Watches and OCD

I love watches. I really like it when people are looking for help in identifying a piece. I find that sort of research satisfying. I don't research before I buy anything for myself. All my watch purchases have been on impulse. Definitely not OCD for me.

I have an obsessive streak from my dad that plays in to the watch hobby. Researching, collecting, thinking about it far too much etc etc.

Nothing like an actual medical condition though.

I get hang-ups about numbers related to colors, country of origin, movements and so on. I make numerical rules that sometimes makes me buy and/or sell watches even I really want/don't want them... Very frustating.

It seems like it has settled down as I have stopped drinking and done some other stuff to improve my life and mental health 🤔 Lessened that is 😅😅

Yes, have it. Yes, it influences my watch purchases/sales.

I have liked wristwatches since I received my first as a child, but I would not say that I am obsessed about them or anything else for that matter. I work in a STEM field that either attracts folks with OCD tendencies or does it's gawd-dammedest to convert those that aren't. So, that said, over the years I've heavily resisted any kind of obsessive urges! LOL!! 🤣

No OCD here, but for those who have OCD I highly recommend that you stay away from loupes and timegraphers.

That's great to hear! And interesting about the numbers involved. Do you have an example of a numerical rule? Please know that if that brings you back into any trauma or negative thinking, don't worry about answering!

How so? Only if you want to share.

Answer E : I suspect I have OCD and your post made me realize it 😂

Thank you for this post.

Thank you for acknowledging that OCD is a potentially debilitating mental condition and not just a synonym for “I’m a bit fussy” or “I get upset by minute QC issues”

I wince every time someone on this forum misuses the term, treats it as a joke or trivialises it.

We’re better than that.

Agreed! It's a misunderstood condition and I wanted to separate the ways the terms are used as much as possible. I haven't been diagnosed, but I had a therapist say I had "OC tendancies" but that it hasn't reached disorder level, yet. BUT, it would be interesting to me to tally up the money and time that I have spent or that others have spent that they would have rather been doing something else and also asking "what happens/what do you feel if you DON'T get this watch?"

We throw around the term OCD a bit too freely these days. While I don’t deny we can all develop unhealthy obsessions over this hobby (guilty as charged, btw), diagnosable OCD includes ritualistic behavior the interferes with your ability to function in daily life, like a compulsion to wash your hands 7 times, knock on wood each time you think of something bad, etc.

I think we just all suffer from liking shinny mechanical wrist bling a little too much.😉

True about the terms, but I guess I wouldn't agree that we "just all suffer from liking shiny...." stuff. As an example, if someone were to prevent me from buying a watch, it's not that I would just get frustrated that I can't get what I want but that "without that watch, I can't move on and I can't have a life that I want" and there's an anxiety there, even if you know that rationally it's not the case. So, I guess I'm trying to see that line between liking shiny stuff and someone who has OCD and is "caught" in the watch realm.

A. While I have OCD to some degree, it doesn't rule my life like it does for some. Anyone seeing my apartment and my desk would never suspect! 😀 It mostly comes out with other things, and my watch collecting is a major part of that and it is the major way in which my OCD comes out.

I am meticulous, thorough, and careful, but I don't think it's OCD. I might be on the border, somehwere, though. 🤣

For some reason, on both automatic and quartz watches, the +/- x seconds per day / per month is something I scrutinize closely. If I can't discover that information, I pass on any serious consideration for buying the watch. The same thing goes for country and company of manufacture. For the record, I have nothing against non-Swiss movements; I just like to know the specs on the movement, so I know what to expect. In fact, I am a big fan of Japanese movements like the TMI PC32A, and the Hattori (Seiko) NH35A. And I have heard nice things about the Chinese Seagull movements.

Other things that I track once I have the watch are all the measurements and metrics that Watchee Pro keeps track of. I never knew that I wanted to know all of this information until Watchee Pro gave me a blank field to fill in for all that stuff, LOL 🤣

Borderline OCD things: I sometimes gently shake my wrist when wearing my automatic watches, because I know that the little self-winding plate is moving / winding when I do that! 🤣

Water resistance is important to me, but only to a point: I don't have scuba gear, so I will never be able to swim in water deeper than 12.19 meters (40 ft.); to date, the deepest water that I have swam in is 12 feet in a pool, and I think one time at the beach, I was in about 15 feet of water, pretty close to shore. So anything that I intend to swim with needs to have a reputation for being a good swim watch (Casio, Invicta, etc.) or even ISO certified (Seiko, Citizen.) The depth on those watches (especially the ISO ones) is usually overkill for that depth, being 200, 300, or even more, in terms of meters. For dress watches, WR is irrelevant, since I will never let a single drop of water hit the crystal. Even so, most dress watches have 50-100m WR.

I spend a lot of time thinking about and researching these factors for every watch that I buy. Is that OCD? I don't think so. I just don't want to buy a junk watch. I want the watches in my collection to be reliable, accurate, and to fulfill their intended purpose.

Strong history of obsessive tendencies in the family (great-grandpa got divorced because he liked model trains more than women and his funeral was attended by an honour guard of 40 other hobbyists - true story) but no formal diagnosis here. I am happy to work as a freelancer, where my attention to detail is a great asset and I have a lot of freedom to design my own projects. In a regular 9-5 I would most likely need to be medicated!

I definitely got into watches from the perspective of someone who never quite fit in. I've had many hobbies over the years, but with a lot more IRL social engagement post-covid, watches have been a really fun way to make a public statement and start some conversations about mens' fashion. Luckily, I move in not-for-profit circles where frugality is a virtue, so social pressure helps me avoid the worst pitfalls that come with collecting any optional luxury.

Gotta love denial 😂

At times I have an overwhelming urge to buy watches and feel smothered until I do. Literally depressed.

Then I purge. Lather, rinse, repeat.

When our kids were young I would freak out at last minute plan changes...PTA meetings, T-ball game time changes.

Fortunately my wife and kids are very supportive. My wife dealt with OCD and anorexia in college. Her OCD tendency is the variety that is rooted in messiness and chaos. Mine in things being clean, neat and well organized. What a duo we make!

If someone takes my pen off my desk, it bothers me until it is put back. So much so that I bought matching tape dispensers, scissors, computers, office supplies for everyone in our household so that others leave mine be. It didn't work because they lost their stuff and mine was always in the same place.

When get home from work there are things that I must do to be ready for the next day. Cannot do anything else without being distracted until those are done. That type of behavior first manifested when I had been out of ICU work for six years and stepped back in, cold turkey.

It has served me well as a RN in ICU for many years and now as a hospital director but it took a heart condition, that will one day be the death of me, and massive doses of B-Blockers to chill me out.

Didn't help that my adopted mother was bat-shit crazy and a hoarder, as well as my sister. Sister also suffered with Munchausen's. And my biological mother is the most selfish human ever, according to her family. And I have two biological sisters, one a functional alcoholic, the other a recovering felon and heroin addict.

Lists help. I keep lists, frequently updated, about useless things. Dozens of lists. And the B-Blockers are a godsend. And lists. 😂They give me a sense of control.

We are all broken Crayons but we all still color.

That's quite a journey! What's your thought process if you couldn't get a watch? What's the smothering feeling about?

Have spent way too much on therapy through my 54 years and was suicidal from age 5-28. It still comes back at times but thankfully nowhere near as often. I talk with my wife about it and move on.

If buying a watch keeps me out of the ground or brings me out of the funk, is cheaper and far more fun than therapy. 😂

I am a therapist and see that we watch enthusiasts can be very “neurotic” about the fine details of our watches. Btw, I would much rather call it being neurotic instead of OCD. OCD is a very serious disorder that makes your like very hard and I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. However, the latest science agrees that all people have a level of neuroticism that would line up with the obsessiveness I have for watches.

When I decided I wanted a collection of guitars and basses, I went from owning a few instruments to owning eleven in just a couple months.

When I decided I wanted to home-brew beer, I went from a Mr. Beer kit to owning an all-grain setup in just a few months.

I love taking vacation pictures, and just last year I bought two nice cameras, and (IMO) the best cameraphone on the market.

Just recently, I went from not wearing a watch at all for about 30 years (age 15 to 45), to owning 10 watches in just under three months. There are only three more watches out there that I'm still considering adding to my collection. I'm already circling the drain.

I plan to continue wearing all my watches for the rest of my life (just as I still love my bass collection, photography, and my brewing equipment), but my collection is feeling close to complete (which is actually disappointing, because I loved "the hunt"). I don't give up on my hobbies, I simply don't beat around the bush in obtaining what I want.

Beyond the few watches I have left to buy (I'm waiting for my birthday to pass, because my wife made me promise), my only plan is to get a Rolex for myself when I retire, but that's likely 20 years off.

I guess my point is, I have no idea if my behavior classifies as "obsessive" or not, but I certainly acknowledge that this is what I do. I decide I am permanently interested in something, and I dive in head-first. Luckily, I'm also a pragmatist tightwad, so every time I've picked up a new fascination, I've never taken our family to the poorhouse over it. I prefer function over form. My entire watch collection is worth about $1,400, which is already "cheap" by many people's standards for a 10-watch collection, but I only paid just over $300 for all of them (not including a few extra watchbands and stuff).

I used to think I had OCD til I met someone who REALLLLLY had OCD. So now I just say I'm "particular" about certain things lol. And I'm definitely particular about my watches.

We did a poll a while back which revealed most geeks have at least some OCD; that counts for something.

https://www.watchcrunch.com/SurferJohn/posts/how-ocd-are-watchgeeks-13021

I usually is things like I have to have one of each, odd numbers, even numbers or decending/acending numbers of stuff. I sucks if I like what I got and the "rules" changes in my mind and I got to change my collection.

I also find that have less watches triggers this less 😊

I have an obsession with being on time and timing. If I have an appointment somewhere, I will GPS it to see how long it takes to get there. Sometimes, if the appointment is far enough out, I'll even drive the route to see how long it takes me. From there, I know how long it takes to get ready. Then I set an alarm for when I need to start.

Example: I just started a new job. When I got the call for an interview, it just so happened, I was driving to a store that past the interview site. So I timed the drive to it: 25 min. So I left 30 mins prior. Now I have the job and I wake up 2 hours before. Take a shower, feed and walk the dogs, and prep for work. Then I leave by 7:30 to be there by 8.

Because I check my timing so much, I always have a watch on. Maybe because of my issue, liking the watch I wear makes sense.

I also have various obsessions that last from a few months to a few years, or sometimes only a few days. When something catches my attention, I dive real deep real fast.

What I realized though, is that I learn a ton about a subject in a short amount of time, I buy a lot of stuff quickly, and then comes a time when I either stop or go at it like a normal person. I came to the conclusion that I look for what suits me best like anyone would do, only in a shorter time frame with a kind of frantic attitude to it.

I have so many hobbies, so many things I want to spend money on. I can get a thought out of my head until I do it. I'vebought watches on a whim and loved then I'll think about and research a watch for 6 months and when I get it I don't think it...

I definitely have OCD tendencies. I got it handed down to me from several members of my family. Whenever I get on a subject I get obsessed about it and spend all my time researching and spend time learning, experiencing, etc. Watches have become my latest obsession, because I think it’s something I can do on my own time and not impact my family (like golf, cars, wine, skiing, etc). My wife certainly helps to keep me in check and I have found that focusing on my faith helps me from falling too deep. The way I get out of it is remembering that FOMO is real but it doesn’t have to control you. I have now come to the realization that although the knowledge of watches is endless (because there will always be more watches in the future) it’s more like a bell curve or an asymptotic curve. I’ll never learn it all, but knowing 75-85% is pretty darn sufficient. I’ve learned what I like to wear and now have a plan to get those watches in the long term. I’ve spent the last 2 years making mistakes, losing money, wasting time, etc. But I try not to regret anything and just make sure I learn from it. It’s a marathon and not a sprint, I keep telling myself. Thanks for listening! 😝

Thanks for sharing!