QUESTION - 10 x $300 watches or 1 x $3000 watch?

big hitter and a casio 

Tricky question. I believe in variaty whatever level of collecting. So that maybe means a heavy hitter and a Casio.

I usually prefer variety.

Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 10 duck-sized horses?

Wrong! The answer is 10 duck-sized ducks, so that you can turn around and make some confit de canard afterward. 

That should provide all the clarity you need not just for watch collecting, but all the tough choices you might encounter in life. 

It depends what you do with watches. Are they daily tools that tell the time? Do you want to have variety for mood, color matching, and different functions? Get cheap ones, as all of  'em get scratched, smashed, or lost with enough use. 

Are watches showpieces and success markers to impress yourself, your friends, and show your status to colleagues? Get something expensive. But, it'll still get scratched, smashed, or lost with use. 

Owning several is a collection. Owning one or two is a funnel, not a collection. 

id go with the 30 x $100.00 watches option for the variety and never lose a nights sleep over a lost or broken one. bonus points for being too worthless to steal. There are a lot of $100.00 watches that look expensive for almost every day of the month.

10 300 buck watches for me.

I haven't been collecting for a very long time but I hope to build up good variety... My collection so far is definitely closer to the 10x$300 than 1x$3000

Bit of everything.

1 X £1500

1 X £500

2 X £250

4 X £100

2 X £50

Still gets you 10 watches.

My $3k watch sits in the safe.  My others, $100 to $800 sit on my wrist.  Joy comes from wearing, sharing, and comparing.  So.... 10x $300.

For quite a while, my collection was more like 100 x $150.  Now it‘s more like 10 x $1-10k.

While I still have some vintage and inexpensive watches, I appreciate the quality improvements of the higher end pieces I’ve managed to acquire.  

I'd need some heavy duty persuasion to convince me to spend $3k on one watch.  I'll take the 10.

As someone who has ten $300 watches I would rather have one $3,000 watch. 

It is really hard to argue with this logic.  Would I trade my crappy collection for a JLC Reverso and a Timex Expedition (no Casio)? Yes, I probably would.

I should ask my wife this question about her purses...

 

I prefer one expensive piece over a collection of more affordable watches. That being said I’ve never had a collection of more that’s 5 pieces including a Casio etc. So I’m more used to a smaller collection. 

Sincerely I would go with 3x 1000$ or 2x 1500$ watches. I think for me its the best choice this said, I wouldn't stop there I would just wait until I had another 3K and keep on buying. 

Having lived in both price ranges now I vote a single pricey piece and a cheaper one. My distribution would fall more like $2500 and a $500. If you were really considering the variety I would split the $500 into 5 X $100

Its an easy answer to the conundrum and it took me a long costly time to conclude. Less is More. You dont need to have only One ! A big hitter with a few cheap beaters is the most sensible option. 30 watches x 100 are worth nothing. You can only wear one watch at a time !!!

https://www.watchcrunch.com/JBird7986/posts/the-eternal-debate-1-expensive-watch-or-many-cheap-watches-11821
 

It would appear that the community at large says the answer is the 10x $300 watches, but only just barely.

This is a tough one, my personal collection touches all price points from under $100 to $3,000+ As much as I would love to have one heavy hitter like a Patek 5970 I really love all my watches so my answer is have a well rounded collection and buy the best that your money can afford.  

One grail watch for sure👌🏼

1x time machine and slap younger me, and tell him not to bother with watches. It wouldn’t matter; 10 of one or one of 10x the value, I’d be unhappy either way.

And buy some bitcoin

I have so many "cheap" watches that just collect dust now because I was to scared to wear my "one" watch. Now I daily the the "LV" and I hope my son's start asking for a hand me down. 

This. This is how I would approach it. My watch collecting is all about trying to get as much value as possible. 

would you have one wife to live with, or 10 others in your harem? 

so One watch vote me. Having a collection of 10 over watches just sitting around somewhere waiting to be forgotten is beyond ridiculous and irresponsible imo. The same concept as having affairs. Thats my take but its your money fella, good luck!

Strength variation can comes in numbers. I rather take a hit on a few then take one big major hit on the grand price and get left with the beater.

I assume we all agree that $3000 is a significant amount of money and that we'd be spending the $3000 all at once. Normally, 10 x $300 watches are bought over a time period and, sometimes, because we do not have the necessary patience to save up for that special $3000 piece (one of the great pitfalls of watch collecting 😉).

So, I'd definitely use the $3000 to buy a single special watch, not spread it around.

This is a nice debate because there are a multitude of factors to consider. I recall in my early watch enthusiast days, I was all about squeezing the most value/features out of a certain budget; $200-300 / $500-600. This was an excellent way to explore all the great value for money propositions in Swiss, German, Danish, American & Chinese markets and to appreciate different brand stories and unique/under-valued movements (In some cases over-hyped brands with over-valued ebauche movements).

Early days: 10 x $300 collection

Current: Tend to purchase less often, better researched $2K-5K+ range

Goal: Reduce collection down to an efficient 10-15 watch collection. (But I’ll always love unique quality buys found in the sub $500 range (mostly Seikos & microbrands…hence my tidy collection struggles)

Agreed. While there are collectors out there who prefer a larger quantity of cheaper watches over fewer expensive ones, the general trend is for people to upgrade and downsize over time. These sub $500 watches are really not worth much upon resale (not to mention headache) so if one changes mind and tries to go for one expensive piece, then one can expect to get tattooed from the slippage. The opposite situation is almost always easier (selling a $30k watch to buy a few $3k pieces). 

Variety is overrated.

I think of variety as a luxury to have after basic needs & quality standards are met. I would think there be a big difference in not just perception but also resalebility and marginal value proposition between $300 vs $3k than $3k vs $30k. If the budget is $3k then it's a pretty easy decision to me to get 1 good watch versus 10 meh ones.