How many watches are to much?
How many watches should your collection have in order to satisfy all of your needs and at the same time use all of them in a regular or balanced way?
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Paulo
Not rich enough for this hobby!
Porto, Portugal
Member since
Last active: 11 months ago
For me, 5 is a nice number to fulfill all my needs, i.e., a dress watch, an everyday, a sports, a G-Shock (for high impact activities) and a Pilot watch (I just have a thing for them!). Between all the above you can have a variety of colours and most of them can be worn almost anywhere.
Playing devils advocate here I’m guessing 2 watch’s it is too many 😂
When the collection is controlling ur finances and ur mind. You are not what you have.
I’ve been in the watch collecting hobby for over 40 odd years. You come to really appreciate that “there is always a bigger fish”. And at the same time it is not an exercise of “climbing”. There are seasonalities where you will be obsessed by a certain type/brand for a certain period of time, and go crazy about something totally different at another. It’s an endless pursuit, back and forth, up and down, left to right, only to be regulated by financial factors. And there are no “goals” either. In short it all depends on you.
In my case, the maximum point of accumulation was 108. A mere self justification to restrict purchases based on the number of earthly desires in Buddhism. The only way for me to buy a new watch is to giveaway a time piece as a present to relatives and close associates. Money well spent, I think.
🤣🤣 maximum of 108 and Buddhism ☸️ in one sentence about earthly possessions. I like you, my wife says no way 🙅♂️ Buddha says holy way. But spoken like a true patriarch about collecting. There is always another holy grail or the best watch. As with all other addictions. -It controls you- you have no control- only steering. If it steers you towards a cliff or a wall. 🛑 stop ✋🏻 it’s no good. Thanks for the kind words ichibra
5-6 feels like it will cover 99% of cases.
I think half a dozen. That's not enough for me but to get reasonable wrist time I think that's about right.
As I am somewhere north of 40, I would say n+2 is too many, where n is the size of your current collection.
Interesting question and one I've thought about as well. I think it's a different number for every person. There are people I've heard of that aspire to have 365 watches! That's way too much for me, but to each his own.
I have two 6-piece watch boxes and for whatever reason, 12 really feels like a good number for me. It might go higher some day, but so far, when I add one watch, it often feels time to let one go as well.
I can say that I absolutely feel the need to wear all of my watches and so 12 seems to be the right number for me to enjoy the rotation.
Some might not get worn more than once or twice a year, but they're keepers nonetheless.
Tough question..Mmm, I travel with three pieces (actually four, I have one on and a watchpod with three) but at home I think I have about thirty..I really have been trying to cull down the collection but it seems everytime i sell one I end up buying another one or two..LOL
I have too many for sure
Interesting question and one I've thought about as well. I think it's a different number for every person. There are people I've heard of that aspire to have 365 watches! That's way too much for me, but to each his own.
I have two 6-piece watch boxes and for whatever reason, 12 really feels like a good number for me. It might go higher some day, but so far, when I add one watch, it often feels time to let one go as well.
I can say that I absolutely feel the need to wear all of my watches and so 12 seems to be the right number for me to enjoy the rotation.
Some might not get worn more than once or twice a year, but they're keepers nonetheless.
I have 12 myself, but two I never wear. One is an heirloom and the other is a broken quartz. But 10-12 seems like it would support every situation. Problem is, the average use with a 10 watch collection is 10%. If your collection is modestly priced, that’s justifiable. But if you start climbing the ladder into >$5,000 watches, that seems excessive. I’ve started doing that so I’d like to get my collection down to 5-7 so each one gets more wrist time.
7-8 pieces would be ideal for me. Wrist time of 4x per month or once per week average. I know I have more but I would like to get it down to that number.
I feel 6 covers ever occasion that could arise. All depends how you put your collection together. I’d like to say 4 cuz I think that’s ideal however I can’t seem to get there myself.
As many as you want! As many as you can fit in your allotted storage.
I have 12 myself, but two I never wear. One is an heirloom and the other is a broken quartz. But 10-12 seems like it would support every situation. Problem is, the average use with a 10 watch collection is 10%. If your collection is modestly priced, that’s justifiable. But if you start climbing the ladder into >$5,000 watches, that seems excessive. I’ve started doing that so I’d like to get my collection down to 5-7 so each one gets more wrist time.
You make to darn much sense LOL....I have to sell a few. the number 10 seems like it would work.. thank you
As I am somewhere north of 40, I would say n+2 is too many, where n is the size of your current collection.
Curiously n+1 is the ideal number in the collection.
n + 1 is indeed the ideal number, but stop on s - 1 in case your spouse is not into watches…
The gap between what I think and what I have qualifies as a bona-fide conundrum.
One more than you currently have!
One to seven is the appropriate collection size. You can stop at any point and call it good. It depends on how deep your obsession goes.
1. Daily/sport
2. Dress
3. Dive
4. Drive (chronograph)
5. Field
6. Flight
7. Beater
One of your field/flight needs to be a GMT. The other is a watch built for ultimate legibility.
However many I currently wish to keep up with.
Curiously n+1 is the ideal number in the collection.
Exactly. There is always that one...
It’s always and another one. One more please… And promise this is it the last one.🙏
I completely ignore categories of watch and just buy whatever I like. I think more about colours and what watch would look good with what i'm wearing that day.
I'm on track to have 4 MoonSwatches, plus a few Swatch destination specials. On the other side of the watch box, I already have, or have plans to buy 7 more of varying brands and price points. That'll give me a collection of 14 or so. After that, I suspect i'll need to keep a lid on it as wear time for each gets dramatically smaller the more you have.
I’ve been in the watch collecting hobby for over 40 odd years. You come to really appreciate that “there is always a bigger fish”. And at the same time it is not an exercise of “climbing”. There are seasonalities where you will be obsessed by a certain type/brand for a certain period of time, and go crazy about something totally different at another. It’s an endless pursuit, back and forth, up and down, left to right, only to be regulated by financial factors. And there are no “goals” either. In short it all depends on you.
In my case, the maximum point of accumulation was 108. A mere self justification to restrict purchases based on the number of earthly desires in Buddhism. The only way for me to buy a new watch is to giveaway a time piece as a present to relatives and close associates. Money well spent, I think.
I don't have that many watches, but I think I already have to much (38).
However, there are so many watches I still would like to collect.
And I already have some difficulty to use all of them. But every time I wear each and everyone of them, I love it. They all give me pleasure to use them.
Interesting question and one I've thought about as well. I think it's a different number for every person. There are people I've heard of that aspire to have 365 watches! That's way too much for me, but to each his own.
I have two 6-piece watch boxes and for whatever reason, 12 really feels like a good number for me. It might go higher some day, but so far, when I add one watch, it often feels time to let one go as well.
I can say that I absolutely feel the need to wear all of my watches and so 12 seems to be the right number for me to enjoy the rotation.
Some might not get worn more than once or twice a year, but they're keepers nonetheless.
12 is a good number. But still I wouldn't know which 12 watches I would choose with in my 38 watches. 🤷
7-8 pieces would be ideal for me. Wrist time of 4x per month or once per week average. I know I have more but I would like to get it down to that number.
And how would you choose those 8 pieces?
Pretty much one of each type probably. Dress, diver, pilot, field, casual, chrono, quartz, beater, etc. It's up to anyone's taste really. I personally prefer variety. 😉
I don't have that many watches, but I think I already have to much (38).
However, there are so many watches I still would like to collect.
And I already have some difficulty to use all of them. But every time I wear each and everyone of them, I love it. They all give me pleasure to use them.
It’s a big but meaningful waste. You will definitely learn something, not just about watches, but maybe even about life. We have this quasi philosophy in Japan, “no success without waste”. 😉