My 20 (affordable) watch collection

Nice assortment! Especially love the color variety in the straps--keeps it fun. Love that it's all super-attainable, too! Carry on!

Thanks. I started playing around with straps more during lockdowns - partly out of boredom and since I was no longer wearing neckties and using clothes for self-expression, I found another outlet with nato straps and I love it!

Very nice collection, if you don't mind me ask how you deciding each day what to choose? You pick randomly or you have a rotation so each watch gets some wearing time? It must be something enjoyable to go through everyday 😍

Great collection of affordable watches👍

Thanks! I rotate them but not quite daily as I'll tend to wear a watch for a few days until I switch to a different one so they all get worn over time and I usually change depending on my mood or the type of activity or attire for the day, or simply because it's been a while since I've worn one and it deserves some wrist time...

Awesome 😀👍🍻

Nice collection but I don't understand it. Eleven out of 20 watches have diving bezels on them. Do you spend a lot of time in decompression? You have no chronographs. You have no sports watches. I don't see a GMT. I am going to go out on a limb and say I think you like divers and Nato straps.

Thanks and yes, I do like divers and Nato straps 🙂 and I don't do much actual diving and rarely use the bezels anyway but I like their looks as well as the water resistance the divers offer for swimming...

My collection is also comprised exclusively of mechanical movements so while I would like to get a GMT and perhaps a chronograph at some, it's difficult to find these complications in a mechanical movement for under $1,000 (let alone $500 or $300). I also hate the cyclops that comes on many GMT watches (including the Seiko SSKs) and often find chrono dials too busy - especially since these are not complications I would find much use for. So if you have any recs for a mechanical chrono or GMT under $500, please let me know.

Otherwise, I never get the sports watch thing (I assume you mean like a Rolex Explorer and not an actual sports watch like an Ironman or Casio...) but please enlighten me. I feel like a field watch or a pilot watch offers more or less the same look and it's not like I would use an Explorer to play hockey or basketball. I do need to replace my Timex Ironman I gave my son and will probably get a G-Shock for when I need a cheap digital watch.

The sports watches I am thinking of, which by no means is required in any collection, is like the Royal Oak, Nautilus, PRX and possibly the Aqua Terra gives off the same vibe. The kind of GADA watch that goes with sportswear clothes.

20 in the magazine plus one chambered

Never really considered Laco outside of the WW2 flieger style (of which I own one) but that black pilot looks very good.

I love your collection! 😍 But how did you manage to collect 20 watches without having even ONE quartz movement?!? LOL 🤣 Especially when well-meaning friends and family, who know vaguely that you "collect watches," are so prone to buying gift watches that are likely to have quartz movements? 😎

🤣

I was going to get the Laco flieger until I got the Escapement Time on AliEx for $100, which has better specs and a sterile dial and I love it. So I got the Laco that was part of a limited series based on the cockpit dials of historic planes https://fliegerfriday.com/laco-trio-spirit-of-st-louis-ju-bell-x-1/ I think the Bell X-1 looks awesome, though it's too bad they used the Miyota 821 with the wobbly rotor. Still love it!

Thanks! I obviously don't buy quartz and my mom gave me a watch a while back but thankfully no quartz gifts... 😀