I Went to Watch Week to Shorten My List

I went to NYC Watch Week thinking I'd come home with a shorter list. Meet the makers, handle the pieces, cross a few things off. That was the plan.

It went the other way. Between IndiesNYC, WatchTime, The HYPE, and a handful of 1:1s, I left with more watches I wanted than when I arrived. Nothing got replaced but everything got added.

Barry Schwartz wrote a whole book about this. The Paradox of Choice argues that more options make us worse at choosing and less happy with what we pick. I get the theory but that's not what happened to me, though. More options forced me to do something I'd been putting off for a long time. I had to rank.

I decide fast

I can know I want a watch in minutes. Some collectors take weeks. Some take years. I'm not one of them.

That sounds like a strength. In this hobby it usually isn't. I've written about the 150 watches I bought chasing drops, and the 100+ that went back out the door. Fast decisions got me there. Note, I do not regret them.

So, while I trust my gut, I need to slow myself down... and a list is the speed bump I need.

The list

I keep a running list of watches I want. When something new catches my eye, I don't ask whether I want it. The answer is almost always yes. That's the problem.

I ask where it goes. Top? Middle? Bottom?

That question is a lot harder to fool. Wanting a watch on its own is easy. Wanting it more than the piece I've been thinking about for years is a different conversation. A new watch has to beat something that already earned its spot.

And I can't buy everything at once. Nobody can. The list makes me admit that before the card comes out.

And if you are wondering, my list started off hand written on an 8.5 x 11" paper but now is a Google Sheet as I've adopted more technology.

Three ways to the top

A few pieces I've committed to lately all climbed the list differently. None of them got there on day one.

Andersen Genève Jumping Hour. This one won on time. It's been on the list for years. I've had numerous conversations, looked at it again and again, and it never slid down. When a watch survives that long, you stop asking if you want it and start asking when. The timing was finally right. I'll pick it up next summer in Switzerland.

A Shreve, Crump & Low Laurent Ferrier. This one won on wrist time. I haven't shown it publicly yet, so this is the first you're hearing of it. If you're local to Boston, you know Shreve. It's my store, and they're one of the top Laurent Ferrier ADs in the country. They're also the ones who introduced me to Laurent Ferrier. I've been fortunate to own a few LFs since, and Shreve has been great to me as a collector. Over the years it's become a friendship. They showed me a limited edition with Shreve, Crump & Low signed on the dial, and I knew right away. The shop that introduced me to the brand, with its name on the dial. That's our whole story in one watch. Then I made myself wait. I kept coming back to it for months. What closed it was wearing it for an extended stretch while we filmed a video at the shop. By the end of the shoot I was in love. It still took me a while after that to pull the trigger.

Delaloye Genève. This one won in person. I'd been studying the brand for months on Instagram, blogs, and YouTube. I asked a few watch friends and got a unanimous yes. I still didn't move. Then I saw the tantalum pieces at IndiesNYC and that was it. Photos don't do tantalum justice. We've since designed a piece unique, and it's being made now. I'm stoked.

Why the indies help

Buying from independents has a practical upside. These watches take a long time to make, so you end up paying over months, sometimes years. That makes a bigger list possible.

The part I like more is that the wait is built in. When a watchmaker needs a year or two to deliver, I don't get to decide fast even if I want to. They're enforcing a patience I'm still learning.

I'll be honest about something else... I bought a lot this fall. If you follow along on Instagram, you've seen some of it. Many of these pieces, aside from maybe one, were highly considered and were tested on the list.

The bottom of the list

If a watch has been sitting at the bottom of my list for a year, do I really want it? Probably not.

Tastes change. The longer something sits, the better the odds it comes off the list entirely. Is that a bad thing? No. That's exactly why I use the list.

Take the Panerai PAM02164. I first saw it in Palm Beach, on a break from the beach, walking Worth Ave with Mrs. MidlifeCrisisWatches. I hadn't been inside a Panerai store in years. This one stopped me. It's a very pretty watch.

It went on the list. It never moved up. It didn't even hold its spot. Every time something new came on, the Panerai slid a little further down.

So what's driving that? It's a niche piece with limited wearing occasions. On the days it would make sense, it competes with too many watches I already own and already wear. Pretty got it on the list. Pretty wasn't enough to keep it there.

Every watch that drops off the bottom is one I didn't buy, wear twice, and sell at a loss. I've done plenty of that already.

So the system is simple. Keep a list. Make every new watch fight for its place. Let things sit. If I still want it months later, and the timing and funds are right, I go get it.

More on patience in On Drops and Discipline.