Watch enthusiasm vs. Addiction
Some might say our collections are getting out of hand. But, who can resist the allure of intricate craftsmanship, timeless design, and the magic of a ticking mechanism?
In the realm of timepieces, there are two distinct characters that emerge: the watch enthusiasts and the watch addicts. Each possesses a unique relationship with horology, and the line that separates their passion from obsession can be quite delicate.
Enthusiasts find themselves captivated by the intricate craftsmanship, timeless designs, and the magic of a ticking mechanism, while addicts may often find themselves on the endless quest for more, their collections growing to monumental proportions.
For both groups, there's that one special timepiece, the 'Holy Grail' watch, they dream of owning. Whether it's a vintage classic, a limited edition beauty, or a cutting-edge marvel, it's the object of their desire.
Are you on the quest for the perfect piece, or have you already found it? Tell us your watch story in the comments.
Yeah show off the watches you addicts\enthusiasts 
Simply put: I consider myself an enthusiast, yet my wife calls me an addict 😂🤙
Simply put: I consider myself an enthusiast, yet my wife calls me an addict 😂🤙
You beat me to it!
I am an enthusiast BUT if I come into a LOT of money I all ready have plans to become a full blown addict 🌈
Simply put: I consider myself an enthusiast, yet my wife calls me an addict 😂🤙
Here here
I consider myself an enthusiastic addict. I have no grail watch, it doesn't exist. Even if I thought it existed within months of acquiring said grail, another grail would appear that I'd want.
Enthusiast. I’m definitely not addicted
By your definitions, I'm in neither of these categories
Aficionado here. Watches are just one of a few (many?) things I'm interested in. I've accumulated a dozen+ pieces over the past 30 years, all what most would consider "budget" watches, many of 'em pre-owned. Am now to the point where I don't feel the "need" to procure more and am more or less satisfied with what I have ... but ya know, never say never right? LOL!!
Still enjoy lookin' at what you all have though and learning about new acquisitions and releases! 👍
I still haven’t figured it out! Just learning a whole lot of stuff, seeing different things and trying a few hands on. Addicted curious would be right for the moment. I don’t think I have a grasp of the mechanisms yet, so….🧐
A further point to the enthusiast, addict debate that's relevant to my own personal life experiences & may well resonate with others here.
I have always had addiction issues in my life. That sentence immediately implies -ve thoughts, alcohol, drugs, gambling being the main ones that people think of. I had addictive tendencies way before those vices are on your radar. As a youngster it was in sports, soccer, golf, running that I did to excess.
Later in life I fell foul to the allure of certain drugs, alcohol & gambling just didn't interest me & I've never indulged in either. The biggest factor in my addiction as an adult is money. If money was needed to fuel the addiction then my consumption was limited to the funds I had available. If I ran out of money, the addiction cycle was broken. That's exactly what happened & that's how I came through the scourge of daily consumption of certain drugs.
What has all of that got to do with watches. Watches undoubtedly are a current addiction but they have been a long term love of mine. Ever since I dated a girl that had a Cartier Santos I was hooked. The problem was that I had nothing but fluff in my pockets, no means to pay for this love. The lack of funds meant that the addiction cycle lay dormant, like a volcano that hasn't gone off in centuries. The love was always there though.
I'm approaching my retirement years which for many sees them in their healthiest state financially. This stage of life for me has meant that the dormant volcano has erupted, it's just a question of how long the eruption will last. I never buy a watch unless it's paid for from disposable income. My disposable income will hugely reduce in 5 years time. That's when the volcano ceases to spew lava.
Of all the addictions I've experienced buying watches is the least damaging to my health. My wife knows I won't do anything that's detrimental to our financial security, so she's quite happy for me to indulge my addiction & my love. She also knows that come retirement there's going to be an almighty sell off. There's no doubt better ways to spend my money but none that gives me the joy that I get in my love of watches. The most likely event that can change this will be if I become a grandfather. At that point, watches will feel irrelevant & I'll go back to being content with 5/6 beautiful timepieces.
Addiction is a dirty word most of the time but in certain cases it's fueled by a passion for something, not necessarily an escape from misery.
Bit of a therapy session forming here me thinks🤔…….. where do we start? Shall we wear name badges? Is it a safe space? 😂
A further point to the enthusiast, addict debate that's relevant to my own personal life experiences & may well resonate with others here.
I have always had addiction issues in my life. That sentence immediately implies -ve thoughts, alcohol, drugs, gambling being the main ones that people think of. I had addictive tendencies way before those vices are on your radar. As a youngster it was in sports, soccer, golf, running that I did to excess.
Later in life I fell foul to the allure of certain drugs, alcohol & gambling just didn't interest me & I've never indulged in either. The biggest factor in my addiction as an adult is money. If money was needed to fuel the addiction then my consumption was limited to the funds I had available. If I ran out of money, the addiction cycle was broken. That's exactly what happened & that's how I came through the scourge of daily consumption of certain drugs.
What has all of that got to do with watches. Watches undoubtedly are a current addiction but they have been a long term love of mine. Ever since I dated a girl that had a Cartier Santos I was hooked. The problem was that I had nothing but fluff in my pockets, no means to pay for this love. The lack of funds meant that the addiction cycle lay dormant, like a volcano that hasn't gone off in centuries. The love was always there though.
I'm approaching my retirement years which for many sees them in their healthiest state financially. This stage of life for me has meant that the dormant volcano has erupted, it's just a question of how long the eruption will last. I never buy a watch unless it's paid for from disposable income. My disposable income will hugely reduce in 5 years time. That's when the volcano ceases to spew lava.
Of all the addictions I've experienced buying watches is the least damaging to my health. My wife knows I won't do anything that's detrimental to our financial security, so she's quite happy for me to indulge my addiction & my love. She also knows that come retirement there's going to be an almighty sell off. There's no doubt better ways to spend my money but none that gives me the joy that I get in my love of watches. The most likely event that can change this will be if I become a grandfather. At that point, watches will feel irrelevant & I'll go back to being content with 5/6 beautiful timepieces.
Addiction is a dirty word most of the time but in certain cases it's fueled by a passion for something, not necessarily an escape from misery.
You know what bothers me is why not buy a single watch and move on. You buy a quartz then you want a manual wound then an automatic then a dressier then a diver... Geez! Why can't it be like owning a single car then you replace it maybe because the family is growing or it has served its time. You own a single smart phone and you are good! But watches once you start there's no going back. Is that not addiction?
Bit of a therapy session forming here me thinks🤔…….. where do we start? Shall we wear name badges? Is it a safe space? 😂
Safe space. Pour your heart out.
You know what bothers me is why not buy a single watch and move on. You buy a quartz then you want a manual wound then an automatic then a dressier then a diver... Geez! Why can't it be like owning a single car then you replace it maybe because the family is growing or it has served its time. You own a single smart phone and you are good! But watches once you start there's no going back. Is that not addiction?
Absolutely it is, certainly in my case. I would however suggest that it's more nuanced than that. I think there are legitimate reasons to have more than one watch. A dress watch, an every day to work watch, a weekend, messing about watch whatever style is your particular favourite.
Of course you can expand on that by having a dress watch that goes with a black suit, a blue one, a brown one etc etc. There are thousands upon thousands of different watch styles, colours, materials etc & for me that's what makes it so damn difficult to stop. I keep finding others that offer something slightly different to what I already have. It is becoming more & more difficult to do so now, I have to admit.
Absolutely it is, certainly in my case. I would however suggest that it's more nuanced than that. I think there are legitimate reasons to have more than one watch. A dress watch, an every day to work watch, a weekend, messing about watch whatever style is your particular favourite.
Of course you can expand on that by having a dress watch that goes with a black suit, a blue one, a brown one etc etc. There are thousands upon thousands of different watch styles, colours, materials etc & for me that's what makes it so damn difficult to stop. I keep finding others that offer something slightly different to what I already have. It is becoming more & more difficult to do so now, I have to admit.
Buy one that is versatile. I think a Christopher Ward would do fine for me but I know myself, I remember when I got the Orient Bambino I thought it was the one. Then I got the Seiko 5 SRPK33 with the blue dial and it goes... For me I admit it, I am a lost cause LOL. As long as I'm financially disciplined I'll buy what I want and another and another. Every single watch has a different feeling.
An enthusiast isn't addicted to buying ,& doesn't even have to be a collector (but usually are)- an addict has a big miasma of unfocused watches as they're hooked on the novelty of new & that dopamine hit.
Glad I'm past the addict stage.
Quite like the pseudo-French phrase "Collectioneur" as it sounds more sophisticated 😅🤣
Enthusiastic addict or addicted enthusiast
Enthusiast. I’m definitely not addicted
You got any more of them.... watches?
We joke about being addicts and to a degree, we are.
However, it's a low-level addiction we can manage, like caffeine. That is.... until we start hiding new purchases, fibbing about how long we've had a piece, spending the rent/power/gas/college funds* on your next hit.
So yeah, we're addicts. 😉🤣
*Disclaimer: I don't know anyone that has spent those funds on a watch... Yet.
You started strong, then broke down after one sentence. 🤣
I stoped chasing “The Watch” and am just enjoying watches. An addict turned enthusiast.
Im an enthuastic addict. I have 109 watches with 3 winging their way to me as I type. I haven't found my grail, yet, but I'm sure I will.
I'd say that to lump the folks into either or is a disservice. I think everyone has a healthy dose of both. I think for me, I run more to the enthusiast side, but there is an amount of addiction to buying cool new watches every so often. Maybe if I start repairing, servicing and modding them, I won't buy so many
You started strong, then broke down after one sentence. 🤣
Just like my watch journalism career. 😉🤣
Can I claim an obsession is different from an addiction?
Here’s my pinnacle, so far:
But that hasn’t kept me from buying other watches since. My impulses seem to be triggered by price drops and good deals.
I’m a big fan of optimizing things. So for me, the perfect end game for this hobby (besides learning more about these awesome little machines) is to have a small, intimate, and perfectly curated collection for me. I spend waaaay too much time thinking about it and revising the collection. Luckily for me, that keeps me from buying them until I know for sure that one won’t rotate out of that very short list.
Strangely I find the hunt more alluring. Even if I don't manage to buy it. The researching, reading reviews, watching YouTube etc. But of course if you have the money then by all means buy.... then onto the next
I can't think of a time in life when I haven't admired and appreciated wrist watches of all shapes and sizes. Watch enthusiast, collector, and third party seller you can say that I am in deep. Every watch I have purchased I have not regretted purchasing, but every watch I have sold, I have regretted selling. But what I have never regretted is being part of a worldwide community of wrist watch collectors and enthusiasts.
Well I'm not selling my body for watches yet, so maybe not an addict. But I make purchasing decisions based on research and my personal preferences. So enthusiast I guess is what I think I am. Price is not the focus of my collection, I own $15 casio that is the Pope's watch and a $15k Rolex because I'm a Bond fan.
After reading your entry I've come up with a tag line for Casio.
"The pope knows Casio, shouldn't you"
You know what bothers me is why not buy a single watch and move on. You buy a quartz then you want a manual wound then an automatic then a dressier then a diver... Geez! Why can't it be like owning a single car then you replace it maybe because the family is growing or it has served its time. You own a single smart phone and you are good! But watches once you start there's no going back. Is that not addiction?
I never want to become addicted to not collecting watches.
Can I claim an obsession is different from an addiction?
Here’s my pinnacle, so far:
But that hasn’t kept me from buying other watches since. My impulses seem to be triggered by price drops and good deals.
An obsession is indeed different from an addiction. The 'a' word gets thrown around pretty carelessly.
Yes, we collect watches. Some people don't collect watches. If I am "addicted" to collecting watches, then that means anyone who doesn't is "addicted" to not collecting watches.
May I never become addicted to not collecting watches.