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Trials and Tribulations of a Collector
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Collection  ·  5 min read

Taking Back Time

My executive coach told me to put the phone down. I ended up with 140 watches.

By @midlifecrisiswatches·
Taking Back Time

I grew up just outside of New York City, and both my grandfather and my father wore a watch. I still remember the trips we took as a family to find my dad his next one. Nothing crazy, but he wore his Bertolucci and Cartier with real pride.

When I turned 13, my grandparents bought me an Oris. I wore it every single day. I picked up a few Fossils along the way with various colored dials that drew me in. During an internship in Manhattan through high school and into college in the late 90s, every successful sales exec I looked up to was wearing a Panerai. That was my entire frame of reference. I thought Panerai was the best watch in the world.

Most of that time, I was actually wearing an Omega Seamaster. When I sold my first business, I bought myself a Panerai Radiomir. The success watch. I was never deep into watches, but I had a few to rotate: Panerai, Longines, Omega. After another good moment in business, I added a Breguet Type XX in rose gold.

In 2015, the Apple Watch launched and I bought one of the first models. I wore it constantly. My automatics never saw the time of day.

A few years later, I was working with my executive coach on performance and focus. We got into distractions. She told me to put my phone on silent and kill all notifications on the Apple Watch. I did not want to do this. I was President of a business with a lot of people reporting in, and everyone had convinced themselves they needed to reach me immediately. Turns out, they didn't. I took control of my calendar, I put the phone down, and something shifted. The phone stopped running my day. That was the real turning point, and it had nothing to do with watches. Except that it had everything to do with them.

My phone has been on silent 99% of the time since. Still to this day. The Apple Watch moved to gym duty only (and tennis). I picked up a Whoop, eventually swapped it for an Oura ring.

With the Apple Watch off my wrist and years of automatic neglect behind me, I went all in. At one point I had over 140 watches: JDM Seikos, microbrands, Swiss maisons, German independents and random indies. I track every wear in an app, and the data tells the story. About 20 watches account for 80% of my actual wear time.

I don't regret collecting the way I did. I still recommend it. Buy pieces, experience them, move on if they don't stick. You learn quickly that there are really only 5 to 10 main dial patterns, a handful of movement manufacturers in the low to mid-end, and then an almost infinite number of variations built on top of those bones. Experiencing that firsthand beats reading about it.

Over time I've gotten more interested in in-house movements, unusual dials, and the details most people never notice. I buy from ADs and the secondary market, but I don't enjoy playing the allocation game. I'd rather pay a bit more and have the watch in hand today than spend money on jewelry I don't want just to earn a spot on a list. That's not the textbook approach. I'm fine with it. I buy what I like, not what I think will hold value in five years.

Most of my Japanese pieces, ranging from Seiko to Grand Seiko to Credor, come from Instagram sellers who are deep in the JDM market. I've also built up a meaningful amount of German watches. Germany does the Big Date complication better than just about anyone, and it's become a genuine focus.

The collection today is wide but moving in a clear direction: understated luxury. It's the lane I've settled into, though I'll be the first to say it's always subject to change. I'm not entirely comfortable wearing a lot of yellow or rose gold, but I'm starting to dip a toe in. Laurent Ferrier, Parmigiani Fleurier, Holthinrichs, Zenith, H.Moser & Cie, Fears, and Grand Seiko are anchors. I have pieces from most of the major maisons and genuinely enjoy them. But the gravitational pull is toward craft, restraint, and things that don't need to announce themselves.

Looking back at it, the best thing I've done is take off the Apple Watch and put my phone on silent. I now own my technology, my technology does not own me. This is a huge change and one that I'm extremely happy I've done. It wasn't easy but it's been years and I'm completely untethered at this point. It's also made me appreciate the art of time and horology in a way that I never imagined.

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