Working My Way Down to a “One-Watch”, One-and-Done Collection
Want to hear more about this topic? Check out the recorded Audicle and a lot more watch content at The Real Time Show!
Nick Shabazz, a well-known Everyday Carry YouTuber, has a joke which he may or may not have come up with, that I think sums up our hobby very well:
I’m paraphrasing a bit here, but he says:
“My advice for anyone who wants to get into watches? Don’t get into watches!”.
Of course, he himself owns a couple of quite nice models, and I think he makes this joke because it captures well not only the self-awareness that we (mostly) have with regards to our wacky interest, but also just how addicting watch collecting can be; after all, it’s not for nothing that our circle refers to this as the watch collecting bug.
Granted, I have not tried all of the world’s hobbies, but I have a hard time thinking that many of them could be more addictive and bottomless than watch collecting; one day you’re thinking “I’m looking for a nice watch, that’s all I’ll need”, and the next you’re weighing out different GMT options because you’re driving over to your in-laws’ place for the weekend.
I started watch collecting in 2010 and did pretty well sticking to a handful of Rolex models, but that changed a few years later as I started to earn more disposable income and more information began to proliferate on the internet and social media.
Every year I’d look forward to picking up a luxury watch, and several times a year on top of that I’d buy a Seiko or something similar, priced around a couple hundred dollars. I’d sell some things occasionally, but there was much more coming in than going out, and by the summer of 2023 I’d accumulated something like 30 watches.
I only have two wrists and there are only 7 days in a week, but there was always some justification as to how I’d absolutely wear this particular model enough to make a new purchase worth it.
If you think about it, this is one of two great paradoxes in the watch industry. On one hand, watch companies will tell you (rightly) that with enough care, your watch will last you a lifetime, accompanying you everywhere on your personal journey, from a mundane day at the office to the most grandiose adventures and milestones.
On the other hand, watch companies also spend small fortunes on marketing, always trying to get you to buy a newer watch; this dynamic has only compounded with the proliferation of numerous, smaller brands, and, again, social media.
So, yea, 30 watches and a luxury car’s worth of expenditures, that was my eventual tally.
Now, you may be far deeper in than I was and thinking “30 watches is nothing”, but outside of our space, one watch is too many (“that’s what my phone is for”…), so 30 is way past absurd, and not too long ago, that inkling I’d been feeling for some time turned into a fully-formed conviction.
Ok, so let me park that thought for the moment and rewind a few years.
I sound American but I’m actually not. I grew up in a French and English household, and around 2016 I started thinking that I wanted to head back to France to see how I could make a life there work. I was able to reach that goal years later, finally moving back permanently in November 2020.
Planning and executing an international move during COVID was a wild experience, but (and I’m totally aware of how ridiculous this sounds) one of the most stressful aspects was figuring out how I was going to get all my watches overseas.
How I managed that is perhaps for another Audicle, but more importantly, just as my surroundings changed, the changes to my watch-related habits really happened once I started living here.
Crucially, differences in insurance policies meant that I had to keep pretty much everything off-site in a safe, and that’s when my views on watch collecting started to shift pretty dramatically.
From that point onwards, I was only able to have one, maybe two watches out at any given time, and I would find myself often thinking:
It’s really nice getting to wear this watch regularly, and
Wow, I have a lot of cash parked in that one safe deposit box
To top it off, I was only able to go to the safe sporadically (even more so now), so if I started at one particular watch that I liked, and then switched out because I just felt like I had to wear the others eventually, it could be months or even years before I could “rotate” back to it; that realization accentuated even more just how frankly foolish it was to spend a couple of thousand euros on something that I might wear a handful of times per decade.
It sounds obvious, but that dynamic is completely antithetical to what I should have been aiming for.
If you’re into watch collecting, you’re probably aware of our hobby’s other great paradox, which is actually sort of related to the first: everyone is always looking to score the next piece, while also re-assuring themselves that they will become a “One Watch Person” some day.
I’d always thought about this as well, and in fact that was my justification for buying every new watch that came my way: “yes, this watch is absolutely practical enough that if I had to sell off everything else, I’d be happy with this one watch”.
Effectively, I was not a “One Watch Person”, but rather a person who owned multiple “One Watches”...not the same thing at all!
After my move though, circumstances basically forced on me a taste of being an actual One Watch Person, and let me tell you this:
It’s pretty fricking great.
I understand that some people take great joy in poring over their watch box as they prepare for the day, but personally I started to really appreciate that all I had to do to put the finishing touch on my morning routine was walk over to my nightstand.
Also, as I’ve gotten older, I have tried to be much more rational in how I spend my money. For me, it’s not so much the amount I spend, but rather how much enjoyment I’ll get from spending that sum; wearing the same watch over, and over, and over again made me feel very happy that I was fully, and finally, getting my money’s worth out of a given, expensive purchase.
So that was 2020, now let’s fast forward to roughly the present day, Summer of 2023, with another big life event looming: becoming fully settled in France by buying a house.
If you’ve been through that experience, or perhaps you’re planning for it, you don’t need me to tell you that it’s expensive, and the spending doesn’t end when you sign the papers, not even close.
On top of that, and this is where the depths of my watch sickness become fully apparent, I had my eyes on yet another watch!
Since visiting a Cartier boutique with my wife, I had a very strong urge to buy a Santos, but of course, those are expensive, and my newly-opened eyes would not stand to purchase yet another watch that would spend most of its life in a safe.
And so, yet again, began what I call “The Dance”.
I know that you are all familiar with this, you may even have your own name for it also, but to me, “The Dance” is that interplay between the rational and the irrational, that dialogue that goes on in our heads that says things like “yes, you are about to make yourself house-poor, but you absolutely MUST also have this trinket whose MSRP could furnish most of it”.
If there was any upside to this insanity, it’s that by that point, I knew that a watch or two (at least) had to go to make this purchase happen, but something surprising happened…
Just as quickly as my watch collecting spooled up, so too did it unwind.
I’m not an impulsive person, but once I’ve thought things through and decide to take action, I go all the way.
Pretty quickly, my plan to sell or trade a couple of watches turned into a couple of watches more, which then turned into a full-blown project to send out almost every single one of my luxury watches.
Omegas, Tudors, a Rolex…
All gone, within the space of a couple of weeks.
Selling so many watches all at once was a more involved project than I expected…
How?
I’ll share that project later, because let me tell you, it was an experience that required quite a bit of work and planning, and if you like data, I’ve got some eye-popping numbers to share.
What did I get?
Tune in to the Audicle analysis episode we’ll be publishing shortly, and I’ll share all the details.
What now?
Well, I’m still not down to one watch, and honestly I don’t think I ever will be, not voluntarily anyways.
That’s ok though, because I now feel much more balanced in where my time and money go, and for the first time in years, I can freely appreciate the news of every new release without automatically thinking how nice it would be to own.
And, of course, the watches I have left over I really, really love, and I can go weeks at a time wearing the same one without feeling silly about having another couple dozen I have to get to.
In that regard, I’d say that this Audicle is my most provocative so far.
In today’s luxury watch community, so many purchases are driven by FOMO, and so much marketing feeds the impulse to buy just one…more…watch.
The modern luxury watch industry survives on these beliefs, but…
What if you could let them go?
Try this: go to your watchbox, pick the one that most immediately seems appealing, and put everything else away, a little farther away from you than usual but still in a safe place.
Give it some time, it won’t take more than a handful of days, and you may also realize that, right there on your wrist, you have everything you’ll ever need.