Mental Health Awareness: Three signs of watch addiction

Hi all, I wanted to preface this post by saying I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade. Watches are a wonderful hobby and there are productive reasons to enjoy these timepieces. However, after seeing @playboyheafner’s post, I felt compelled to follow up. As someone who has struggled with two forms of substance abuse, and am struggling with one procedural addiction, I wanted to share what I’ve learned about compulsive behaviours. Mental health education is vital because there are activities in life the majority of people can experience in a healthy way, while a minority cannot without building an addiction. It’s especially important in this context because watch collecting, like over-eating, watching porn, or playing the lottery, is an activity that’s considered to be normal by most people. Those becoming addicted to watch collecting may realize it too late because they’re surrounded by incongruent examples of others engaging in the hobby in a healthy way, and these same others may be encouraging the addict to keep collecting.
 

I first got into watch collecting four months ago and there was a span where I bought 4 watches every 2 weeks. This doesn’t seem like much objectively, but because I’ve been addicted to other things before, I saw the signs and started putting up barriers before my behaviours progressed. What are the signs? They are represented by the three Cs:

  • Cravings - I found myself becoming preoccupied with acquiring the next watch. I would check every website I could find that carried the brand and be disappointed if they didn’t have a specific model. If it was out of stock, I would check every day to see if it was back, despite signing up for the back-in-stock email notification. You might say this is normal, but I can’t name any other hobby I’ve had where I’ve been this obsessive and emotional.
  • Loss of Control - this is typically represented by engaging in compulsive activities with increasing frequency or intensity, like a gambler going to the casino more often and needing to bet higher amounts. In this case, I was buying watches more frequently. For others, each purchase may increase in price, to chase the dopamine rush they received after their first few watches. Another sign of loss of control is keeping secrets. We might joke about hiding watches from our partners, but if that is what you are doing, it’s important to reflect on why you are keeping your purchases a secret.
  • Negative Consequences - physical, social, occupational, financial, or psychological. Since this isn’t substance abuse, I can’t see a watch buying addiction affecting a person’s physical state. But it can put a strain on your relationships, your wallet, and your mental health. I was at a point where I was deciding between investing in my future vs. buying a luxury watch, which, from a healthy perspective in hindsight, is unacceptable.

I know this will only apply to the minority but mental health awareness is a huge priority, especially post-COVID. If you can relate to the three Cs, please reach out to a loved one, or even me if you want to talk about it. If there’s interest, I can share my experiences on curtailing addiction at different severity levels in another post since I wanted to keep this one shorter.

Reply
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Horology ia a deep pool some people just dip a toe and some dive in and drown there.

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Yeah...I mean I've enjoyed collecting watches for 32 years and I'm still as dumb as I ever was. 

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I feel like I'm becoming addicted myself, thanks for sharing!

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Channeling all that addictive energy is key.  It is not all about buying the watches; there is so much more to the hobby than that.  Learning to repair them (Ok that wasn't a good idea for me, I destroyed several but I did it anyway) and studying how they work, becoming a more well rounded and proficient collector is a good place to start.  This is a real option in lieu of the cold turkey (nuclear) approach.  

Many moons ago, I was also in that buying frenzy phase, simply buying anything that struck my fancy at the moment.  After taking a step back and realizing I had no direction or goals, I made the necessary changes to establish them.  It can be as simple as that, or maybe it isn't for some?

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I went through a brief "buy everything interesting" phase, but managed to reel myself in. I quickly came to the conclusion that owning a few watches I love is better than owning many watches I just like. 

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OldSnafu

Horology ia a deep pool some people just dip a toe and some dive in and drown there.

Make sure you got a diver on before you jump!

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Watches are somewhat of a substitute for me to avoid hobbies that require more space and/or are more expensive.

There is a method to the madness.

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I just run the watch spending through my wife. She always manages to put me down by telling me to buy something 20 times my budget. 

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I switched my mindset from “collector“ to “enthusiast,” which helped me tremendously. 

A collector’s goal is to buy while an enthusiast can get satisfaction from studying the subject matter and having discussions with likeminded people. At least that’s how I look at it 😃 

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There a many other ways of enjoying watches aside from buying them. Discussions, comparing notes and experiences and simply the enjoyment of wearing what is already in your collection. I believe this is also where the flippers are ahead of most of us enthusiasts in a way because they just enjoy the experience of a particular watch then flip it for another one when they get tired of it.

I said it before in another thread, I would like to be able to wear each my watches about 4x a month, give or take. This translates to about 7-8 pieces in the collection more or less. I try to keep it at that level lest I would have to sell some to acquire a new one. 😊

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Okay I guess I’m in trouble 

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Humans are an addicted animal. Dont worry about it. My one piece of advice is to make sure when you buy a watch that you have got a sellable watch. There probably will be a time soon when you will want to sell it. So be prepared. Dont pay top dollar for a quartz or a non brand.  

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Thanks for the personal and insightful sharing. I can see some signs in myself. Need to just take a break from watches sometimes.

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hbein2022

Watches are somewhat of a substitute for me to avoid hobbies that require more space and/or are more expensive.

There is a method to the madness.

Yep. Retired Magic The Gathering player here, people complain about watch boxes taking up space. They've no idea!