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Show me your SMALL collection-

770K views 2K replies 884 participants last post by  Jmerrill 
#1 ·
The recent thread on "what four to five watches you would get with $5,500" combined with the ever-increasing interest in streamlining my life has led me to start thinking about the choices people make when limiting the size of their collections, especially in regards to how they may try to bring some diversity or increased utility into those smaller collections. So, if you would, show me your purposefully small collections (I'm not talking about the "I just bought my first watch, but I want all of them" small collections). It would be great if all of your watches are in one shot and if you can include a blurb on why you chose those pieces. And, if you have two or three watches and are waiting for that last one or two, tell me about those as well.

Also, I'm not going to try to define "small collection" and I always enjoy seeing the huge, impressive collections some people have; however, I'm particularly interested in collections that are purposefully limited to around four or five watches or less (counting "that beater" that no one ever includes).

I'm away from all of my photos at the moment, but I'll get around to posting a pic/blurb in my own thread at some point.

Thanks!
 
#3 ·
I like the idea of this thread. I like the idea of "streamlining your life" with a watch collection being included in that process. Your username matches my signature so I'm guessing we are like minded. It will be good to see what people come up with. I'm not sure if I could get that streamlined, but it would sure feel good. I'm in the process of getting my entire collection to fit in a 15 spot watch box with 5 additional Gshock beaters to top out at 20:-s? That's not a lot by most standards on here, but I would have a ways to go to the Zen state of "5".
 
#6 · (Edited)
Hey, thank you for your post and rest easy, compared to some of the collections on here, 20 seems downright reasonable. Sometimes I think people are secretly hoarding so many watches until they're ready to spring them all into the public at once and crash the used watch market. Or, maybe that's just what I'm hoping for. Anyway, I enjoy looking at collections of all sizes, but my "zen state" (great phrase) is three to four - I think. Looking at your sig, you've made some great watch choices, it would be great to see pics if you have any available.

Also, love the quote, naturally.
 
#4 ·
In the last couple months I cut my collection down from 10+ to 4 (well technically 5). Now it consists of my Ball Moonphase, Citizen Promaster "Ray Mears", Mondaine "Royal Jordanian" chrono, and an Eterna-matic dive watch that is going to replace my Stowa Seatime. I'll add better pictures later on once I receive the Eterna. For now, here's a rather crappy one from a mini-SOTC I did earlier.



Ball - this is currently my daily wearer. I consider it an 'all-arounder' in style: it looks pretty casual on the Ball bracelet and imo can be dressed up with a nice leather strap.

Citizen - my beater/grab-n-go watch.

Mondaine - my dress watch. I've actually been on the fence about flipping it since there aren't many occasions that I need to dress up for. On the other hand, I doubt I'll ever see another one of these for sale so I've kept it for now.

Eterna-matic - I've been looking for a dressy diver for a while now. Most of the ones I liked were either too large or sub homages (now bored of them). I actually first saw this Eterna a while ago but only recently found one for sale. It's likely going to replace my Stowa because I think the style suits me better. I wish it was in my budget to keep both though.

And my 5th is my Invicta 9211 that I don't really wear. There's nothing wrong with the actual watch; it's actually still running strong after 4 years. I'm just not a fan of Daytonas (it's a homage), but I'm not going to sell it since it was a gift. Actually, I'd wear this if I were going to be in an environment where I may really bang up my watch. Build up that wabi-sabi!
 
#8 · (Edited)
I guess I should finally respond to my own thread...

Over the years, I have gone from cheap quartz to entry autos and manuals to nice autos and manuals, even dabbling in vintage, and now I'm heading back towards quartz, but this time on the higher end. I simply found that, though I loved the look and build quality of some of my nicer autos and manuals, more often than not I ended up grabbing the quartz that was already set and ready to go. So over the last few months, I have sold, given away or otherwise divested myself of a number of watches, bringing the collection down from a "high" of around 10 watches, to two (not counting two that I'm trying to sell - so, check those out in the private sellers forum [shameless plug]).

Once I sell those two watches, buy the two new ones and give my G-Shock 5600 away, my collection will be:

First, my Nomos Orion Weiß 33 (small wrists)-
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Strap

(My pic)

This is my dress/formal attire watch that gets worn quite frequently. Though it's manual wind, the lack of a date complication makes it very quick to set and, of course, it's gorgeous on the wrist. Even if it wasn't a graduation from law school/business school gift from my mother, this watch would never leave my collection.

Next (and hopefully soon to be acquired) is the Grand Seiko SBGX061-
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Jewellery

(Pic from Seiya)

This will be my quasi-sporty, wear everywhere watch. I think it could easily go from sport coat to shorts or jeans and I like the ease of use implicit in an HAQ module (though, it would be perfect if it had a perpetual calendar). It's an attractive, grab-and-go that has good water resistance, a super long maintenance cycle (every 50 years, though it needs a new battery every three) and it brings a lot of versatility into my small collection.

G-Shock of some description-
And, finally, rounding out the collection with a serious beater will be one of the nicer G-Shocks. After cycle through a few, I have the standard 5600 right now, but I'm looking to acquire one of the multi-band, atomic, solars sometime in the next couple of days. I do a non-trivial amount of regular travel in "developing" countries, so I always need to have a low profile, under the radar but very durable watch. And, even though I may be the only person in Latin America that shows up for things on time, I like the accuracy, multiple time zone and various alarms for reminding me about things I should be doing instead of playing soccer and drinking aguardiente. Pic forthcoming once I settle on a model.

As an interesting aside (or not?), I was going about setting up savings accounts for proposed watch purchases and since I was seriously considering saving for a Rolex Explorer I, which I have admired from afar for quite some time, I decided to head to the local AD to try it on and be sure that I liked it "in the metal." It looked great, felt great and by all accounts is great, but for some reason I decided immediately that I would not buy it. A quick mental calculation assured me that for the same money I would rather buy and rebuild a vintage cafe racer, go on a short vacation to Central America with my wife and maybe still have a buck or two leftover for a caipirinha. It was a strange and unexpected turn of events, as I don't have any issues with luxury items per se and I'm a firm believer in buying quality. So, anyway, now I'm keeping an eye out for another motorcycle and thinking about making a caipirinha this evening.

I'm still looking forward to seeing other small collections, so if you have one please post it here.
 
#9 ·
So two years ago, my wife purchased the Omega as a wedding gift - a watch I wanted for quite a while. I purchased the B&M Classima as a dressier alternative for work after a promotion a year later. Recently for my 30th, picked up the Zenith Annual Calendar. Over the next couple of years the plan is to upgrade the Classima to a JLC Master Control (I prefer 40mm to 42mm for a dress watch). After that, I hope to be done for a good few years at least!

 
#11 · (Edited)
Well, besides my Gshocks, this is what I have widdled my collection down to. The blue Omega SMP has been replaced with a Speedmaster and I have a Seiko SKX173 inbound. I know there is a lot of redundancy in my collection, but I can't bring myself to sell them. I will be letting some Gshocks go though. If you have any recommendations please feel free to share. I love your Nomos and Grand Seiko. I've had the chance to handle that Seiko and it's a fantastic watch. Can't say enough good things about it. To comply with the topic of this thread, if I had to pick 5 watches to keep tomorrow it would be:

1. Speedmaster-All arounder. This watch is classic and can be dressed up or down. The no date feature makes for a great no fuss mechanical.

2. Omega SMP quartz-all around summer dress/casual watch

3. Breitling Aerospace.-Traveling- another great looking, light weight, grab and go accurate quartz.

4. Seiko SBCM023-summer casual

5. Casio GW-5000-Dare I say beater? Never, but a solar/atomic that is as versatile as they come is a must!

Versatility is the key in a good small collection. That will be a major factor in all of my future purchases.


[I

MG]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b345/subie4life/IMAG0586.jpg[/IMG]
 
#12 · (Edited)
Thanks for your post and showing off your awesome collection! I really like your choices for the hypothetical five watch collection. You do have a bit of similarity in style between your pieces but you incorporate a ton of functionality and, as you mentioned, versatility. I have to admit, I'm on the hunt for the GW-5000 as I type this. Just waiting for the sun to rise over Tokyo and my PayPal account to forgive me and hopefully it will be in-bound by tomorrow. Fingers-crossed, chicken sacrificed and all that...

I forgot to mention, thanks for your input on the SBGX061, as I have yet to see one in person.
 
#15 ·
I try and stay at 4 watches - 2 for the week and 2 for the weekend. Plus a beater. Any more and I feel that they don't get enough wear. Today the collection is:

Reverso Grande GMT - Work week / dress watch. Love how the GMT function is executed (dial on one side tells home time, the other local time).


Tudor Snowflake Sub - The other half of my work week rotation. Started getting into Tudors with the heritage releases a couple years back and discovered the snowflake. Was on the hunt for one for a while before I found a nice blue one.
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Black Fashion accessory


Halios Laguna - a versatile fun watch for the weekend … looks good on the bracelet, Isofrane, and leather.
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Strap


Tsunami - my weekend tool watch. Jumped on one of the last T builds a couple months back. Outstanding build quality, a workhorse movement, and hand assembled by the founder. Does it get any better than that?


Seiko Sumo - Violated my 4 watch rule buy picking this up a month ago in a local meet up. Heard a lot about the fit/finish of the Sumo and had to see if it was true. It is. Right up there with my old Omega Seamaster IMO.


G-Shock - My beater for going to the gym, working on the yard/car/boat/etc.


That's 5 so I've obviously violated my 4 watch rule and already I'm finding that my 3 'fun' watches - Halios, Tsunami, Sumo - aren't getting enough wear. Will probably have move one of them … just hard to figure out which one o|
 
#16 ·
Thank you for showing your collection with us. They're all great choice, but I really love the Reverso and the Tudor. More than once, I have seriously considered buying both of them (though I really like the the Tribute to 1931). I completely agree about too many = not enough wear. Every time I get above three, something just starts sitting around doing nothing.
 
#17 ·
How do you people make enough money to buy 28 watches when you lack the reading comprehension to figure out what a 'small' collection is?

I mean really.
When someone asks to see Japanese watches, don't post your friggin' Speedmaster.
When someone asks to see cheap divers, don't post your friggin' Blancpain 50 Fathoms.
When someone asks to see 35-39mm dress watches, don't post your 45mm Planet Ocean.

Small collections do not need three or four photos to fit all of them in!

:rodekaart
 
#24 ·
kind of harsh.I consider mine as a small collection.Would you rather see the well over 200 watches in my collection?
on this forum,when someone asks to see swiss watches,fully 1/3 of the posts show Seiko watches.
The word cheap and watches isn't proper for forums.That insults members.maybe use the word inexpensive instead.
Also,maybe the Blancpain is his "cheap" watch in his collection.
We all don't play with the same finances to work with here.
 
#20 ·
Thank you! Glad to be missed, glad to be back!

I would post, but my Speedy is out for a few more days getting serviced, and I'm getting the Nomos polished up to sell it. (I tried to like it, really I did, but that's another story for another thread.) I'm actually waiting on the Nomos' replacement. Once they're back, I'll post.
 
#89 ·
Re: For me, a 2-3 watch "collection" ... can we call it that?!! .... works best

Great two watch collection John...
I had a PO for a bit I liked it but just a bit too big and heavy for me.

My current two ...

Grand Seiko SBGE001 SD GMT
Omega PO 2500D
 
#22 ·
Re: For me, a 2-3 watch "collection" ... can we call it that?!! .... works best

Nice! I had moments when I was sincerely trying to talk myself into that GS GMT, but it's a bit too expensive to wear to the vast majority of the destinations I frequent, thus obviating the use of the GMT complication. It's definitely my favorite GMT watch though. And, everyone likes a PO, including me.

Thanks for posting.
 
#23 ·
Re: For me, a 2-3 watch "collection" ... can we call it that?!! .... works best

I've got a small collection; I'll post pics shortly...
 
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#95 ·
Re: For me, a 2-3 watch "collection" ... can we call it that?!! .... works best

I've got a small collection; I'll post pics shortly...
As promised, sorry for the crappy pic lol:

Fashion accessory Watch Jewellery Silver Metal
 
#25 ·
Re: For me, a 2-3 watch "collection" ... can we call it that?!! .... works best

Here is my small "black" collection.
 
#27 ·
I have 11 higher end watches in my collection and that is too many. That is also not counting 3 watches: one that I am negotiating a sale, two I plan to list for sale, and three I have decided to sell. I don't find 11 to be a small collection.
 
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#29 · (Edited)
I agree. Once you amass maybe five watches and reach the point that normal people would start thinking you're crazy based solely on the number of watches you own (without even touching on price), you no longer have a small collection in my book. Likewise, if all of your watches are not making it into regular rotation, you probably have a larger collection.

Gary123, having seen your collection around the forum, I know you have some truly great pieces, it must be difficult deciding what needs to go and what will stay.
 
#30 ·
I agree. Once you amass maybe five watches and reach the point that normal people would start thinking you're crazy based solely on the number of watches you own (without even touching on price), you no longer have a small collection in my book.
Agree. Five is my new max but I can easily do with three. I have nine now.
 
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