Horological Meandering

and with the benefit of hindsight what would be your first watch to start the ball rolling again? Would your style of collecting change, with more or less pieces for instance? Or are you fully satisfied with your lot right now (present collection) and wouldn't change a thing?

Hypothetical question I know but it would be interesting to see if say all the funds that you have ploughed into your current collection were freed up and you were to start from scratch; how would you proceed?

I can imagine some seasoned collectors who have through the years fine tuned their collection and acquired pieces with a lot of blood, sweat & tears not wanting to go through it all again. For the rest of us,myself included, I can imagine a lot of trial & error were involved and all too often hasty decisions may lead to regret or indiffence later. Easy way is from time to time re-evaluate what you have and make the necessary changes (disposals/acquisitions) along the way if need be.

This scenario can actually be realistically played out if say an individual, for whatever reason, disposes of his entire collection, only to start again further down the road with his/her first watch.

Would you do it if you could and your starting piece would be?

Thank you for your indulgence and looking forward to your replies.

cheers

fernando

I would have concentrated on a few Patek minute repeaters: 5078, 5074, 5016, all in platinum...presumably through auctions...plus maybe one or two independents, for instance: Dufour, Voutilainen, in other words, five watches instead of fifty. Note that they are all 'wearable', unlike PP 5002 or VC Tour de L'ile...

Yes, I know I am greedy, but as Gordon Gekko said: Greed is good :P

Best

Sam

just a wiser man.Life's too short to not live it to the full. Those 5 would be too awesome for words - it can still happen,can't it? 

Thanks for your response. I can see where this is going.

Best

fernando

This message has been edited by fernando on 2011-02-05 04:18:58

NT

No message body

NT

A great question, Fernando, and one that has been exercising the mind a lot lately.

Starting all over again (at the right time, of course)? Easy. Dufour's Duality, both Simplicities, a Haldimann H1, a Voutilainen Decimal Repeater and Daniels' Millenium watch. That should do...
...for a start!



Cheers,
pplater.

you busy for a few years I imagine pplater.No beater in the lot - perhaps 1 rolex?

Thanks for your reply.

cheers

fernando

As for a beater? There are two Simplicities in the list - one for formal, the other one on a Nato strap...


Cheers,
pplater.

Why can't i turn back the clock
Bring the wheels of time to a stop
Back to the days
Oh no no
I remember when
Life was so good
I'd go back if i could
Oh oh i wouldn't change a single day
Don't let the memories slip away

Best,

Horo

came back to my mind Horo.What a catchy tune & so relevant to this post. A nice thought if only we could 'turn back the time'.So many mistakes could have been avoided but we wouldn't be who we are now,with battle scars and all.

Cheers

fernando

Tough question, Fernando.

I think I would sum it to around 10 / 15 watches, a kind of blend of the nicest Vintage and Modern watches.

I would certainly  get a selection  which would look like something like this:

Panerai 6154, the epitome of strenght and elegance ala Italiana.

Tudor 7924, a  brutal and very fine bad boy, and a piece of History.

Rolex 6542: The mother of all the Rolex GMTs, I never saw something more sensual than this one.

Blancpain FF ( US NAVY / Pakistanese or TR 900 ), a legend on the wrist.

AP: The very first R.O, an hybrid watch, sporty and dressy at the same time, difficult to put in words, exciting to feel.

GP: The Tourbillon with gold bridge(s): Timeless, precious, an intellectual pleasure and satisfaction.

Lange und Sohne Langematik Anniversary: One of the finest Lange ever made, and a captivating enamel dial.

JLC Master Minute Repeater: Can't get rid of it, a somptuous and crazy watch.

JLC Duometre à Chronographe, one of the smartest modern JLC.

JLC Vintage  Deep Sea Alarm ( European ), a superb and curious Diving Watch.

U.N Freak, the mother of all concept watches, crazy, original, technical, a milestone.

U.N Sonata, the nicest Alarm watch combined to a friendly complication ( the GMT ) : THE treveller's watch.

PP 5110P. THE Reference in world time watches.

VC Minute Repeater skeleton: It will be the only one high complication I would double, without any hesitation, and with a great pleasure: A Masterpiece of Art.

I would also pick one Independant: De Bethune or K.V, but I still have to do my homework.

With such a list, I would say that I could not do better... I would retire without any regrets.

Best,

Nicolas.

 

anyone proud Nicolas.A lot of vintages I see but aren't most of them in your current collection?

Best

fernando

which represents a good proportion, in my opinion .... Almost one third.

Aren't most of them in my collection, Fernando?

I fear they were, but 3 of them have recently gone, sadly...

Best,

Nicolas

I feel for your loss too

But if I had the chance to go back in time, I'd take it a step further and think about the money that I wasted on other things when I could have plowed them through watches instead! I keep thinking about money that I wasted 10 years ago that I always equated to a YG Zenith moon phase (I still do).

But to answer the question, mine would be tweaks as opposed to some here that from my lilliputian view seem like serious overhauls.

I would've probably skipped a couple of Omega acquisitions and went straight to a Rolex as a starting watch. Unfortunately, you need to own one before you can appreciate its value... and to have benchmarked it to other less successful purchases. And in relation to being able to appreciate a value of a good watch, probably loosened up the purse strings earlier and not worry too much about value relative to the average man on the street. I probably would have skipped a Reverso GT in ss for a gold version, for example, but then ss would be more in keeping with the art deco spirit. Or perhaps a jump towards a Calatrava?

Good question, Fernando.

perfect . Thus, i fell no need to turn back the time. Even if I can turn back the time, most probably I would keep on making mistakes, judging by the size of my brain.

cen@taipei

...of THAT watch - the 'one that dare not speak its name'. No regrets???

 

Cheers,

pplater.

Oris watch? . Really, I have no regret at all.

Well, maybe there were 2 little regrets, but those regrets were done with no prior knowledge of what the future had to offer. One is regular carlo ferrara, before I knew there was an open dial one. I bought the open dial and stuck with regular carlo that has no resale value at all. Another is HM2 in white gold, before I knew there would be silberstein model or the sapphire one. I wouldn't mind getting all 3, but didn't like the price of the silberstein or the sapphire.

So in hindsight, I WOULD be making the same mistakes again if I were to start again. Now, AFTER I have enough watches, my hunger is not so uncontrollable anymore. I can afford to wait. So really no regret? Yes! I bought the watches that I like.

cen@taipei This message has been edited by cen@jkt on 2011-02-05 16:48:43

... of losing money by buying on impulse and selling soon after with regret....
But I am half sure that I will make the same mistake and go through the same path again...  Ideally, I would want 10 very nice watch collection.  Can't name the name here, but I would be probably happy with just 10 watches.  But I wouldn't be able to afford all 10 desired watches even now anyway, so starting all over again wouldn't bring me to horological nirvana

Interesting question, thank you!
Ken

probably some LE of SE Panerai Radiomir, as well as some GP 1966/Piaget Altiplano/, and then a Moser. Those three would do it for me.

J

...and tend to study and explore for ages before buying -- this goes for all items, not just watches.  I personally, wouldn't do anything differently in terms of past purchases.  Even now, as I strategize about future acquisitions, I cannot see myself regretting any of the possibilities.  Time will tell, of course!  Interesting question!

Cheers,
Daos

if I would start over again knowing what I do now, I would probably skip some of the very early watches I bought when I did not know what I like, but otherwise I would probably arrive at something pretty close to what I currently have.

If I would travel back in time four years and gave myself the money I spent on watches in the meantime, I would probabl have a very hard time convincing my former self that this could have possibly happened, and I would not be surprised if my 2007 self would prefer to buy a grand piano and put the rest towards the mortgage.

Finally, if my entire collection turned to money right now, I would probably rebuy the Resonance and the Datograph and use the rest for a big watch purchase (a Journe DS?)and then start to reacquire most of what I have now.

Best

Andreas

you have now after the big pieces is an interesting revelation Andreas. Wouldn't it be better just to maintain the status quo ?  Thanks for the feedback

cheers

fernando

I will ponder this and get back.....hmmmmmm

I can really summarize this almost entirely in one sentence. I would never buy from any gray market seller, and I would never buy what the community valued more than I did myself.

I was a bit of a sheep in the beginning. I had the income to throw in the fire as I made many expensive 'mistakes'.

I would never believe in marketing. Only the watch itself.

I would buy for wild passion, never for resale (which is rarely 'true' anyway.)

My biggest lesson is again, about the gray market. I would say to my younger self, 'stay away.' Not because they sold fake or malfunctioning watches... but because they are almost always in it solely for the money... and they 'tutor' you to make money your guiding light. They 'love trades'. And why not? They always win like a casino, with trades. I could go on.

I would never buy from anyone who didn't earn my business. I bought some watches where I 'hated' the guy I bought from! because I wanted the watch so bad. NEVER again. God, do I regret those deals! Except for the lessons I learned.

I would be more cautious, go slower, as I do now.

I would get a Rolex sooner.

That's a start.

M

This message has been edited by Mostel on 2011-02-05 17:49:43 This message has been edited by Mostel on 2011-02-05 17:50:15

I guess we can all learn something from it.

cheers & thanks

fernando

The thought that immediately occurred to me was that if I were starting over again, even with the full knowledge that I have today, there are a number of pieces that I've owned that I would buy again.  For me it's a matter of a journey -- one's development as a watch lover and collector.

For instance, I have owned (and sold) an Omega Speedy, a PP Aquanaut and 5015, and a Reverso Duo, and still own a JLC Memovox, a UN Monopusher chrono, a JLC Ultra-thin, and so on.  Some of these are watches that I think "everyone should own" at some point, just to have the experience (for instance, the Speedy and a simple Reverso), and all of them are pieces that at the time purchased made a lot of sense -- but it's possible that as one develops over time, it gets to be time to move on to other things.

For me, I'm actually in the starting phases of such a transition.  I looked for a long time for a piece that I could use as a simple daily wearer for both business and pleasure (and landed -- yesterday! -- on a VC Overseas Chrono), and now plan to sell off the majority of my less expensive watches in order to help fund the purchase of a small number of more precious pieces. 

But my point is that if I hadn't owned a Memovox, for instance, and were starting out again today, I'd still want to own a Memovox at some point.

If I get to start from today and keep all of my experiences intact, would I sell my current collection and start over?  Yes and no -- I would do the liquidation of part of my set of watches as described above, but I have a core set of "keepers" from both major brands and independents that I plan to keep for as long as I can.

If I were forced to sell the whole shooting match and start again, still with all experiences intact, the struggle (as usual) would be between "going big" with one landmark piece and buying what would be the first of a planned sequence of acquisitions.  Going big would be something like a Duality, KV decimal repeater, or VC skeleton repeater.  The portfolio play would definitely start with an Observatoire, and then there would be some other pieces in the mix including a VH Antiqua, FPJ Vagabondage, a Simplicity, and so on -- as well as re-acquisition of some of my faves from my current batch (over and above the Observatoire) including the AP EOT and Reverso repeater.

Enough from me!

Best,

Gary G