Cleaning House // Culling the Watch Herd

My collection of watches has grown to over a dozen pieces yet again and like several times before it consists of a plethora of inexpensive and cheap watches I’ll never wear.

I’m culling the herd and slimming down to 4 watches:

Rolex Explorer 114270
Victorinox INOX
Casio G-Shock DW5600
Casio A168

My thoughts on how to setup an ideal collection:

I. Classics that Obey Form + Function

It took years for me to realize I prefer simple tool watches of a reasonable size and classic styling. For most everyday I'm relying on the humble Casio's and for more formal or special days I bust out the Automatics or the INOX.

It's funny how the Casio A168 gives me such delight as I don't have to worry much and it satisfies most of my daily needs in a watch.

II. You don’t need every style or design

One common mistake I made when I first began collecting watches was wanting to ‘complete’ a collection in terms of colors and styles. If a model came in 3-4 colors I desired all of them.

Contrary to belief you don’t need a ‘one of each’chronograph, dive watch, dress watch and so on.

III. Sizing and fit matters

Treat watches as you would shoes. If you plan to wear them comfortably they need to fit properly.

IV. Buy what you would wear

It sounds simple, but I suffered buyers remorse as I would buy watches that looked good, but didn’t look so great when I wore them. Even the coolest and most desired of watches do not necessarily fit the style of every individual.

For me watches between 36 and 42 mm are optimal with a few I can wear that exceed this size, my INOX at 45mm being the rare exception.

Comments

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