A collector's journal
Trials and tribulations of a watch collector.
I am a watch collector based in the Northeast, USA. I admire all types of watches: from independents to big names. I take pictures of my watches for fun, as a creative outlet which I've re-engaged over time. I grew up loving photography and now I love watches, so I now mix them together. I shoot most of my pictures on my Sony a6700 with a few different lenses. I also have a Leica Q3 43 which I use from time to time. If not shot on the Sony or the Leica, I shoot on my iPhone 16 Pro Max.
My path back to watches came through subtraction. In 2022, I made a deliberate decision to step back from screens: the constant connectivity, the notifications, the ambient hum of the digital world. What filled the space surprised me: a rekindled obsession with analog timekeeping. Watches had always been there, somewhere in the background. The detox brought them to the foreground. That instinct eventually became a project of its own: 140 to 40, an ongoing series about paring the collection down to the pieces that matter.
By day, I'm a marketer turned investor. I spend my time thinking about brands, consumer behavior, and what makes people fall in love with things. It turns out those same instincts translate surprisingly well to horology. I find myself drawn to the stories behind watches as much as the watches themselves: why certain brands resonate, how independents and microbrands are rewriting the rules of distribution and desire, and what it means for a piece to earn a place on your wrist rather than simply occupy one.
My tastes run wide. I have a soft spot for independents and microbrands punching well above their weight. I also have deep respect for the grand complications and storied maisons that have been building movements longer than most companies have existed. What I'm really chasing, regardless of price point or provenance, is intentionality. A watch that knows what it is.
Some pieces I buy for the moment... though hoping less so these days. A few I'm buying for much longer than that: watches I hope will one day end up on my children's wrists, carrying a little bit of this chapter of my life forward with them.
Midlife Crisis Watches is equal parts collection journal, photo project, and ongoing argument with myself about what really matters in a watch. I hope you find something here worth reading, or at the very least, worth arguing about.
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