6 ms·

What's the appeal of collecting high priced watches? Is it kind of like art collections, where its a decent store of value while maintaining a collection of som

by cwsx 4mo ago

What's the appeal of collecting high priced watches? Is it kind of like art collections, where its a decent store of value while maintaining a collection of something you are personally interested in? Or is it more for "love of the game"? Not saying its not a cool thing to collect, well made watches are a very cool piece of engineering, I'm just curious if there's any "special" appeal outside of "i like this thing and have the money to enjoy it" :)

geocar 4mo ago
> What's the appeal of collecting high priced watches? You can carry them on your person through airports and other places reasonably unmolested in a way carrying a bunch of cash isn't so easy. > Is it kind of like art collections, where its a decent store of value Art doesn't store value: It trades whatever number the parties exchanging it want it to have, so those parties can manipulate their total annual revenues, which might be confused with value if you cannot think of why else someone would want to tell other people they made more or less money in a year, but is not valuable to anyone else.
- skeledrew 4mo ago
  > It trades whatever number the parties exchanging it want it to have I'd argue that that's the very definition of (economic) value. Someone puts a cost on a good/service, and someone who values and can satisfy the cost gets said good/service.
  - geocar 4mo ago
    Sure it is, but that's not a way to store value (what economists specifically call store of value if you want to read more about it), which is a little different: If you buy a €100k rolex, you probably can't be sure you can sell it for more than €100k anywhere at anytime in the future. You probably can't even find a bank that would take that €100k rolex you just bought as collateral for €500k on a 30y mortgage. That's why a €1m watch collection is never going to be worth €1m unless we're talking raw materials.
- embedding-shape 4mo ago
  > > What's the appeal of collecting high priced watches? > You can carry them on your person through airports and other places reasonably unmolested in a way carrying a bunch of cash isn't so easy. Now I have to ask, why do you need to carry a bunch of cash through airports, and why so often that you need a method of doing so? I'm of course assuming you're doing this for legal reasons, I understand all the reasoning for less legal ones, but then that's hardly comparable to the original question, so I think this is a fair assumption.
throwaway2037 4mo ago
> What's the appeal of collecting high priced watches? It is the same reason that women collect high priced handbags. Men and women use these items to signal their wealth and status (in public).
- solenoid0937 4mo ago
  Sure, some people use them to signal status but I'd say the vast majority of the collector community does not buy expensive watches for that reason. At the $100k range you get a lot of things that appeal to a watch enthusiast: true high-horology hand finishing (like handmade anglage and sharp interior angles), some of the more advanced complications, more interesting escapements, etc.
solenoid0937 4mo ago
> Or is it more for "love of the game"? More this. I love wearing what are basically highly complex, mechanical works of art on my wrist. It appeals to both the engineer/nerd and the romantic inside me. Some watches hold value, others don't. I have some watches that have halved, others that have doubled. But I don't really intend to sell so it's immaterial.

by cwsx 4mo ago

geocar 4mo ago

> What's the appeal of collecting high priced watches? You can carry them on your person through airports and other places reasonably unmolested in a way carrying a bunch of cash isn't so easy. > Is it kind of like art collections, where its a decent store of value Art doesn't store value: It trades whatever number the parties exchanging it want it to have, so those parties can manipulate their total annual revenues, which might be confused with value if you cannot think of why else someone would want to tell other people they made more or less money in a year, but is not valuable to anyone else.

skeledrew 4mo ago
> It trades whatever number the parties exchanging it want it to have I'd argue that that's the very definition of (economic) value. Someone puts a cost on a good/service, and someone who values and can satisfy the cost gets said good/service.
- geocar 4mo ago
  Sure it is, but that's not a way to store value (what economists specifically call store of value if you want to read more about it), which is a little different: If you buy a €100k rolex, you probably can't be sure you can sell it for more than €100k anywhere at anytime in the future. You probably can't even find a bank that would take that €100k rolex you just bought as collateral for €500k on a 30y mortgage. That's why a €1m watch collection is never going to be worth €1m unless we're talking raw materials.
embedding-shape 4mo ago
> > What's the appeal of collecting high priced watches? > You can carry them on your person through airports and other places reasonably unmolested in a way carrying a bunch of cash isn't so easy. Now I have to ask, why do you need to carry a bunch of cash through airports, and why so often that you need a method of doing so? I'm of course assuming you're doing this for legal reasons, I understand all the reasoning for less legal ones, but then that's hardly comparable to the original question, so I think this is a fair assumption.

throwaway2037 4mo ago

> What's the appeal of collecting high priced watches? It is the same reason that women collect high priced handbags. Men and women use these items to signal their wealth and status (in public).

solenoid0937 4mo ago
Sure, some people use them to signal status but I'd say the vast majority of the collector community does not buy expensive watches for that reason. At the $100k range you get a lot of things that appeal to a watch enthusiast: true high-horology hand finishing (like handmade anglage and sharp interior angles), some of the more advanced complications, more interesting escapements, etc.

solenoid0937 4mo ago

> Or is it more for "love of the game"? More this. I love wearing what are basically highly complex, mechanical works of art on my wrist. It appeals to both the engineer/nerd and the romantic inside me. Some watches hold value, others don't. I have some watches that have halved, others that have doubled. But I don't really intend to sell so it's immaterial.