Trends in my watch collecting

I had over 30 watches plus a vintage collection plus pocket watches and I have just one watch that's worth more than all the others combined. Its not my favourite and I don't wear it as much as the others. Variety is the spice of Life.

Same here. I have way too many Seiko, Casios, and Hamiltons

I agree. I like variety.

Same. I have quite a few of Seiko, Hamilton, Bulova, Timex, Casio, Xeric, and Project Watches.

Similar here. About half as many watches as you, all in the under $500 range (well, one is priced higher but bought with gift cards, so I’ve never spent more than $500.) I’m a fan of affordable variety.

I never went full on crazy with volume; I filled a 12 slot box, and had some older stuff sitting in drawers at the peak of my collecting. But I soon came to question WHY I had all these watches. I barely wore 2/3 of them with any regularity. Did I just have them to talk about to others? Because I wanted to experience them, and once experienced, didn't want them any more? It's why, several times over the years I've culled my collection. Right now it's at 4 watches I really, truly adore and even now, when I strap on a watch for the day, I still look at the other 3 and think, 'What a shame I'm not wearing you guys...' I can't imagine 60-odd.

I'm somewhere in the middle be between you and OP. I had over 30 at one point. Distilled down to 5... now I'm adding a couple more after a few years of not buying...

I've got my eye on another two coming into my collection in the near future, so I will end up on 6 for sure, and potentially 5 if I sell something. I've actually put out feelers to a buyer in Sydney to see how much they'd give me for one of my existing 4 watches. If it's a really tasty offer - and it might be, as this particular watch is starting to appreciate - I might sell.

60+ wow, very impressive!

I had 27….and it kept growing, then I sold off 12 of them and surprisingly I don’t miss any of them. Didn’t think that would happen. Now….I’m focusing on “quality “ pieces until I get bored of that 🤣😂

It's part of any journey. Start, research, find what interests you, don't think about long term gratification vs short term, buy whatever gives you a fizz in your special place, finally mature, reach a point of realisation, ponder, regret, sell, consolidate, forget lessons learned, do it again, die.

I’m similar to you. My collection floats around 50 watches. My most expensive is the PRX 80 at around £700. I’d much rather have more variety with cheaper watches, than a 3 watch collection.

On the other hand, there’s plenty of people have their grail watch and a Casio beater. That’s fine too, and is one of the things I love about this hobby- it’s personal to everyone.

Wait, so if half were under 500 and the other half were 500-2500, then all of them were 2500 or under.

What a weird way of putting it.

I am a slow collector with a few years under my belt and around 10 watches in my collection. My collection is divided into two main categories: vintage and microbrand.

My interest in vintage watches began with a passion for mechanical alarm watches from the 1970s, particularly those featuring the AS5008 movement and the progress towards the peak of this complication. This fascination led me to Seiko Bell-Matics, which in turn sparked a deeper exploration into Seiko's history and eventually found myself drawn to the early luxury quartz models produced before 1982, especially those equipped with the alarm function—a short-lived feature continued from the Bell-Matics era with the 7223 movement. My journey continued delving into Seiko's wild designs of the 1990s, discovering so many of Seiko's sister brands and an impulse purchase of a mid-2000s J.Springs diver. My first diver, purely out of curiosity to experience one to find out I quite like the form factor - such a good watch, but no alarm, how come lack of the most essential watch functionality is this accepted! ; ). Newer reasonably priced Seikos seem boring in comparison and feeling bothered knowing that there are so many good fakes going around.

On the microbrand side, have backed a handful of Kickstarter launches. I was fortunate to avoid any obvious China rip-offs - cancelled the infamous Filippo Loreti on the last days of the campaign when it started to smell wrong, but was not so lucky when I lost Gravity Alpha somewhere somehow. Later thou very similar design was rebranded and relaunched under the name Humism with a better movement, maybe I'll return to it.

These days, I am much more cautious with Kickstarter / microbrand watches, seeking out pieces that feel special, ideally representing a designer's long-time dream and the first passion project showing plenty of personality.

Also, I'm vaguely curious about Chinese watches, they say that those homages are the affordable way to own a watch with a quality and finishing comparable to watches priced an order of magnitude higher. As impressive as their manufacturing quality and price are, can't bring myself to buy an homage, but waiting to come across all original Chinese design that speaks to me.

Overall, my taste has matured over the years, but my interest still centres around original design, story/history/purpose, personality and innovation and having a good balance between boldness and tasteful nuance - and it must feel just right. Curious to see how my collection evolves, maybe I come across a meetup again to try out different rarer pieces and classics. There are some vintage models I'm keeping an eye out for, but with a buying pace of 1-2 watches per year and a budget capped around €500, I'm content to enjoy the slow ride and watches I've got. But man, if there will ever be a mechanical/automatic alarm movement available to microbrands, my wallet will be in danger.

I’m weird that way. For me, the under $500, are my “cheapies”, whereas I consider most in the $500+ category to be my “nicer” watches. But yes, I have not shown more than $2,500 on a watch… yet… LOL

I have about 20…all under $500…most under $300. I sold four so far this year and may move a couple more. I may even get rid of a few that don’t work. Culling my stuff is hard for me but I’m in that stage of life.

I like my watches and most have some kind of significance. I doubt I’ll move towards luxury pieces. Right now my only reason to consider luxury watches is because I think I should have them in my collection and that’s not a good enough reason for me to spend that kind of money.