I know what you are going to say, BOTH! Yes we all have collections and yes we all wear our watches (most of the time).
But in response to another post, I mentioned that having collected some rather expensive and rare watches, I had come to the conclusion that owning these precious watches dampened the enjoyment of wearing them, as I was aware of replacing parts etc would be expensive if damaged. I realised that if I was predominantly a collector this would not be an issue as I would enjoy the ownership regardless of wearing or not. But for someone who enjoys wearing watches, this was going to be a problem.
I therefore concluded that out of the 2, I was predominantly a "wearer". It was this conclusion that lead me to sell this most coveted of possessions and radically change and downsize to a modest and generally "carefree" collection. This greatly changed my attitude towards owning watches for the better and allowed me once again to enjoy and rotate with ease what I was going to wear without the "burden" of ownership.
If you have to wear watches then you are a wearer, end of. But if you are happy to own but not necessarily wear (safe queens) then you are a collector.
So, if push come to shove, which one are you? You can't be both.