Quality over quantity

My Tag Aquaracer quartz. It started losing time after only 3 years and so Tag stung me for a large amount of £££ for a full service. According to them this is to be expected as Tag is a “premium brand”. I won’t be buying another one

So, Hublot hooked up with a cigar maker, Arturo Fuente, and produced a watch. They made 100 of said watch in bronze and I own number 50. I’m not a fan of Hublot and I don’t smoke cigars, the absolutely stunning watch box that doubles as a humidor is completely lost on me.

I paid $14K for this watch: https://i.imgur.com/FaZFVUn.jpg. I do love it, I think it’s stunning, when it catches the light it looks amazing! But, yeah, I’m never going to be able to find another sucker who will pay so much for a watch with an ETA movement.

Seiko Presage Starlight. While the dial photographs well its boring and underwhelming in person. The quality is very poor and the strap is terrible.

Grand Seiko Snowflake. I wish I could put my finger on it but I never bonded with that watch, no idea why. I think about selling it often

The ones with complications (GMT, chronograph) that were cool… but I never used. Just a waste of money on every flip.

Also watches that were too big for my wrist. “Yeah, cool” doesn’t work when there’s a hockey puck on your wrist.

OTOH, now I have the size and complications (or lack thereof) that I like ;)

When I was younger I had around 6 metallic wrists watches and 2 like casual watches. I believe that they really helped me with my outfits. But now that Apple Watches have tons of different wrists colors and styles, there is no reason of buying others. Some people called me basic or that it is too informal but I think that if you find the right wrist and maybe even the right background in the Apple Watch it can match you with everything.

Many regrets in the comments could have been avoided if people had tried the watches on before buying.

Timex Fairfield Chronograph.

When I was getting into it, MVMT looked great bc they had fantastic advertising and their watches looked great. I ordered one, and I remember a guy I was waiting on at the time asked me what I thought about it. I looked at it, and it was minutes slow, the second marker never lined up, and I told him to not waste his money. I cheaped out admittedly for looks. Next thing I bought was a seiko cocktail time bc a buddy put me on. Still one of my mainstays.

Had a phase where I would just buy any good deal on a watch, and I ended up with a Seiko SUN023P1.

I get that some people love them, but I hated it. Bought it second hand and it was just way too big for me and everything about it felt wrong and it was underwhelming in every way possible. Form over function I guess. Was really difficult to sell as well, so I had to put it up as a bundle.

But it did teach me about watch dimensions in ways I just could not have learned otherwise. It also helped me prioritize in what I really wanted to wear, so these days I only own a Seiko 5 GMT. Don’t need anything else.

I bought a rotary chronograph a year or two ago. The watch kept stopping and starting, intermittently ticking so I took it back and got a replacement. Within a week, the hands on the watch misaligned and so I took it back and got a different watch. I feel that rotary has slipped in quality therefore I’ll never buy their watches again.

A collection is important. Gives context to what you buy vs buying everything you like (to which there is no end).

None, really.

Got some inherited and/or very carefully chosen vintage watches (1920s through 1970s) which I absolutely adore, each and everyone of them. Had one sort of miss-buy over the years, which turned out to be rather fragile mechanically, so ultimately traded that back (proper dealer). One or two still on wishlist, searching for a solid example, which takes time (no hurry there at all).

Also own a few new, relatively (but not overly) expensive watches, which I only bought after serious consideration and comparison to all manner of alternatives. Like those a lot, wear them when appropriate, no regrets. There are a few still on my ‘wishlist’ that may survive the ongoing pruning I do of that list, so which I may end up buying down the line.

And I own a good handful of micro-brand watches. These are predominantly for fun and novelty, and frankly cost so little that they do not interfere with anything else. I am slightly faster and looser purchasing those, but still only buy only 10-20% of what I come across and (fleetingly) like. So perhaps not that surprisingly, none of those have really disappointed: I know what I got them for and why, and that is exactly what they bring.

My only overall hesitance is the simple fact that in the end, the more watches I buy, however carefully elected, the less I get to wear each of them on average. First world problem.

bought way to many invicta watches,many many regrets

My Breitling Superocean Ocean Heritage. It looked great on my wrist at the AD. Ended buying it on eBay. The honeymoon period was very short and now I don’t like the watch. Too “blingy” for a diver. Should be a thin dress watch, instead.