Does your watch collecting reflect your changing taste in music?
Image: Universal Geneve Polerouter (not, sadly, author's own).
It's been about ten years since I got seriously interested in learning about and collecting watches. In the first couple of years I did what I suspect lots of enthusiasts do: I got extremely focused on current releases, particularly the modestly priced and accessible models, wanted to own multiple examples from different brands and generally experience everything the hobby has to offer.
After a few years, I feel that I had zeroed in on the specifics of what I like and what is important to me and drilled down on that: watches of a certain size, certain provenance, things that are important to me (mid-century design cues, reliability of movement, sapphire, drilled lugs, chunky crowns), and what isn't (straps/bracelets can be replaced, water resistance over 10 bar is irrelevant, etc.).
A few years later and with a firmer grounding in watches I found myself thinking more about the acknowledged classics and wanting to learn more about and own quality over quantity, including looking seriously at watches that might not have appealed a few years earlier. For example, I find myself longing for a Cartier Tank even though I generally can't stand Roman numerals on watches and the style is much more formal than I would usually gravitate towards. For someone who was anxious and suspicious of vintage watches until a few years ago, I now spend a lot of time looking online at Universal Geneve and 60s Omegas...
The thought occurred that this journey quite closely mirrors my taste in music over the years: an initial burst of scattershot curiosity, trying lots of different styles and obsessed with what's new. Then a period of quite narrow focus and obsession (for me I spent most of my twenties and thirties listening to 80s alternative/post punk bands and the music that inspired/was inspired by them). Now in my 40s I essentially shun what's new and focus on 'classic' music that I know (or seek out what I've missed) but interested because it has stood the test of time. These days I spend a lot of time listening to Motown and Soul that was recorded 60-70 years ago.
I suspect this phased journey is true of most hobbies but wondered what everyone else's experience has been. Do you see similar paths in your other interests?
Watch obsessive who believes smaller and cleaner trumps bigger and flashier. Much first hand love for Tudor, Grand Seiko, Longines, Oris, Hamilton, etc. while pining from afar for Rolex, Patek, VC, et...
My musical taste is fairly tumed in to full albums that offer a complete beginning to end experience that crosses several genres.
My watch taste is similar, but not as refined.
The main way that my taste in music has changed is that I will whatever music that theyll play on major radio stations more of a chance nowadays. They'll play some great stuff on my local major stations, mostly on hip hop and spanish language stations, and it's wild hearing like BTS on pop stations. Anyway! I still like the same watches I liked when I was teenager and going to basement shows, super affordable and hopefully tough watches. I'm a bit smarter about it though, like I know my snk is going to be fine grocery shopping, but if I'm going to a metal show I'll toss on a g shock. I tend to take quartz watches out to any kind of music because I worry about vibration from the sound.
I don’t see many parallels between my music tastes and watch collecting. For the later, I do like the avant garde yet my recent taste in music is for the blues. One new, one old. Go figure. 😎
If its Friday night and I am going out its The Cult and my Omega, if its Sunday and chilling/reading might be one of my Casios.
This is a very odd idea - claiming an association between changing musical tastes and changes in preferences for different types of watches. Too many variables here.
You could claim all sorts of associations: watch/cake, watch/furniture, watch/shirts, watch/types of shampoo and so on.
This is a very odd idea - claiming an association between changing musical tastes and changes in preferences for different types of watches. Too many variables here.
You could claim all sorts of associations: watch/cake, watch/furniture, watch/shirts, watch/types of shampoo and so on.
Well, I don’t need shampoo at all these days. I hope my watches will be safe.
I believe it's a general thing with taste, it changes over time and it affects everything - music, food, watches, clothes, etc.
When i was younger i was listening to a metal and rock music and i looked a part really. I can say, that i was in the subculture. My watches were digital casios.
Later i've started to looking for a more "refined" music. While i was progressing with my guitar playing and songwriting skills, i was looking for a something that derives from jazz, funk, soul, blues, landing on a trip-hop, old-school underground hip-hop, lounge music, acid-jazz, etc. And as my musical taste changed, my taste in clothes changed, going from skater brands to more casual ones, from parkas to coats, and from band t-shirts to a shirts and sweaters, and so i got myself a more dressy analog watch on a black leather strap.
Than i was in a modern hip-hop phase, and the best watch to represent this style of music is a G-Shock of course.
Now i'm listening to IDM, noise music, left-field electronic and rock music, and my overall style is changed to more "vintage inspired" - distressed jeans, denim and sherpa jackets, coats, worker boots, etc.
And my watches shares similar aesthetic - i'm gravitating to something more simple, with a mid-century elements, faux-patinas, and the watches i'm looking at as a "grails" are mostly classics like an OP or a DJ. I can say that i'm compensating my not so traditional taste in music, buy going with a "traditionalist" watches.
Only when I listen to Lug Width van Beethoven!
Only when I listen to Lug Width van Beethoven!
Easily the best music and watch related pun I've heard today. 10/10.
Easily the best music and watch related pun I've heard today. 10/10.
Thankyou. I can't resist a pun.