The Intangibles of Watch Collecting

Why We Collect

There’s something about watches that intrigues all of us, whether you are a seasoned collector or a novice. I spend a lot of time thinking about what it is about watches and the collecting of these tiny wrist computers that really entices so many of us. I’m not Swiss, I am not from a family of watchmakers, but I love this craft and I want to evangelize and protect it.

There are varying levels of commitment, knowledge, interest, and budget. Yet all collectors love to learn about new watches, study the classics, and continue to be patrons of new and up and coming brands, looking to become the next major independent. There is something in the watches that keeps us coming back.

Yet it is this intangible, mythical, almost ethereal something that is hard to define. I often think about what this intangible thing is, why I keep coming back, and there is something like a camaraderie or a kindred spirit feeling amongst fellow watch enthusiasts. We all agree it is there but find great difficulty in any attempt to put a name to it.

I have a few ideas on what it is that draws us in.

The Last of the Analog Experiences

Watches, to some extent, are a truly analog experience and are one of the last analog experiences we, as human, can have. Yes, there is a great degree of digital assets, CAD drawings, designs, prototyping, CNC machines that are used to develop a watch, but the watch itself is gears, springs, pinions, and the genius of a watchmaker to put it together. Winding the crown is like shifting gears on a manual car, it’s a tangible feeling and you can feel the spring engage as you wind the watch. Hearing the watch tick away is another soothing sound to the collector. These sights and sounds of collecting definitely draw me in and I love to share them with other collectors when we get together.

Patronage Spirit

Another facet of collecting is the patron spirit and the idea of supporting an artisan. At some point or another, we have all become interested in independent watchmakers, and this is truly an opportunity for us to relate to the brands and the watchmakers who build these watches. When a watchmaker steps out on their own, we want to support them and be part of their new brand. There is an opportunity to be close with a watchmaker and to potentially design your own watch or at least have a hand in the design process. You can even visit their atelier while your watch is made.

I can think of only a handful of other experiences that one can have like this, like designing elements on a car, or purchasing a bespoke suit, where you really can have a hand in the design process. This opportunity to be close to the maker and a patron of their craft is something that is unique to watchmaking and makes the entire process fun.

Fellow Collectors

Collectors are another reason why I love the watch industry. I love getting to meet collectors and to spend time with them. People collect for different reasons and with different focuses, some collect vintage watches, some collect modern watches, some only collect independent watches, and some only collect Rolex. There is no right or wrong answer; it is entirely personal.I love the variety of collections, ideas, and collecting philosophies. These differences make collecting fun and exciting and it is fun to share these stories and ideas and debate the merits of any strategy.

**Collectors at Windup Watch Fair Chicago 2022**

I love meeting collectors who collect watches and keep them in a safe and can appreciate them in small doses and put them back, secure in the knowledge that they own the watch. I am more of a worn and enjoyed type of collector, I like to wear my watches and enjoy them on the wrist. But these distinct philosophies make collecting exciting and really bring joy for a wide variety of collectors and that simple difference makes collecting fun.

Nostalgia

In collecting there is also a great sense of nostalgia and wanderlust. When we were kids, we loved nature, dinosaurs, airplanes, space flight, playing in the dirt, and sports. Watches are one way to capture that feeling of being a kid, again. You can focus your collecting on something you loved as a kid, and you can home in on sports watches, or motorsport watches, and really fall in love with watches that go with a passion you had as a kid. I was obsessed with Jacques Cousteau and Scuba diving, and I remember looking at dive watches when i was a child and being in awe. I still feel that way about dive watches. Everytime I hold one, I feel like that same six-year old kid getting to hold a watch for the first time and it takes me back to watching shows about scuba diving, deep-sea exploration, and speaking to my grandfather about his scuba adventures. For me, watches are the ultimate time machine.

Wanderlust

There’s a wanderlust that comes with watches, I find, especially here in the United States. We whisper the name Geneva in bated breath, and we act as thought Switzerland is hallowed ground. And for me, it is. There is something about the alps, the lakes, the snow capped peaks, and the flowering meadows, the flocks of cows, and the small villages. But for me, there is a desire to know more. To understand how this small country became the spiritual and physical home to watchmaking.

Watches bring out a wanderlust in me and a desire to travel to visit watchmakers to understand their process and their philosophy of creating. I love that watches can inspire travel, exploration, and a wanderlust in us to explore beyond our comfort zones. It’s something that makes a watch feel special, and as soon as you travel with them, there are more stories associated with the watch that make it all the more special as a part of your collection.

Why do I care so much about watchmaking? There’s just something about Switzerland — the people, the vistas, the Alps, the lakes, the chill to the air on an October morning. It draws you in. And watches do much the same. I love that this industry has survived tectonic shifts in technology and continues to be relevant.

We are all obsessed with time, living and dying by our work calendar, and obsessed with how to use our time wisely. It’s the one asset you cannot buy more of, and it’s the one thing that we all worry about how we spend it.

And once Switzerland and watchmaking are in your blood, it’s hell on the heart to get them out. It’s almost impossible. That hallowed ground is home to artists, designers, craftsmen. And I, for one, want the craft of watchmaking to remain. Why?

Watches are designed and made by humans, and are therefore fallible. But to think that a mechanical device made by human minds and human hands at such a small scale could keep and track accurate time, is amazing. There is a skill and an artistic vision required to think in such small components and to innovate novel ideas and create new ways and new devices for telling time.

Time is the one asset we cannot get more of, but it is an asset that we can learn to see in new ways. And watchmakers are teachers, perhaps leaders, who show us new ways to conceive of time and help us to understand how time is shaping the world around us. Watches give us options in how we think about time, they give us permission to see time in a new way, to conceptualize it in a way of our own choosing. And that is a gift worth considering.