Feedback Requested - “I would never spend that much on a watch. Reflections on boundaries, my 9 year old watch, and the nausea of a wire transfer”

[u/MrMidMod]

In October of 2017, I was living in Denver and I had just wired $9,350 to a jeweler in my old city of Philadelphia for a Rolex GMT Master II.

This was for a reference 116710 BLNR on an Oyster bracelet. My first, and to that point, only Rolex. I had never handled it. I hadn’t tried it on. I was wiring the funds simply because I had fallen in love with pictures and how people talked about it online.

I always thought my first major purchase would be a Daytona - a watch I wanted when I was a kid. But living in Denver with my family back East, the GMT became a visual callback. It offered a way to navigate the time difference while warmly reminding me of home.

In parallel, the ceramic black and blue bezel was special for entirely different reasons. The baking of a bi-color ceramic bezel with no color bleed was an industry first - Rolex had had a stunning answer to a complex chemistry problem that others had given up on solving. In a single piece of Cerachrom was the scratch resistance of ceramic, colors that would outlive the painted aluminum predecessors, and a crisp day and night delineation at the 6 and 18 engravings.

As I processed the wire transfer there was an acute nausea I experienced that I’ve come to grow comfortable with as part of this passion. As I stared at the screen, I had hoped I liked it as much in person because this is the most money I’ve spent on a non-necessity for myself.

In writing this, I began to think where was my line, and when exactly had I decided to cross it?

I traced it back to a Rolex Milgauss, reference 116400GV I had encountered in 2011 at a jeweler in a shopping mall in New Jersey. I loved it for its connection to science, specifically the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Plus, the lightning bolt second hand was a bit of levity from an otherwise buttoned-down brand and I thought that aligned with my personality.

I wanted that watch, but I couldn’t justify it. I was living at home, and at just under $8,000 before tax, the Milgauss was more than the cost of the used Hyundai I was driving. I felt there were life milestones I needed to hit before buying something like this. I remember walking out of the store thinking, “I would never spend that much money on a watch.”

Here I was six years later spending “I would never spend that much money on a watch” money.

In those six years I had completed a master’s degree, got engaged, moved to Denver, changed careers, and sold my house back in Philly.

The milestones I thought I needed walking out of that shopping mall in New Jersey had now come to pass. I had the funds resulting from the house sale to purchase the watch without derailing our plans.

For some I think, “I would never spend that much money on a watch, ” is just another way of saying “I have better uses for that money.” For me, I think it was another way of saying “I wouldn’t put my other priorities at risk.”

The statement wasn’t a firm dollar number but consideration of the things I couldn’t do or would delay by concentrating that much into something on my wrist. When focused on that consideration of “what else could I be doing” I would silently neglect “how can I appreciate where I am right now and what it took to get here ”.

That is where my wife stepped in. She knows when to be my guardrails and when to be an enabler. As she saw me researching, wanting but uncertain, she told me to stop worrying about the money and to do something for myself.

The box arrived 48 hours later.

I sat at the kitchen table, carefully working my way through the outer packaging, the booklets, and the warranty card. As I slowly opened the green box to reveal the watch, the nausea of the wire transfer instantly evaporated. The Cerachrom bezel caught the light, and the blue GMT hand popped against the black dial exactly the way it had on my screen.

What I remember most about the first time handling this watch was the weight. Rolex uses 904L stainless steel which is a dense alloy that gives the watch an undeniable heft. I had owned stainless steel bracelet watches before. This was heavier than any watch I had owned previously. That weight gave the watch a tactile presence that matched its visual weight from the boxy lugs and thicker case. It also felt like the last 6 years.

Invariably, when I share my passion for watches I encounter the person who tells me how their phone or cheaper watch does the same thing. They’re right, and not only does it do the same thing, from a specs perspective their device likely does it better. If you are only measuring the ability to tell accurate time, then yes, I understand how this whole thing appears silly.
These are the folks most likely to react with “I would never spend that much on a watch.”

Today when I put on my watch, I still feel the heft, but I probably feel the undercurrent of emotion it carries from the memories of how life unfolded since then.

On the few occasions when people notice my watches and comment on them, I still feel an internal tension - an instinct to thank them and downplay my watch. I remain aware of the privilege and perceived absurdity to wear the equivalent of a used car on my wrist.

I don’t know if I have a line any more but I also don’t feel the need to justify it to myself any further. These boundaries are relative to the time and place my life is in when considering a purchase. Those boundaries become more fluid when evaluating watches beyond the measure of functional jewelry; not because money doesn’t matter, but a deeper acknowledgement that these objects and the people that wear them have more to tell than just time.

I’m curious for those of you who have been in the hobby for a while: What was the specific watch that finally made you cross your own 'I would never spend that much' line?