Why the need to wear watches in your collection ?

I think because it's not fulfilling its function on display. Especially with the very nice peices its almost shameful that its going unworn. Thats my take.

I am certainly not going to argue with you on this. I agree with you and have watches that have not seen wrist time in years. I think they all get worn at least once after purchase, but I do have watches that only ever got worn the obligatory one time after purchase.

I would say that there are two types of people who collect watches, broadly speaking; the lover of horology/watches who builds a collection, and the collector who loves watches. I fall into the latter category, and watches are only one of a number of things I collect. A collector is just short of a hoarder in some ways, at least when referring to myself, and simply adding a new piece to one of my collections is the end goal, not necessarily adding another piece that I will use.

Damn...   you are giving me ideas...  I can expand my collection to infinity, if I don't feel compelled to wear them all!

First things first: No one can say that it's wrong to have dozens or hundreds of watches that you never wear. They are beautiful pieces of art and you are very fortunate if you can have a huge collection that you cherish and admire.

To your question: Why do we mention in the comments wrist time. Personally, I find two reasons:

1.  The person asking, is asking for some guidelines to help him determine a framework for his collection. If you are trying to establish some principles that will guide the size of your collection, it's almost unavoidable that wrist time will be mentioned. Why, you ask? This is my second point.
2. From the few collectibles that you have in the picture in your post: Stamp collection. You can't use the stamp and collect it. Once you use it it's gone. Coin collection. You can't use the coins and collect them. Once you pay with a coin, it's gone. That's their function. Car models. Their function is to be displayed.

What's the function of the watch? Sure the cosmetic element is a huge factor. But even the cosmetic element is a combination of design, style, and function. A pilot's watch design is dictated by the need for legibility. In a chronograph's design core element is again the functionality, and so on and so forth. Furthermore, so much craftsmanship goes into making the watch fulfill its main function--to measure time as accurately as possible and for as long as possible.

A watch is conceived, designed, and manufactured to sit on the wrist, look nice on the wrist, and function on the wrist.

Closing thoughts: Most of us started collecting watches because of how much we enjoy wearing them. We choose them based on our taste and sense of style, hence we feel that they are an expression of our personality. If we stop enjoying wearing a watch, it might indicate that it does not reflect our style as much as we thought it was.

"To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom."

Socrates

I buy them to wear.  I am keenly aware of those that don't get worn and the reasons why they don't get worn. If those reasons are intractable I will move on from a watch. I put them on WRUW so that I can look back and see my patterns.  Once you get above about 12-15 you can't do a consistent rotation.

I don't judge those who collect and never intend to wear their watches, or rarely wear them. My wife's uncle once had about 120 vintage cars stored in warehouses all over Missouri. He drove maybe three of them. It didn't make the collection any less interesting. He wound up preserving them for the next generation of enthusiast.

Great post. I think about this often.  I only started this collection 18 months ago and due to my view of the world and my personality, I wanted to go with a watch brand that some horology snobs look down on.  I thought about it and two of the men I admired the most wore Timex their entire lives.  So, due to the fact I started to collect affordable (inexpensive watches) I now have 52 of them.  I do want to wear them, but to your point, having them on display just like action figures or die cast cars is also a great way to enjoy this hobby and if my collection keeps growing that will be something to consider.  I am currently turning my home office into an antique watch shoppe.  It's about 80% done.  I just found out I will be working from home full time, so I really am going all out with that idea, so even if I don't wear them, they will still be enjoyed when I am spending 8 hours a day there.

What I do like about the watch collecting hobby is the fact that you not only enjoy the collection on display, but you can enjoy it when outside and still have one of the watches with you and no one will give you a second look.  Could you imagine the grown adult who collects action figures and taking them with him while going shopping.  lol.  On that note, here is my collection.  

I would imagine that there are no rules here. You can buy to wear, buy to keep, buy to look at, buy for any reason. We are mostly adults and can decide for ourselves. 

I have consolidated my collection from 18 to 4.  I just never wore the others for years so I sold them so they can be worn be by new owners.  I'm targeting to have no more than 1/2 dozen and buy a nice 6 slot watch box so I can never exceed the amount.  That way every watch gets worn from time to time.... 

I'm in the same boat as @tempus that I keep some of the watches in the unworn conditions.  I still often put them in the winders (I have 3) so I can see them on my desk.  The main reason is that I'd love to keep them in pristine condition without the scratches.  These tend to be the dress watches while my daily watches are the sporty ones.  I have enough watches to rotate and I don't need to wear each of the watches in the collection.  

I agree with @Aurelian.

My reply is to all of you Fellow Watch Collectors. 

When your mindset is 'Usefulness' or 'Show', than wearing a watch becomes "Important". 

I personally have a "Story Teller"/"Museum" mindset. Wearing a watch to me is not all that important as preserving it and allowing it to live and survive in cherished condition in order to "complete" the story.

That being said, I only own 13 watches and all are the expression of my own train of thought behind my collection. I mostly rotate between 5 watches but would never ever sale any of the other 8. They "speak" without speaking...they are Vintage Watches!

You don't go to the museum of Denmark and ask the curator, "Hey, why are you not using that patterned axe from Mammen in order to unchain Ragnarok 😂"

My take as well.

I have around 10 watches in my collection but want to bring it down to 5, as most of them currently get way too less wrist time and I see no reason in letting them age in the box and perhaps dip in value every single month.

I totally agree with your phiposhopy on that. Having only a part of the collection on the wear routine actually makes the hobby less expensive, since not all the watches need to work properly or even at all. At least this is how I see it and it saved me a lotof money, specially on vintage watches.

Totally agree! 

I just buy watches because I’m bored and I like them. I wear what I want and I don’t put too much thought into it. I want more watches than I can wear, and have more watches than I need. It’s just my thing.

Tell me what should I buy next?

Buy an original Marlin and teach the neighbours kid some exciting new words

oh yes - I could do that. Better get my tetanus shot in now before playing with dirty Timex pin-levers

Normal use of a man wardrobe is the classic 80/20 rule it’s said. 20% of your wardrobe is used 80% of the time. And a lot never gets worn. That bugs me a lot. Not only because of enviromental reason. Clothes take a lot of space.

With watches I don’t bother. I have never bought a watch not to wear. Neither an old fragile vintage piece nor a safe queen to keep in mint condition. I buy watches due to their beauty. Naturally they get different amount of wrist time. In very few occasions there has been something that annoyed me after a while and those watches are gone. The rest I enjoy no matter if they are on the wrist or not. All of them are juwels (or toys) that I can appreciate. I can dig myself into finding the perfect strap. Much cheaper than buying a new watch and, voila, the time in rotation goes up.

The only thing I’m bothered about is if I don’t give them enough attention and wind them up on a regular basis.

I remember Ben Clymer in an interview stating that "around 20 pieces" was a reasonnable size for a watch collection, but he probably is a gentleman buying watches just for the sake of owning them. And I guess he owns more than 20 😉

That's not my profile, even if I have a few "heirloom" watches that simply never get worn, because they are pocket watches or too fragile to wear them outside of safe environment

I am more of the type "if you got them, you should wear them". Having a multi thousand Euro watch that never gets picked up makes me really uncomfortable, especially if much more affordable ones enjoy regular wrist time. 

Given I really don't like the process of selling/shipping watches, I have stopped at 14 watches (including Swatches and Grand Pa's watches) with a core team of 6/7 watches getting decent usage

You make a good point I think. I do find myself in the camp of feeling the need to only keep watches I wear. But that’s just me. Collecting is “collecting” and so in that way of thinking, I can see your point of view. 

Yeah, it's not that I ever feel compelled to wear my watches, it is more that I have soooo many options, and I could pick any of them to wear. As I stated, there are watches I have not worn in years, but any of them might be the watch I pick tomorrow. 🤣 

Great topic for discussion.

I have finally come around to the understanding that I can own/collect a watch simply because it is cool, interesting or beautiful to me.

I have deeply regretted disposing of watches that weren't getting wrist time - usually because they were too big.  Most of my sellers remorse results from not accepting that I am, at heart, a collector.  I needn't wear them just because I have them.  Obviously, and as I am frequently reminded by civilian non-collectors, no one needs more than one watch.   🙄

Much like @Candide3693 I also collect other things. I don't know why but I have this hoarder/collector mentality. Originally it was video games, I had a library of over 200 gamecube games. I felt bad though because I would not play many of them and they would just sit there. I also collect Pokemon games. I feel less bad about that one because everyone gets at least one playthrough. I have since sold a large portion of my video game collection, but kept all my pokemon stuff.

I like watches because I can itch this "collector" attitude but also use the pieces. I may not wear them all the time, but hey at least most of my watches get worn once a year (except for my real old sentimental pieces) and bring me joy.

I can ramble on and on about this but in the end, I do aim for a "5 Watch Rotation". Most of my watches outside this rotation are either old sentimental pieces or cheap enough for me to buy without any negative repercussions. My 5 watch rotation are the watches that will consume 99% of my wrist time. My goal is to perpetually upgrade this 5 watch collection with higher-end pieces.

I really appreciate all of the discussion surrounding this topic. I had initially posed the question in an effort to help me better understand my own motivations for my collection. 

One of the things that has been reinforced by various conversations on WatchCrunch is that everyone has their own reason(s) for collecting, and curates their collection in their own unique way. I have no doubt that if you were to ask 10 watch enthusiasts their reason for collecting, you'd get at least 11 different responses.

I think that @SimplyVintageWatches made a great point with the comparison between the "Usefulness" mindset and the "Museum" mindset, and I suspect that I'm a little of both. Ideally I like my watches to serve a useful purpose (and enjoy wearing them), but at the same time I'm perfectly willing to have my collection include watches that don't. For example, I picked up an Omega f300Hz electronic watch last year, simply to have a working electronic "hummer" in my collection. I wore it for a couple of days when I first bought it, but never again since. Every so often, when I go through my watch boxes, I'll pick it up, admire the ultra smooth sweep of the seconds hand, listen to it hum, then put it back in the box with a smile on my face. I have no regrets buying it, and enjoy having it as a valued part of my collection, even though I don't wear it.  As @playboyheafner pointed out,  everyone is faced with priorities and as a result of that, perhaps I would not have been as willing to add it to my collection if it had been more expensive, or if my collection wasn't at the point where it already is. I have passed on other watches based on knowing that they wouldn't see any wrist time, and in those instances, I must have made the subconscious decision that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze, that there simply was no compelling reason to own them if I wasn't going to wear them.

@Candide3693 made an interesting distinction between a collector who loves watches, and a watch enthusiast who builds a collection. The only thing that I collect is watches, so I obviously fall into the latter.  Given the size of my collection today, it scares me to think what my collection would look like if I had the ingrained desire to simply "collect" :-)

I kinda feel that way about the moon swatches to be honest , like part of wanting them all is just  to display as part of a collection, along with a speedy. Just think how nice they would all look in a delicious display box :) 

Yeah, I made a decision to see if I can get them as a set down-the-road when all the hype dies down and just display them as collector pieces.

I have also seen many people bring up the sentiment that only having watched in one’s collection that you wear and use for it’s intended purpose, and my own collection reflects this for various reasons, but I don’t think it’s the only or best way to build a watch collection. 
 

people collect coins but don‘t buy things with them. They collect stamps but don’t mail things with them. They collect sports jerseys but don’t wear them. 
 

I think the spirit of collecting is something that doesn’t need an explanation. If it brings you joy, and you find pleasure in having a large collection of pieces that fit your collecting mindset, then you should do that! 
 

the biggest reason my watch collection is smaller at the moment is because I have bought many watches that I thought I would like because they were similar to the watch that I wanted. Eventually I lost excitement for the watch and would want the watch I originally fell in love with. Now I save until I can afford the watch I want. But that’s my own personal journey with collecting. I like unique and less common watches, but somehow the ones I love are still in the $1000-10,000 range, so I shall continue saving. 

Part of the appeal of functional collectibles to me is the actual functioning. So if I'm not using it enough, it starts to look more like $$$ rather than an object that I want to use and then I know its time to move it on.  This has been the same for me whether its watches or bass guitar gear, which was my obsession before I started in on watches.  Since I don't just let things sit around, this means I keep a pretty tight collection, usually no more than 5 pieces, which allows me to put a lot of thought into exactly the right 4 or 5 pieces for me.

Of course I have historically flipped through a lot of watches because of this, but I don't have any real regrets about watches I've sold or traded off (other than wishing I had held on to my Hulk for an extra year before selling).

I keep it simple. I like to have different varieties, movements and styles. Only have common brand names. I don't have big luxury watches. All depends on the person wrist size and what kind of watches that attracts you the most. Avoid the watch rabbit hole. 

See, I’ve been wondering this. I see people selling watches because they “don’t wear them enough”.  I feel like this is the very thing that leads to people having regrets later. I think people forget that they enjoy watches even when not wearing them, or that they might like to wear them just once in a while. 
 

I’ve exclusively worn my bronze Oris for 29 days now, but I still like knowing the Speedy is waiting. Even if I never wore it again, I’d think that a watch worth keeping.