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Patek Philippe

Having given your dilemma a lot of thought......

 

....the following came to me.....


.....this forum is full of guys who essentially do not have a budget limit on their watches, yet they do not all build collections in such a rapid way as you have done. They also rarely need to ask other opinions about what watches to collect. So, that is my first point....for those who have built expertise and understanding over time, the watches to add to their collections are derived from their specific process and not from the opinion of a forum. Having said that, this forum is full of expertise and being open-minded to the ideas of others is a positive thing. So....there are two sides to this view.....

.....yet this issue of "expertise" leads me to my main point. Lets make it an analogy. Lets say Bill Gates decides that he wants to become a violinist. Now, Bill can easily buy all the Stradivarius in the world, albeit at some cost, he can hire the very best concert violinist and teachers to educate him as to how to play that violin, but let me tell you, after 6 months or so, Bill's violin playing will be more vile-din than violin. It will still sound pretty awful. Gates will still be a beginner. Gladwell's book, "Outliers" suggests that any expert needs a minimum of 10,000 hours of practise in order to become truly professional standard. My guess is that collecting watches has a similar ethos to it. One can collect the most expensive watches in the world, but that will not necessarily make the collection meaningfully beautiful to either the owner or to others.

Patience is not something I am good at. I often rush into things and shoot first and ask questions later. I was taught that way by one of the world's richest men. Yet, while that methodology has its place, building a collection of watches would not, in my humble opinion, be a good place for it. I would imagine that a great deal more pleasure can be gained from a growing appreciation of particular watches and themes. Its dead easy to splash out a lot of cash and buy a lot of modern super-watches. Usually, if you have the cash, you get the watch. Its not so easy in vintage world. Take vintage Rolex or vintage Patek..... lets imagine you want to accumulate some truly rare vintage pieces....finding the pieces is an art in itself. Persuading the often super-rich who own them to sell them is often impossible....

....my advice to you would be to set yourself a watch target that did not involve the power-use of budget.  

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