140 to 40

This piece isn't about how to sell a watch. I may write more about that later. In the meantime, Tony Traina from Unpolished has a nice writeup you can reference. This one is about what I learned about myself, watches, and the industry while buying 140 watches over 24 months.

I first dove deep into the Japanese watch world, mostly Seiko, Grand Seiko, and Credor. I found a few great Instagram sellers based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Vietnam and bought many JDM models, from limited-edition Alpinists to rare Grand Seikos. Along the way I picked up a few Credor pieces, which are wildly underappreciated here in the United States.

I bought a couple of Rothwell SF 24-count boxes and quickly filled them with these JDM pieces. Then I meandered into microbrands. They are hard to ignore on Instagram and Facebook, and I love the design and creativity of so many of them, so I went deep. In 2024 and 2025 I bought roughly half the microbrand launches that crossed my feed, everything from Farer to Studio Underd0g, Formex to Imperial Watch Co. At one point I had three 24-count boxes filled with microbrands.

From there I started collecting pieces with in-house movements and other complications. This is where I bought my first independents (H. Moser & Cie, Laurent Ferrier) and picked up some major maisons like Rolex and Vacheron Constantin.

I woke up one day with 140+ watches in the collection. After analyzing my wearing patterns on OnMyWrist and WristTrack, I realized I was never going to wear most of them. They were sitting there as depreciating "assets."

The good news is that as an amateur photographer, the watches gave me a ton of subjects to shoot. Scroll back to my early pictures on @midlifecrisiswatches and you'll see lots of JDM and microbrand pieces.

I bet some of you are nodding along right now. Maybe not to my extreme, but based on the YouTube videos I've watched about collecting, I'm clearly not alone.

There is always "one last watch." I've fallen into this trap a lot. A "last watch for now" tends to last hours or days, not the months I told myself.

The chase was the addiction, not the watch.. in the beginning. For me the high was never the unboxing. It was keeping the list, rearranging it, and hunting the next piece. The acquiring scratched the itch for about a day. Then I was back on the list. Be honest about whether you want the watch or the dopamine of the hunt. I think now, that has settled a bit. I wont lie though, the chase is fun. I am enjoying my watches more these days.

Less is more, but four is too few for me. I don't know my final number yet. I know it isn't 140, and I know it isn't four.

Was it worth it?

People assume I regret the 140. I don't. I have learned a ton. I wouldn't trade that run for anything.

You can't develop taste from a spreadsheet or a YouTube video. You develop it by handling watches. Many of them. Wearing them, shooting them, living with one for a week and realizing it isn't for you. The 140 was tuition. What I got back was my own eye. I know now what I actually reach for, what I'll wear, and what I was only ever chasing because the chase felt good.

Forty isn't the finish line either. But I know what forty of mine look like now, and I never would have without the other hundred.

So What's Next?

I do have one watch I'd like to sell. It's never been "worn" outside the house, only photographed. It's the Straum x TRTS Jan Mayen Titanium Stormy Seas. I don't believe it'll get the wrist time I originally thought it might. When I ordered it about six months ago, my collection was at a different stage. Here are some pictures I've taken of it. If you're in the USA and want a limited edition Straum that's no longer for sale publicly, ping me with a solid offer. I paid $2,500. It comes with two rubber straps, white and dark blue and the full set of box and papers.

What's next on the blog? A follow-up to this one: the lessons I've learned along the way. Stay tuned.