Horological Meandering

With my family out of town visiting Grandma, I thought I would take the opportunity to go the Reno NAWCC convention via the mountains (or maybe to the mountains with a side trip to the convention). Thus, this afternoon I found myself at Lake Sabrina, about 9,000 feet up in the Eastern Sierra.

Collecting vintage watches (and violins) requires eternal vigilance: to protect oneself, one must be continually on the lookout for the minor inconsistencies that expose fakery. In this case, the issue was that Lake Sabrina is an artificial lake: it is very pretty, but it has a dam at one end and the whole thing doesn't look quite "right." Nevertheless, I wanted to rent a canoe to go boating for perhaps half an hour to an hour.

Unfortunately, the rental person told me that the minimum rental was for half a day (which is silly given that the lake is maybe 500 yards long). Well, okay, thought I and asked how much that would cost. The answer was $26. My immediate and visceral reaction: there's no way I'm paying that much to canoe on a fake lake!

I gave up and ended up going on a nice walk starting at the discouragingly-named Mosquito Flats. (I recommend it, by the way; it has been a cool summer and the wildflowers are still out at high altitude.) As I walked, I thought about my reaction to Lake Sabrina. In the case of vintage watches (and violins), the matter is simple: original condition commands top dollar and everything else requires a substantial discount. Apparently this has affected (or infected) my entire world view. (I am happy to report that at least to date it has affected only my world view, not my mouth. I did not propose to the rental agent that she give me a discount because of the flaw in her lake's condition.)

How about the rest of you? Has any aspect of watch collecting spilled over into your approach to your other endeavors?

it has thought be to be more discerning and not to judge the man by the watch he is wearing, but his entire collection!! just today, i had the pleasure of having ramen and drinks with a bunch of gentlemen, and included is one of i think Asia's most discerning and astute watch collector whose collection span traditional brands to independents....wearing a G-shock!!!

also the virtue of patience. recently after a 10 year wait, i bought a IWC that started my love for the brand(and sadly also my current disdain of their recent years line up)

I spend way more time in Beverly Hills than I used to.  Seriously.  I'm not a big shopper by nature, so BH never held any real appeal for me -- that is, until I started getting into watches and visiting the boutiques.    I'm sure there are countless other ways in which the hobby has affected my everyday life.

Cheers,
Daos 

I recently purchased a wallet and kept the original box, pouch and papers. Later on I wondered whatever for.

When I dined at a well known restaurant outside of San Francisco some time ago, I was told most of the ingredients were locally sourced and many were grown on the premises of the restaurant owner. My immediate thought was "in-house production"!

And actually there are three examples, for when I typed the first line I instinctively wrote "I recently purchased a watch...".

- SJX