The Perks of Being Patient

How often do you find yourself scrolling an AD’s website? Or some watch forum, WatchCrunch.com, Chrono24, Bob’s Watches, or the like, only to become obsessed with a new time piece? I have that gene. The one that makes me think I can just have a look around, get some ideas of what I may want next. Maybe I can even find a great listing and snatch up a steal on a grail piece that no one else in the whole watch world is savvy enough to recognize. Yeah, I have that gene.

I also have the love at first sight gene. Earlier this year I stumbled upon the Casio Oceanus Manta series and immediately became obsessed. I had to see all variations, all the color options, I read the manuals so I knew exactly what each reference could and couldn’t do. I was, in fact, in love with this wristwatch. A pale blue, multi-function, atomic time keeping, Bluetooth beast of a Casio.

I searched reviews, dared entry into Reddit for feedback, checked Casio websites in every language, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and all the sites mentioned at the beginning of post. In the end I decided to try to get a better price later on a previously owned piece or maybe even hit the gray market sites. Ultimately, I decided to wait it out.

Now, many months later, like most of us, I’m still browsing. I’ve made my way back around to Casio and the plethora of variety the brand offers. I curiously clicked over to the Oceanus tab at casio.com to revisit my old flame, the Oceanus Manta. I quickly realized that I didn’t even remember which model, not to mention the particular reference number, for which I fell so hard.

After a short browse, none of them, not a single Oceanus reference, was something that I simply had to have any longer. The light blue GMT version, no thanks. Atomic time setting, who cares? The duplicitous 24-hour analog sub dial and the am/pm hands, why?

Had I bought the Oceanus it would’ve undoubtedly been relegated to the back of the watch box, unused but keeping indisputable atomic time.

I can’t say patience is what prevented me from spending $1,800.00 US on this watch back then any more than financial pragmaticism, or if I’m being honest, my own personal domestic tranquility. But now that I’ve gone through the experience of waiting, regardless of the reason, and revisiting only to find that the infatuation for the piece I was at one point losing sleep over, no longer existed, I have, in effect, saved myself plenty of money and buyer’s remorse.

If you’re a watch buyer on a budget like me, you’re not scooping up limited releases or queuing up to get the latest releases from your AD (I don’t even have an AD). We’re just not there yet. But you and I do have the luxury of patience. We can wait it out and revisit and see if the old flame rekindles. If we exercise a little restraint our collection will grow into a selection of watches for any occasion that we truly love to wear for ourselves and not be bloated with reactionary purchases bought on a whim.