Are we a bunch of weirdos?????

[Quailhunter]

This is an interesting question. I follow three forums, each in an area in which I am involved. I see many more people on this forum who appear to be buying to satisfy an emotional need rather than a rational need. It appears to be the act of buying rather than the enjoyment of the item that is the prime motivator.

[Takonwong]

Originally Posted by Quailhunter

This is an interesting question. I follow three forums, each in an area in which I am involved. I see many more people on this forum who appear to be buying to satisfy an emotional need rather than a rational need. It appears to be the act of buying rather than the enjoyment of the item that is the prime motivator.

I somewhat have to agree with that I'm afraid.

[Sub King]

Originally Posted by Quailhunter

This is an interesting question. I follow three forums, each in an area in which I am involved. I see many more people on this forum who appear to be buying to satisfy an emotional need rather than a rational need. It appears to be the act of buying rather than the enjoyment of the item that is the prime motivator.

Is there anything rational about spending tens of thousands of dollars on anachronistic mechanical toys, when a $15 Casio can do the same job even better? I think it's all about the way these watches affect our emotions.

[Thatguy]

Yes, but I don’t see it as a bad thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Quailhunter]

The emotional high that comes with the act of buying doesn’t last long. If a person is hooked on that high, repeated buying isn’t fulfilling and can be destructive.

[WAK4]

Funny...a lot of what you wrote fits me... Plenty of stability except in the watch world for me, though I've bounced around cars a bit the past 5 years (can blame a fellow form member for setting off that ride...).

Though I have started to settle down; have now been around the block and know what works and what doesn't for me.

Let's see if that holds... Now that I've made that statement I'll have a record year of movement with my collection.. After all I put serious thought into a SubC LV my AD had this past week... Which would have been my third time...

[Takonwong]

I don't think I get an emotional high from buying. I like trying and owning different models and like WAK4 says, now I've been round the block and I am starting to know what works for ME I can see myself slowing down. I just like having different complications and looks in my collection and find it hard to resist a good deal if it means I can own another watch without any loss.

[LuminousMaximus]

Originally Posted by MonBK

What else is new?

hehe! Mon you are so Quik Witted... Good 1...

[exador]

The chase is more fun than the conquest

[Sunny Arizona]

I got rid of all but one of my watches this year for no real reason. It just didn’t do it for me anymore. I sold the last one late in the summer and wore a G Shock.
This fall one of my work colleagues came to me and said that he heard I was into watches and wanted to sell a Rolex that he received years earlier as a work incentive. It turned out to be an Air King; a nice clean watch. He is the size of an average NFL TE so it didn’t fit him well. I asked him how much he wanted and he said a grand. I gave him 1500 so I’m a Rolex owner again.
The watch fits my life well as I don’t worry about it getting knocked around and doubt that anyone would rob me for it. If they did I’d just hand it to them. My focus is paying the house off in a couple of years and retiring.

[RXAPPP]

To coin a phrase from a favourite move of mine
“You’re and addict. So be addicted - Just be addicted to something else” T2

[rouxeny]

I don’t get a high from buying, but I get one from owning.

Have never sold a watch and don’t see myself ever doing so. I agonize and internally debate for months before I buy anything expensive. Sometimes drives the wife nuts, but at least at the end, anything that makes it through that process is something that I really wanted. 90% of the stuff I initially get interested in I lose interest with before I buy it.

It’s kept me from spending money on car modifications, audio equipment, and musical instruments I never learn to play.

[Seanken]

I tend to get intensely involved with something that draws me, learn a lot and then two things happen:

I retain the best items and maintain my knowlege on the subject. I have traversed through:

Tools and home building and repairing.
Machining , still involved.
Welding, still involved.
HAM radio. Now an "amatuer extra" steady as she goes.
Stereo equipment, burnt out. Maintain small but decent equioment, but listen primarily to talk radio. New music bores me and i believe that computers have reduced the true musicians who are MASTERS of their instruments to near zero.
Computers, networking and programming in more languages than i can remember. Still involved, make my living now selling software instead of writing it or systems/network admin stuff as you have to compete with Indians and Chinese who will work, literally, for peanuts.
Watches. Yeah, I'm on here aren't I?
Much owning, buying and using zee verboten things.

[JUSTIFIED]

I was talking w/ some car buddies and mentioned a non-Rolex watch that i recently bought. One guy asked the price, which was $695. They thought that was a lot. Seemed so little to me. That's when I realized the illness had me firmly in it's grips.

On a serious note, at least Rolexes retain a good portion of their value. Can't say that about most material possessions and other ways we could/do spend our money.

[DoctorA]

Originally Posted by JUSTIFIED

I was talking w/ some car buddies and mentioned a non-Rolex watch that i recently bought. One guy asked the price, which was $695. They thought that was a lot. Seemed so little to me. That's when I realized the illness had me firmly in it's grips.

On a serious note, at least Rolexes retain a good portion of their value. Can't say that about most material possessions and other ways we could/do spend our money.

Everything is very relative. $695 for a watch that will depreciate invalue and not have the same great heritage and movement is a lot of money he!
While $10k on a watch that will increase in value, give you joy and hold its quality is a good deal to me!

[drmizzou]

Originally Posted by DoctorA

It’s human nature! To always want the best, biggest, most sought after and most expensive. I would t say it’s weird! And I would t justify and say that it’s better than gambling and chasing boards....... but I would say moderation is key. Spending your family’s last penny to get your grail isn’t weird, it’s CRAZY, but buying within your means, with money that is “play money” to celebrate an accomplishment or even treat yourself for all the hard work you do then I would say is perfectly NORMAL

Never defy nature, it’ll beat you ��

Well said! Couldn’t agree more.

[_speedmaster_]

Originally Posted by Seanken

I tend to get intensely involved with something that draws me, learn a lot and then two things happen:

I retain the best items and maintain my knowlege on the subject. I have traversed through:

Tools and home building and repairing.
Machining , still involved.
Welding, still involved.
HAM radio. Now an "amatuer extra" steady as she goes.
Stereo equipment, burnt out. Maintain small but decent equioment, but listen primarily to talk radio. New music bores me and i believe that computers have reduced the true musicians who are MASTERS of their instruments to near zero.
Computers, networking and programming in more languages than i can remember. Still involved, make my living now selling software instead of writing it or systems/network admin stuff as you have to compete with Indians and Chinese who will work, literally, for peanuts.
Watches. Yeah, I'm on here aren't I?
Much owning, buying and using zee verboten things.

You and I are very much the same (though with different hobbies/interests that caught our eye). Life is too short to not experience and learn about new things. I also second your opinion on modern music (everything I listen to was created before I was born).

Though my interest in things tend to wane and dissipate, watches have remained an interest since I was 10. I doubt I’ll ever lose it.

[Godfather111]

During the family's new year party at my house, I was feeling like the odd man out, being the only Rolex enthusiast at a table where Patek and AP were the norm.

As my relatives were talking heartily about Nautiluses (Nautilii?) and Royal Oaks, I could only look pathetically at my BLNR. The guy beside me was sporting a chocolate Daytona rosegold, but it was his daily beater. He had two PP's which he wore alternately for special occasions. Another relative at the table had a rosegold Royal Oak, which was his daily beater.

I really felt like a weirdo on new year's eve, still adamantly collecting stainless steel Rolexes. So I made a resolution for 2018 then and there.

I'm going to get new relatives.

[AK797]

Originally Posted by Godfather111

During the family's new year party at my house, I was feeling like the odd man out, being the only Rolex enthusiast at a table where Patek and AP were the norm.

As my relatives were talking heartily about Nautiluses (Nautilii?) and Royal Oaks, I could only look pathetically at my BLNR. The guy beside me was sporting a chocolate Daytona rosegold, but it was his daily beater. He had two PP's which he wore alternately for special occasions. Another relative at the table had a rosegold Royal Oak, which was his daily beater.

I really felt like a weirdo on new year's eve, still adamantly collecting stainless steel Rolexes. So I made a resolution for 2018 then and there.

I'm going to get new relatives.

Give them to me! Nothing but bloody g-shocks and, brace yourselves, a Hermes Iwatch thing. However they were all interested in Rolex this year but not for the watches, only because I told them of their rising prices lately.

[CRM114]

Originally Posted by Investr

I of course say this joking bc I really enjoy my TRF bros (about 97.5% of us) BUT I got to thinking the last couple if days about our obsession/addiction to this "hobby". I was looking at a recent thread posted here about what we would acquire this year and what we had flipped this past year. I was actually embarrassed to admit to all the moves a did this past year. Like really, I cant make up my mind and just enjoy my watches and ride off into the sunset with a 2 or 3 watch collection and never look back. NOPE!!! I recently served a suspension here and gave some serious thought to purposely getting myself banned for life to remove the source of temptation but I just couldn't do it. It's funny bc Ive been in the same occupation for 20 years, married to one woman for 23 years, and overall I'm not a big fan of change. I do some car changes but nothing too rash. When it comes to watches, I throw all of this out of the window and make decisions that make no sense as Ive some exact models two or even 3 times only to flip again. I guess I just get a little bored. Ive often wondered if my favorite AD thinks I'm a total moron OR just swimming in dough. Not sure of the purpose of this thread bc I know many here are very happy with their collections whether its one watch or 25 and find all of the flipping as non sense. I wish everyone a HNY and a special shoutout to my fellow "weirdos"....

In an objective sense, it's only weird if enthusiasm for something (for anything, not just watches) becomes destructive to oneself, others, or relationships you value. I believe that's the point where one exits the realm of enthusiasm and the terms "obsession" and/or "addiction" come into play.

Instead of watches, we could be talking about bottle caps on a bottle cap collector's forum. Or, there's a thread on this forum that is mostly about the hunt, acquisition, and flipping-for-profit of new-release sneakers (which I've read with great curiosity since I had no idea it was such a "thing"). Then, of course there's video-gaming.

All the aforementioned activities are intrinsically harmless unless one is found dead from a dislodged DVT blood clot slumped in front of one's computer surrounded by overflowing ashtrays, crumpled Cheeto bags, and empty Coke cans, or gets gunned down in a parking lot in a deal for super-desirable tennis shoes gone bad that could have been avoided by not carelessly rushing headlong into a sketchy situation without due diligence/precautions owing to excitement generated by the unique and entirely new way Nike molded and colored the $27-worth of rubber and nylon that went into their latest "limited" edition, or loses one's job, wife, and squanders away the kids' college fund spending all leisure time and disposable income trying to acquire every vintage bottle cap Nehi & RC Cola ever produced in order to achieve a bottle cap collector's version of a badass rep among bottle cap collector forum peers and post the whole shebang of highly sought-after and elusive "trophies" bagged on InstaGram to the sound of imaginary, self-deluded applause.

For all we know, there's some sort of "Holy Trinity" in the barbed wire world, and barbed wire enthusiasts most likely have individual notions of what their "grails" are ranging from certain designs of spikey bits and wire windings produced by various U.S. manufacturers in the 1890s to having an actual example of German concertina wire used in the trenches during the Battle of the Somme. If something is out there, Tinker Toys to Ferraris, there are people who go to sleep and wake up thinking about them and in our modern world with the internet, no matter how obscure the niche or large the go-along herd, like-minded folk can find each other for mutual support or obsessive enabling, depending on how you want to look at it.

So really, it depends, and this watch/Rolex thing can go either way. My general rule of thumb would be "No harm, no foul = enthusiasm, not weirdness". Since you said you still have a job and a wife you most likely still haven't stepped off into the abyss where at the bottom lies the wreckage of lives broken by hobbies-taken-too-far, but just as how the odds of winning on a slot machine or coin toss aren't affected by prior spins or flips, there's always a chance tomorrow could be different.

[Quailhunter]

Moderation and studied judgement make for a good life. I wish I had learned this much earlier in my life. I’d have fewer regrets.

[KBM]

Originally Posted by TheRolexKingofLV

I've been called worse.

Hahaha this!

[Takonwong]

So really, it depends, and this watch/Rolex thing can go either way. My general rule of thumb would be "No harm, no foul = enthusiasm, not weirdness". Since you said you still have a job and a wife you most likely still haven't stepped off into the abyss where at the bottom lies the wreckage of lives broken by hobbies-taken-too-far, but just as how the odds of winning on a slot machine or coin toss aren't affected by prior spins or flips, there's always a chance tomorrow could be different. [/QUOTE]

[DLRIDES]

Originally Posted by Quailhunter

This is an interesting question. I follow three forums, each in an area in which I am involved. I see many more people on this forum who appear to be buying to satisfy an emotional need rather than a rational need. It appears to be the act of buying rather than the enjoyment of the item that is the prime motivator.

I tend to agree

[dafuture]

I personally believe that, like most things, we all fall into the grey area of perspective. Depending on who you ask, we are simultaneously weird and not weird given our respective enthusiasm for watches. Assuming, as others have mentioned, that none of us are falling into the "abyss," I don't see anything off about enjoying the fruits of life.

My own girlfriend could hardly understand why I spent thousands on my Explorer and flat out told me I was crazy for wanting to get another one for when I finish graduate school. To me, they're wearable momentos. Each one holds a memory and a story. I also find myself enchanted with these complex little machines that eschew modern computing power for tradition.

Whatever your reason for loving watches is, there are always going to be others who don't understand your passion. The key is to always make the most of your life. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks.

[HORNBLOWER]

No, but it helps!

[Takonwong]

Thanks to OP I've been reflecting on my watch buying behaviour. I find myself enjoying and appreciating my current collection more instead of always looking for the next buy / swap.
Thanks!

[Pacheco]

My wife thinks so!! I went thru 8 watches but now I’m content with 3 which I think is the perfect rotation. Now my wife wants a second Datejust in gold after making me flip her DJ 31 for a 36. Who’s the weirdo now?

[brandrea]

Ah, Rick it’s tough to find any sort of equilibrium in your watch collection, especially with all the enabling going on here ...