On Watch Selling Regret

(Warning: this post is a long one. tl;dr: C.R.E.A.M, dolla dolla bill ya'll)

I woke up today missing my Seiko Marinemaster SBDB009 Spring Drive Tuna, and that feeling caused me to brood a bit on whether or not selling watches is really a good idea.

I've bought and sold a bunch of watches since becoming a watch obsessed person, but I only really miss two of them... thus far.

1. The Seiko Marinemaster SBDB009 Spring Drive Tuna

In their review of the SBDB009, Gnomon watches called it this watch the "Mercedes Benz G-Wagon of watches" which, honestly, is the perfect description for the watch.

(a photo of 3 G-Wagons, taken from /u/AG8888D on reddit)

I bought the SBDB009 in Japan on a trip in 2019. It was my first luxury watch purchase above 500 USD. I still remember the nervousness, palms sweating, trying to buy it, and the utter lack of English spoken by the salesperson at Jack Road. In the end I bought it partially due to the egging-on of a friend who was traveling me on that trip.

(Taken from the Jack Road website. I discovered Jack Road when looking up "watch things to do in Japan." It is a really cool store, as you can see in this photo they have easily hundreds of used watches on display for sale and it's in a mall that is easily accessible by metro).

The SBDB009 is a JDM model that is powered by a spring drive movement despite being a (non-Grand) Seiko. The model was only sold for a few short years before being superseded by the SBDB013, which was sold internationally. You can tell the difference by the lack of the Prospex "X" on the dial. Some people hate the Prospex logo and so the SBDB009 has become somewhat collectible, apparently. I didn't know any of this in 2019, I just loved the look of the watch. It has this black on black on black aesthetic that is really satisfying. Because of the high quality of finishing on the watch, (it's titanium and still has multiple polished and brushed surfaces!!), there's a texture to the different shades of black which give this watch a complexity that is really hard to capture in photos. The smooth sweep of a spring drive movement is really satisfying. To me, it really was the epitome of "luxury tool watch" - it still feels like a tool watch but at the same time the finishing makes it feel premium.

So if the watch is so great, why did I sell it? Well, it has a 50.5mm case, it's 17.5mm thick, and it weighs like a brick on the wrist. It just isn't wearable. The lug to lug was fine - but it is heavy and uncomfortable to wear. You can't wear it loosely on a strap because the head of the watch will flop around. So I bought various DLC-d black bracelets for it, which helped a lot, but still with that thickness, you can't really wear it under a sweater in the winter and a metal bracelet does not help with the weight. This was supposed to be my beach/dive watch, but since I had bought it used, I had no idea if the rubber gaskets on it were still good, and sending it in to Seiko service would cost a fortune with the spring drive movement.

(stolen from the Watch Box YouTube review of the SBDB009)

So I sold it. I used the money to buy a 6.3mm thick quartz Cartier Tank that I wear all the time, that doesn't need to be set when I pick it up out of the watch box, that fits under every shirt cuff, and that is so light I can forget I'm wearing it as I go about my day.

I ought to have no regrets. And yet.

Most days, I don't miss the watch and I don't regret selling it. But every once in awhile, on a day like today, I wake up in a mood for highly-finished black on black on black G-Wagon aesthetic, and I get a small pang of loss from having sold that watch. I miss the watch because it was my first luxury goods purchase ever. I miss the watch because it was a watch meant to celebrate my first trip to Japan. But frankly, those reasons aren't important. Commemorating a first luxury goods purchase? Who cares? It's not like it was commemorating any achievement in particular. Commemorating a trip to Japan? So? I've traveled abroad many times including Switzerland multiple times, during no other trip did I travel with the express intention to buy a watch to commemorate the trip.

So what's the real reason causing a sense of loss? I think, at its core, I miss the watch because I have the feeling that I will never be able to get a watch like this again. That no other watch will ever nail the black-on-black aesthetic the same way, with the same level of finishing. That I will never be able to buy a spring drive watch that speaks to me aesthetically for under 2000 USD like that ever again.

2. The Seiko 5 SNK803 Pilot/Field Watch

The Seiko 5 SNK803 is a field watch that crosses the look of a Flieger pilot's watch with an army style field watch, in a 37mm matte sandblasted steel case with a hardlex crystal. It's got the old non-hacking 7s26 movement with a display caseback in the back, and it's 11mm thick. It comes on a khaki canvas strap.

Like every other Seiko 5, it is utterly non-controversial. It is practical with both day and date complication, made in a wearable size, and comes with a display caseback. This watch was my first automatic watch purchase and I bought it when I was in university off of Amazon for less than 100 USD. It is pretty much the perfect "gateway drug" or "first watch person's" watch. The display caseback and automatic movement are the perfect recipe to excite budding watch enthusiasts about mechanical watches. If I had known that the black dial variant SNK809 existed, I would probably still own that watch today.

I don't know what came over me to decide to buy a watch with a khaki strap and a khaki dial. I have peach colored skin so the watch dial blends into my wrist. The watch color goes with literally nothing, in terms of fashionably pairing it with clothes. I don't even like the dial layout or Flieger watches in general. What was I thinking? I don't even remember why I sold it at this point, I sold it to a friend in University about a year or two later to probably fund purchasing booze.

Unlike the SBDB009, I can afford to buy this watch back. You can find used and new old stock examples on eBay all day around the 130-150 USD range.

But every once in awhile I have that feeling "man I should own that watch again, it was my first watch that got me into the hobby, I should really own it just to have it around again, even if I never wear it..." But on the other hand, the watch is hideous. It would sit taking up space in my bedroom contributing nothing to my life and I would almost never wear it. So I haven't bought it back, yet.

The completionist collector in me wants to own this watch to satisfy some twisted form of OCD perfectionism. Of owning every watch that has been meaningful to me in my collection. But I don't actually want to own this watch, I think it's ugly. So I don't buy it, but I still kind of want to buy it, and every once in a while, I look at the empty slots in my watch box waiting to be filled, and I wrestle with these feelings.

Conclusion:

If you have made it this far, congratulations on having high reading comprehension 😂. I miss the SBDB009 because I feel like I can't replace it and I like the style. I miss the SNK803 because I feel like I should retain a watch that "got me into the hobby."

So what do you think watch crunchers? Am I mentally ill? Should I not miss these watches? Should I miss watches for other, better reasons? If you've sold a watch that you miss, why do you miss it? Like, comment, and subscribe - just kidding - I don't have a YouTube channel.