets, savings, and other goals, it isn’t worth it.

But Dr. Evil is rich, it still might not be much to him. 😃

I've paid much more for a few refurb services than I ever did on a new (or old) watch purchase. At least one of those was certainly more than the princely sums that get deducted away from me monthly. That sum is easily multiples of my priciest watch purchased.

I've seen the net worth poll, that's why this one. It's just a different perspective, easier to calculate.

I don't think abybody has enough money to live on without earning more. If they lives off a fortune, that generates interest by itself and that is also a form of income.

Savings? You guys have savings? 🥲

Thanks! Sadly, we too many people take on debt for a watch. I hope not many let it impact their ability to enjoy the rest of life.

Well of course. Disposable income. If you don't have it, you're from paycheck to paycheck.

Dont go broke or in debt for this hobby. They are for the most part depreciating assets that are obsolete in the modern day. My 60$ Casio will tell time better and more accurately than any spring drive. We all just love the romance of it

I'm yet to spend a net paycheck on a watch, let alone monthly disposable income. 😀

Dammit! You always beat me to the punch!

I typically only buy watches when I’m gifted money so… I don’t really know how to answer this… that being said, I don’t own a single watch I paid more than $200 for.

One weeks of income is about the most I’m willing to spend on a watch. Even so, I’m only spending this amount about 3 time every 2 years.

I look at it as making 6% less every year, which I’m okay with.

The way I see it is much more simple. If you are not dipping into savings, mortgage or rent, emergency funds, insurance, 401k, kids college fund, and debt is kept at a minimum. Do you.

Also I just cut a lot of bad habits to support my other bad habits. Like going out drinking, random dinners because I was too lazy to cook. Going to movies just because is the weekend. the horrible coffee from Starbuck. Fast-food just because is convenient. All those things add up even is it's 50 bucks a week.

I specifically didn't mean purely income. Someone earns little, but also spends little (owns their house, no major health issues or expensive lifestyle). Someone else lives in a big city, earns a lot, rents a flat, has a small child...

Yet, the same watch would be equally expensive for both of them.

At first glance, my cheap butt read this title to mean, “how much of a discount did you get off your most expensive watch?” Haha 😂

I Don't want to quantify my "bad decisions" 🤣

Exactly looking at it on such a short time scale isn’t as helpful. Many annual salary amounts might include bonuses, project specific income . . . In my case I get royalties and rights $ and a lot of that isn’t on a regular or even predictable timescale but if I look back on the year I can easily gauge what is or is not responsible.

I usually save about $2,000/mo and my most expensive watch is my SRPE61 I got for $190, so about 10% 🥸

Math is hard, yo. I have no idea.

I didn't mean payments, just a ratio of disposable income and price.

There are many people who misread it. 😀Thinking I'm asking them how much they make, how much did their watch cost, or even interest. 🤷

My Seamaster 300 cost me the equivalent of 3 1/2 months wages.

The financial impact of this expensive hobby is amount * number of transactions per year.

If you purchase a $ 6000 timepiece in your thirties and never buy another watch in your life, the financial impact is manageable.

if you buy a $ 3000 watch each month, you will run in troubles fairly quickly

I'm not asking about overall financial impact, but that is true. :)

Yeah, those brands are ones you save up for more than just five months.

Lots of people during Covid lockdown realized how much money they spent on useless shit when they were stuck in their homes. Suddenly, all that coffee and bar money added up. And then there are all the streaming platforms you don’t even watch. And . . . And . . . Lots of folks basically throw away money without really realizing where it goes. When I eventually did the math this is basically a nice indie like Farer a year, a Tudor in two years, and Omega in three or four without really having any real impact other than having coffee at home a bit more. And that’s all without any additional saving.

Of course . . . Your mileage may vary as I drink my fancy boy coffee drinks every morning 😂

Initially I was surprised at the low amount of people inputting #D (over 500%). This hobby is absolutely crazy in terms of price, but it isn't unusual to see enthusiasts owning watches around ~€10k. You would have to have a net gain of over €2000 per month in order to own such a watch and not reply D in this poll.

However, two things occured to me:

1) A lot of people live in countries where the security net is so bad you have to account for a lot of personal risk in terms of savings (yes, I'm looking at the US people, among others).

2) A lot of watch enthusiasts could easily afford more expensive watches, but choose not to (for a number of reasons).

For me, I'm way above 500% for my most expensive purchase(s). However, I don't care about the distribution of my net worth, nor the absolute price of the watch: I find a watch that I want, save up until I can afford it, and then buy it. My next big purchase will take years to save up for, and it will be stupidly expensive (as most luxury watches are, if we're being honest). It's a privilege to be able to even do that, and I am grateful for it.

Thank you for such a thoughtful comment!

That distribution surprised me as well. In addition to your explanations, there must be a minor factor in people misreading it as price to income, without expenses. That's of course much easier to calculate. Errare humanum est.

You have my respect for saving up for such a long time and sticking to it. My next purchase will be between 100 - 500 %, but I'm also replenishing my back-up, so that delays things. I hope they won't get sold out with AD's... they almost are.

+1 on the replenishing. My last purchase was the VC Overseas, and I was intending to hold that off until 2024 to save up. However, a great offer appeared and I figured it would be better to save some money and get the watch earlier rather than stick to the plan. The financial wounds will need to be healed for quite some time, and I'll likely get a watch or two in a more attainable price range before another expensive purchase.