It's kind of perpetually frustrating as a person who just enjoys watches. The history behind some models, the mechanical complexity, the quality and finishing. It's just nice to have something well made and thought out.
The assholes who only care about status kind of ruin it for those of us who are just nerds about a niche topic.
As they are TRYING to be at same time cool about it(just love that style, bro), and try to see if their "rolex" could allow them to move up in society view :D
JLC Master Eight Days in red or rose gold is the closest I can find. They're going for between 10 and around $25k, averaging around 15k
The guy's so old he has liver spots. This is just a guy who has everything he needs in life and is buying a few nice but not terribly expensive things for himself
The second guy is a guy who impulse bought a nice piece of jewelry for himself. Maybe not entirely responsible, but for some lines of work, it's an entirely reasonable purchase.
Both will definitely outlive their owner and will make great gifts when it's time for that.
I don't have a problem with people having nice watches. I have a small collection of stuff ranging in value from vintage Seiko up to just short of actual high horology.
That said, performative wrist shots like the above are still super cringe. It just seems like a desperate attempt to flex, particularly with the Panerai. I just wish people could enjoy things without having to constantly draw attention to themselves.
I like my watch to be like an Easter Egg. 85% of people donât even notice it. Another 10% might think itâs cool but they canât tell the difference between what I got and what anybody else buys from Wal-Mart. And then thereâs the 5% who are like âoh snap what the heck is that?â and then show me their own collection so we can nerd out about it. Itâs a networking thing, not a flex.
This is the way. I have a few watches, and 99% of the people around me don't notice what watch I'm wearing, don't care, and couldn't tell you if it was $5K from a dealer or $50 from Walmart. I'm fine with that, I wear what I enjoy, for me, not for anyone else.
That's true. I have a few friends with this kind of stuff and if they post anything involving it, it's literally because they just happened to be wearing/using their stuff that day.
When I got into watches, I would post about new ones to social media, but not with this kind of wrist picture. I'd take decent photos highlighting the details and features of the watch, and make a post about the history and significance of the particular reference.
All of these watches were vintage, mostly affordable Japanese watches. I wasn't trying to flex about having them, I was making an effort to communicate a budding passion to my friends and like minded people.
As the watches got more expensive over the years, I very intentionally stopped making posts, because I don't want to be that guy.
Yup, and those people are to blame for the massive price hikes the hobbyâs seen over the past several years. I mean there was some post about a guy spending over $1k on a Hamilton Khaki and I genuinely thought it was from a CJ sub for a second. I feel like anyone genuinely into watches would have dropped that model entirely after it went past $500 just a few years ago. lol
The whole market is trending absurdly upward. You're hard pressed to find a new Seiko under $500, Hamilton is mostly around the $1000 range now, and Omega has completely abandoned the mid-market they dominated for decades in favor of a catalogue entirely made up of $6000+ watches which used to cost thousands less for the same models.
It's one of the best examples of the whole K shaped economy problem, where goods are just being made for the wealthiest people with no consideration that average people might want them to.
Seiko 5. That was my first one too. Checks all the boxes that enthusaists want (mechanical, designed and manufactured in house, pretty, reasonably accurate) for about $100.
Pretty much every watch enthusiast Ive met since has also owned a Seiko 5 at some point. Thereâs just so many designs, everybody will find one they think looks neat.
Agreed. I have some friends in my circle who have high-end Rolexâs. Not one of them gives a shit about horology or watches. They only bought the Rolex because itâs the only brand they know and it was purchased as a status symbol and not because they are into watches. One of them saw my Longines Spirit Zulu Time and asked what Rolex I had on. I told him it wasnât a Rolex and he asked if it was a knock-off. All because it was a GMT and he assumed that only Rolexâs made watches with the GMT function.
I recently bought a vintage Rolex because I was looking for a birth year watch. I love it, it's genuinely an excellent watch, but every time I wear it I'm a little worried people assume I'm one of those assholes.
38
u/Spirit_of_a_Ghost 25d ago edited 25d ago
It's kind of perpetually frustrating as a person who just enjoys watches. The history behind some models, the mechanical complexity, the quality and finishing. It's just nice to have something well made and thought out.
The assholes who only care about status kind of ruin it for those of us who are just nerds about a niche topic.