The Mirage of Having A One Watch Collection
“I see you’ve been bitten by the bug of good taste,” the associate at Tourneau told me - in an attempt to get me to purchase a $4,500 two-tone Tudor Black Bay. This was back in 2020 when I had 3 watches - two cheap quartz pieces and an old Seiko 5. While yes, I do consider myself a man of taste, it pains me to refer to myself with such bravado. I like what I like and buy things that make me happy, at least for the time being. On that sparse day in June 2020, the world barely opened (where Tourneau felt everything but essential), I purchased that watch and subsequently cursed my personal finances for the foreseeable future. I had a nice watch, and I was stoked, but now I needed an understated affordable watch — I couldn’t just wear my nice one every day. So I bought an understated watch. Then another. And another. I was building a collection. Having the collector gene is a blessing and a curse, one that led me to have more watches than I’m willing to admit. For a lot of watch enthusiasts, the question is whether or not we can one day break out of our shackles and find happiness in a single watch.
My guy from Tourneau went on to work at Omega where he still texts me a few times a year offering me hard-to-find watches. It’s a privilege to be offered the opportunity to spend $10,000 on a watch. I went on to purchase a whole assortment of Seikos and Tissots and Casios. No matter how many watches I purchased, my itch persisted. Scratching the itch feels satisfying for a brief, fleeting moment in time, but every time I purchased a watch, the itches would come back with more ferocity.
The whole idea of having a watch collection is to have watches for all occasions. You have to have an everyday watch — one that you can throw on every morning and walk out of the door and run errands, go to work, etc.. everyone has a different tolerance for how expensive they want their everyday watch to be. Then you need a beater piece — one that you don’t mind banging around. A lot of collectors opt for a digital watch like a G-Shockhere. Then of course you need a dress watch — something for nice dinners and special events like weddings, banquets, and galas. These watches are typically minimal and come in leather straps instead of bracelets.
The problem for me came when I bought way too many watches in each category. That’s the trials and tribulations of having a dominant collector gene. Of course, I want to collect all of the storied Seiko divers. I need a Turtle, an SXK, and a Willard. Oh, another streetwear brand collaborated with G-Shock? I guess that’s $200 that I have to allocate for a watch that will sit next to my Kith and Supreme G-Shocks. Did The Simpsons just launcj a new Swatch collab and it prominently features donut visuals? Well, it’s already on the way to my house. My king Hunter S. Thompson said it perfectly: “We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls . . . Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”
There is something wrong with our brains. We can only wear one watch at a time, so we don’t need to participate in this mindless consumerism at all times. On the other hand, comes the sentiment behind each watch. I will never sell my Black Bay Steel and Gold because I bought it right before I closed on my house. I’ll never sell the Micky Mouse that my mom gave me or my grandfather’s vintage 1960s Omega that my father let me have. I’ll never sell the Seiko 5 I bought in NYC because it’ll always remind me of my first trip to the greatest city in the world. I’ll never sell my solar G-Shocks because they’re so damn useful. I’ll also never flip my Undefeated G-Shock because it’s the first watch I stood in line for. Watches mark periods in my life. With certain memories attached to specific watches, some pieces are untouchable.
I think there’s something classic and nostalgic about shedding your watch collection and becoming a one-watch person. You think about family members from the past, the people who used to occupy the office builds you work in now, getting dressed up in a full suit at the crack of dawn and wearing the same watch every day. You think about the men and women before us who aspired to purchase a watch. They put money aside in their piggy banks every so often, watching the pile grow, and were able to purchase their ever-so-coveted watch. No matter how cheap or expensive, they wore them proudly. It’s cool to be synonymous with one specific watch. Paul Newman wore the Rolex Daytona, Muhammad Ali, and Andy Warhol famously wore the Cartier Tank, and Steve Jobs wore a little quartz Seiko. One of my best friends from high school wears a Shinola Runwell every day. It was a gift from his wife and I’d be hard-pressed to see him without the watch on his wrist. Another one of my friends wears a Tag Heuer Aquaracer every single day. You can tell these watches are part of a small rotation - perhaps even their only watches. Now if I ever see anyone else wearing those watches in the wild, I will think of my friends. Having that deep connection with a specific watch is admirable. It may even be impossible to achieve when you’re trying to get wrist time with all of your other watches.
I’d love to be the guy that when my peers mention me they say “he’s a guy that wears an Omega” or “he’s a Tudor guy,” but my heart feels good divided at the moment to give myself to one particular watch. While I have way too many watches and don’t ultimately think I can archive the elusive “one-watch collection,” I think I can trim down the collection and one day get to a three-watch collection. As an aside, I don’t believe in the one-watch collection. I think everyone needs a “beater” watch. You can have a one-watch collection that is expensive as hell like a Rolex Datejust or a Cartier Santos, but you’re not going to wear those watches to the gym, or in less desirable neighborhoods. That alone begs for a two-watch collection, but three is a more realistic number.
A G-Shock will always be my beater watch. It’s nice to have something that you can wear anywhere and not think twice about it. I wear G-Shocks when on public transportation or when I’m out on foot because people won’t give you a hard time with your digital, plastic watch. As far as a dress watch, I’ll probably allow my Tudor Black Bay S&G to fill that role. Its two-tone jubilee gives it a slight sporty lean, but the watch face is minimal enough to pass as a dress watch. The everyday watch stresses me out though.
I don’t love the idea of wearing a ton of money on my wrist, so I’d like my everyday watch to be under $1,000 or even under $500. I also don’t want to have precious metal in it, so my two-tone Seiko 5 is probably out of the question. I have a Tissot Gentleman, but there is something awry with it that makes me want to throw it on eBay. My Seiko Turtle is too damn big to be an everyday watch. My Black Bay 58 and Omega Seamaster are too nice to wear every day. There are other Seiko 5s that make good everyday watches. Crafted with an unassuming design and a robust workhorse movement, it’s a great entry-level option in the world of mechanical watches. Then of course there are quartz watches that you just set and forget, which carries its own level of convenience. There are several options out there, it’s just a matter of trial and error in finding out what’s best for me.
Somewhere out there, I believe there is a watch that is ready to steal my heart. I won’t know it until I see it and it’s on my wrist for the first time. It is common for watch enthusiasts to dream of the one watch that will cure our insatiable appetite. For many of us that may never come, but the fantasy of finding one watch to rule us all drives us forward. I too am delusional, but in the meantime, I will continue to play with the watches I have, while endlessly searching for my Moby Dick.
Peace and Love
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