Quality or Quantity?

I own a OP 41, submariner, and explorer 2 I can definitely without a doubt recommend quality over quantity. I feel you really do at least I do enjoy it more on my wrist and it’s a watch I’ll wear for the rest of my life.

I had 15-17 watches something like that and now own 6 but probably selling one off so 5 watches to make this happen but I would do it again 100 times over

I didn't vote because I think you can get excellent quality at a reasonable price. Not always of course, but many great watches out there for say £500, and many excellent watches for £5000, are they 10 times better quality?, and that I suppose is an individual choice. I like affordable and expensive watches but with both I try get the best quality I can. I guess I am trying (and failing) to say that you can get a great quality watch at a lot of different price points.

Value = the balance between quality and quantity.

I didn’t vote. If you know what you want, go for it. But if you are curious and wanting to try out different sizes or styles then spread it around. It depends on what you want.

The challenge is knowing which one watch to spend it on, unless you've already learned from trial and error across a range of watches.

Having the quality option imply a single watch makes it difficult to vote for. I prefer a small collection, with one or two "main" pieces that may cost significantly more than the others. Get some variety and bases covered without spending a ton, but also investing more heavily into the specific items that fit your preferences extremely well.

I say quality over quantity, but would like to say quality will come at different prices.

I'm currently in a "Quantity" phase of the hobby, I do have some "Quality" pieces, and will for sure have more in the future. I am having a ton of fun buying several sub $500 (often times sub $200) watches. There are so many to choose from, and I really love checking out all these different brands. I have a feeling that this phase won't last very long, but right now the rush of a new watch is just too much fun!

IMO: quality, almost regardless of budget, is the right way to go. You can only wear one watch at a time - I don’t see any value in owning more than 4-5.

I’d rather have memories of specific watches being on my wrist for specific moments - tough to do if my collection is dozens of pieces and/or it’s a revolving door.

The original question was multiple watches or all your budget on one watch but some interesting comments nonetheless. Thank you. 🙏

If we’re talking 3-4 watches vs 15-20+ watches for the same budget, I would (have) picked the small collection. Of course, quality is subjective too but in terms of cost only I have chosen to spend my budget on a small collection instead of lots.

I could swap them all for the Daytona but I wouldn’t as I like some variety.

There's diminishing returns after a few hundred bucks.

So the "best" option is one or two reasonably priced watches.