Horological Meandering

Hey Joe,

Great post.

I also think its interesting on another level. Namely that the original poem essentially suggests that regardless of the path one chooses, one often ends up in exactly the same place in the end.

Having said that;

1) There’s more on my list and I cannot be satisfied until I’ve owned them because ownership is how my desires are met when I can say I’ve had them all.

I wonder whether this type of thinking correlates directly with age. It is certainly true that when I was 20, my list of wants and needs was, in my head at least, correlated with what would make me happy. Yet, with time one sees that adding extra trinkets has a declining marginal revenue curve! Each extra new trinket provides its obligatory 40 seconds of endorphins and then......nothing. Things simply do not bring happiness in a true sense. they can bring fleeting excitement, but not any real fulfilment. 

(2) I believe I have met most of my desires and I might or might not get one more but there is really no urge to grow my watch collection.  I’m happy to follow watches as a passive observer now and enjoy what I already have.

I suspect many collectors feel that they are in this category or at least close to it. Then, of course, a wave of new desires emerges and the never-ending treadmill just reinvents itself in another way. I have to say, I have almost certainly been in Camp 1 at some point. I have also certainly been in Camp 2 as well, and felt morally better for being so....until I realised that actually Camp 2 is really the same as Camp 1.

(3) The watch hunt excitement/new watch euphoria leaves me wanting; the consumerism is a dead end for me and I want something different, some way to be more fulfilled and engaged.

I have a slightly different take on this. I look at it like I do my professional work. One aspect of my work involves running a portfoilio of equities. There are only ever 30 stocks in that specific portfolio. If I start researching another company and find that I need to own it, it must, by definition, be better than the 30th best stock in my current portfolio. I can't just add it because it looks great. It has to displace something already in the pot. I like to think that retains some of the original ideology of building the 30.......same concept can be applied to watches. Am I in this camp now? I think I am in a version of it, yes.

Are there any other alternatives? Enlightenment. The capacity to look at a watch collection and say, I don't need any of them. I can sell all of them as they are just pieces of metal. For me, many of my watches also represent memories. Indeed, my most precious watches are ones that have attached memories for me. My dad's JLC for example, is probably the least expensive in my collection, yet at the same time the most valuable to me.Could i see it as just a piece of metal? No. So, my enlightenment remains some way away. But, as a concept, I do feel that Camp 3 has promise albeit it with some caveats. The never-ending search for fulfilment from buying something new will never end and it will never bring that contentment that is sought. Rather, looking at what one actually has and trying to maximise the joy from what has already been achieved seems a useful addition to the concept.

Sorry....i am droning on here. Great post from you....enjoyed reading it and replying

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