Credits: Article and images by @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2023/10/08/what-being-a-watch-collector-means-to-me-reprise/
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Watches at all price points: Ming, Kurono, M.A.D.1, Silberstein/Erard, and even the Timex re-edition of my first childhood watch, the Marlin; while the super-watches tend to get most of the attention in my writing and photography, be assured that on a given day it’s just as likely as not that I’m sporting a practical daily wearer that has a bit of pizzazz.
Affordable fun: Anniversary Mori by Kurono Tokyo
Friendship: One of the best things about watch collecting is that it’s a social hobby. I love sharing my searches for new pieces with friends and hearing about, and learning from, their perspectives. And if you look among the members of our NorCal gang, you’ll find that there are many references that are owned in common across the group, including most prominently our Voutilainen chronograph “buddy watches.”
Friendship piece: the author’s Kari Voutilainen Masterpiece Chronograph II
Back to the tougher question: what is a collector?
If a collection is a set of objects with an underlying logic, is someone who owns a connected group of things automatically a collector?
I could say “yes” and be done, but to me it’s more complex than that.
In a recent interview I quite liked, auctioneer Aurel Bacs was asked, “If I own 30 interesting watches, does it make me a collector?” He responded with that those without “a collector’s gene” might buy for practicality or vanity, but a collector buys “with his heart.” For Bacs, the time taken to “nurture . . . brain and heart” is how “you define a collector vs. a hoover.”
I find it very difficult to argue with that assessment! It brings me full circle to the idea of enthusiasm: without it, and the associated emotional and intellectual investment, I think it’s tough to argue that you are a true collector.
Emotional attachment: A. Lange & Söhne Pour le Mérite Tourbillon in yellow gold, the reference worn by Walter Lange
That makes it a bit tough for me to fully embrace the self-labeled watch investors and too-visible flex kings as core members of the watch community. If you’re going to spend 90 percent of your watch-related time bragging about how much you’ve made, at least on paper, or taking photos of your forearm with six or seven expensive watches draped over it, I won’t hate you.
But given the choice I’ll spend time instead with my pal Chuck, who could be wearing the F.P. Journe TS prototype on his right wrist and have the Derek Pratt oval tourbillon pocket watch in a zipper pouch in his vest and wouldn’t tell you unless you asked specifically.
I’ll also argue that collecting is dynamic, not static. If you’re truly engaged in a topic, it stands to reason that you will learn and that your tastes will evolve – and your collection will shift as a result, including for most of us the need to sell some treasured pieces to afford others. I suppose that it is possible to reach a true personal end point with a collection, but I certainly haven’t gotten there yet. And as much as friends joke about “exit watches,” they don’t seem to be reaching the ends of their journeys, either.
Probably should have kept these: watches sold to fund other purchases
Something specific to collecting watches and other functional items: if you are a true collector, you use them! My very first article on this site was called “Why You Can’t Afford To Buy Your Watch If You Can’t Afford To Break It” and I remain a firm believer in that rule. Ed Gilbertson, Chief Judge Emeritus of the Pebble Beach Concours and steadfast Ferrari collector, always closes any address to the Ferrari faithful by roaring, “Ferraris were meant to be driven!”
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Credits: Article and images by @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2023/10/08/what-being-a-watch-collector-means-to-me-reprise/
