Reply With QuoteWow!
Nice culling!
Well, here we go…… In May 2013 the process began. I had 40 expensive watches (i.e. a grand or more in value) and various life events led me to conclude that a cull was on the cards. There was no desperate need for the funds, just an acknowledgement that reducing my mortgages was an aspiration. As such this was no fire sale, but the beginning of a journey, which has taken 11 months.
I had to be relatively dispassionate and ruthless in choosing what was to go and what was to stay, and during this journey I acquired two further tasty pieces in pursuit of my final destination – both of them flipped in favour of the final ‘Fabulous 4’.
I’ve used a combination of web forums/fora, as well as eBay. I’ve dealt with long standing forum participants, and others from far flung parts of the world who have joined up simply to get in touch with me. I’ve sent watches to many parts of Europe (North and South) and my watches now adorn wrists in the States, Indonesia and Japan. I have a huge pile of RMSD receipts and Parcel Pro should be offering me a loyalty discount. I’ve dealt face to face from London to Newcastle, in coffee shops, pubs, hotels and offices and dispatched packages to friends of buyers and colleagues.
I have met, talked and corresponded with some great guys (no gals….) and whilst the whole collection reduction process has frankly been torturous and actually quite emotional (hence the need to be dispassionate), the people have more than made up for the hassle and without exception everyone I have dealt with has been fab!
So where did I start – here was a year ago:
Plus this – which was in with JLC for service at the time of the above SOTC pic:
During 2013 I added these beauties – which would be a superb duo in their own right – but ended up flipped in preference for the watches I kept:
These are the ‘Fabulous 4’ that remain – all of them even better in the flesh than in pics:
The Hulk – my absolute favourite watch, this will be the last one standing if I ever have to reduce the 4 to 1. The dial is stunning and the overall look is just that bit different, but at the same time classic:
Platinum/Steel Yacht Master – it’s just such a distinctive watch. Again, a stunning dial, and has great presence:
Next up the classiest of what I have left. My Girard Perregaux Flyback Chrono. This is a full 40mm (many GP chronos are smaller) and looks great dressed up or down. The dial/hands combo is so classically beautiful to my eye. I just wish it didn’t have a date window – which breaks up the lines:
Last up, and a surprise to me, my white dialled Milguass. If you had asked me a year ago I would have said that the GV would have been the keeper, or the black dial, but at the end of the day the white won me over – it’s a great watch to wear and the white/orange pops:
In conclusion, you’ll note that not one of these remaining 4 has a black dial, and all the Rolexes are a little off the mainstream/conventional.
I’m grateful the journey is over and for now I’m going to enjoy rotating my collection of 4. As for the future, who knows.
Just a quick shout out to all who participated in the journey – and to those who now have my old watches, I hope you have many years of enjoyment!
Edit: See post #18 for more narrative http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...=1#post3106497
Last edited by ASW1; 13th April 2014 at 21:24.
Wow!
Nice culling!
A monumental journey indeed, well done for seeing it through. A fabulous four left - and have you cleared the mortgage now?
What a journey indeed, i can only imagine how hard it was to part with them.
Thanks for sharing the story and i love what you have ended up with at least they will share more wrist time, it would be kinda hard to choose what watch to wear when you own 42 of them :)
Wow... That's some journey... You did have way too many at the beginning though :D
If you ever want to flip that GP, let me know... Good work and nice story!
What a fantastic story. Hope the 4 watches work out for you.
Interesting 4 that you've retained, Alun, and good work on reducing to such an extent. I know how hard it is from what I'm doing, and that only involves about half a dozen
PS Entirely agree about the date on the GP... shame, really, but its still a lovely watch.
Holy Christ that's one cull!!! Can't imagine how much you had in those original 42! Who are you ?! Richard Branson?
Well done and the only thing you may regret which is something that you touched on is not having a black dial but i am sure if you want one then the funds are still in place.
Crikey.There are a few Omegas in the original collection that I would have found difficult to part with
Oh come sir...a grand story such as this requires more detail! That was just a tempting intro surely...I'm hooked and demand more :)
It was a pleasure to follow your journey and goes to show that no matter how big a collection gets it can be reduced in under a year.
I'm amazed you kept the white dial Milgauss though!!
Oh and if I had the funds at the time, I may have taken the rose gold zenith, I admired often it in SC
The Girard Perregaux Flyback Chrono is gorgeous..
Chris.
That initial picture is incredible! +1 for the GP, just beautiful.
Some journey and I believe I now own the Mk2 Racing in the first picture (and is on my wrist as I type this). Thanks for posting.
Impressive cull there. I was guessing before scrolling down which 4 you would have kept. I got one right, the Hulk.
Thanks guys.
Fair enough, I'll give it a go. By way of background, this was my 2012 SOTC breaking down all that I had http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...6-My-2012-SOTCOriginally Posted by Mikee
I guess the first question is how did I get to this state? Having been a contractor for some years I go from earning a good slug of cash to earning nothing. As such I squirrel away much of my earnings to see me through down times. Having found that there really were very few useful homes for savings - either dismal returns and low risk, or potential for returns but higher risk - and there was no point reducing mortgage borrowing with rates at such low levels, I started to fund my hobby from surplus income. My plan was to accumulate for another few years and then once the recession passed look to rationalise the collection in order to reduce some mortgage borrowing. In the meantime getting to try all those watches that had tempted me over the years (e.g. the Breitling Sea Wolf and B&M Capeland XXL - ones I finally decided I just had to give a try).
What changed last year was: I realised how many watches I had (they had outgrown the safe deposit box and I was finding insurance a challenge), I was 'between contracts', I was funding a few incubator projects, one mortgage was now on standard variable rates (re-mortgaging was going to incur silly fees) and I was getting to point in life that I wanted to declutter. So whilst I hadn't intended to reduce the collection for another few years, I had the time on my hands and I knew I was going to do it sometime, so off I went......
As for deciding which watches to let go, I really am a Rolex fan - they are classic and robust watches so my final 4 or 5 was always going to be a majority of Rolex. They are a watch that can be worn at all times as a result of their robustness.
I think I started by ruthlessly deciding which ones I was/did actually wear e.g. I rarely wore the Speedy MkIIs or 4.5, so what was the point of keeping. I didn't wear the standard Speedy Pros or the SMPs, I didn't wear the Tudors (I had the Rolexes), I never wore the B&M or Breitling Sea Wolf. The Breitling Premier hadn't been worn for years....... This was the first wave.
Then the JLCs. The Reverso was in a way too smart - I was going to keep the Yacht Master plus a strap chrono (Zenith or GP) so the Reverso was surplus. The Memovoxs were nice, but fulfilled a similar role to Rolex and cost a fair old bit to get serviced, so they went too.
The Porsche Design wasn't getting worn, so that was to go. The Zenith Defy nice as it was, was neither expensive or cheap - I was tempted to keep it, but this was a numbers game and it needed to be worn.
The remaining Omegas were the Meteorite one, the blue Speedy and the SHOM. The Meteorite was just worth too much to keep - TBH in my mind it was between that and the Yacht Master, and the YM won. The Gemini (blue ) Speedy is a beaut but by now I had concluded that I was going to divest from Omega entirely, so that went and the SHOM was now 'on the clock' - and eventually went. If I wasn't intent on being ruthless then all three of these would have been keepers.
The GP Sea Hawk - is a stunner and a beast - and was just too much of a man's watch for me......
Then we get to the Zeniths....... this was hard. The rose gold was my only ever gold watch and was something quite different and could be dressed up and down. A factor was that my mum and my other half both cracked jokes about it (bling) and it was an expensive 'guilty pleasure' - if it was half the price I would probably have tried to keep it but it was my most expensive watch, and I had decided that the GP Flyback was the smart 'keeper'. The GP was the death Nell of the other two 1969 chronos too - in my ruthless streak it was one or the other........ Sending off these watches were not good days........ Same too for the Zenith Pilot - I was tempted many times to keep it - justifying it as being complimentary to the GP Flyback.
Then we get to the Rolexes..... I really do prefer the modern ones. I was tempted to keep one of the SDs (which I bought brand new in 2007 and it still looked like new) and the freshly serviced 16700 (my first Rolex) BUT in all honesty I simply didn't wear them anymore, always preferring to wear a Sub-C or Milguass. So all the 'old' Rolex sports went. Then the modern ones were the result of a sort of informal conjoint analysis - I would like to have kept a Milguass GV and Sub-C LN, but when it came down to it, the LV and the YM were not going anywhere - my conclusion being that ultimately any watch other than a Casio is a piece of jewellery, and as such the ones I was going to keep were the ones that had 'stand out'. Leading to LV and YM, and then oddly the white Milguass - I think anyone who has had a white Milgauss would understand, but those who haven't won't - it really thought I was going to keep the GV, but I didn't.
The 4 watches I now have left all make me smile. As I touched on in the first post, the LV is the one that is definitely a keeper, the GP and Yacht Master are 2nd equal, and the Milguass would be the one to go next if I need to shed another one.
Quite a tale, quite a cull.
How long before you're sneaking around to an AD and poking through SC though? You're looking already, admit it!
Well I wouldn't mind one of these
However, I've just taken on a 'normal' full time job and am looking to move to Central London - so a life of relative penury awaits. I think that any new/pre-loved expensive watches will be off the agenda for many years to come.
Having said that - I could be tempted to flip for the new SD.......
Wow what a journey, I need to show this thread to my wife so she may better understand what being a WIS is all about, thanks for sharing.
Lovely story and very interesting decision on the 'final 4'. But since i read your second post, i kinda get your decision.
Sorry but i gotta ask this: why two Bond's, two JLC Alarms, three MKII's, two Tudors? Why identical watches?
well during your 'cull' I had the pleasure of meeting up with you Alun and taking this Sub 114060 off your hands. along with one of your MKII speedy's, I still have them and really enjoy wearing both,Well, here we go……****snip****
During 2013 I added these beauties – which would be a superb duo in their own right – but ended up flipped in preference for the watches I kept:
its great to see you come to the end of your journey for now, and your final four is something I aspire too, and nearly had that YM off you, if only I had the funds
as a new member of the TZ gang, its nice to see this come full circle in a way.
Jason
Last edited by soundood; 13th April 2014 at 23:48.
I keep finding myself looking at Sub C LV's. I suspect it will happen :-) sooner or later.
One question, did the Porsche Design get sold on here ? If it did I must have missed it, I love those in PVD, it coincides with my guilty pleasure love of 'The Professionals' from when I was much younger (and the re-runs now 😀).
That's quite a WIS journey!
I know your collection had quite a bit of duplication, but getting it down to 4 shows some serious self-discipline.
I agree that the Hulk is a great watch that fills the niche of "a bit different, but mainstream/reliable etc", as is the Milgauss TBF.
I know what you mean about the new SD though - it's the first watch that's really piqued my interest in a while.
There is hope for me yet :)
I have a bit of a cull plan that I'm slowly working towards. I want the new SD, and I will have another 42mm white explorer - but I think I'm done chasing the latest models for the most part - only new Sea-Dwellers will be a definite purchase in future years, until I can't afford the asking prices any more (and that day is almost here too!).
It's just a matter of time...
Wow, thats a great story, both the accumulating and disposing, some lovely pieces you have been lucky enough to own, thanks for sharing.
When to cull or add?
Anyone worked out a formula for the optimum number of watches that can be worn on a fairly regular basis?
We'll done, Alun. I realised it was a significant cull but not quite this vicious! I love Rolex so I can't fault your keepers. If I'm honest, I thought you might have kept back one or two of the more unusual ones e.g one of the Zeniths but it sounds like you've been completely rational in your decision- making, which of course is the very hardest thing when you have the WIS disease!
So fair play to you and a pleasure meeting you on the course of your journey and although we didn't quite make a deal happen, it was good to talk watches as ever.
I reckon anything over 10 and you're kidding yourself, one a day over the course of a week and maybe an extra 2 or 3 for other occasions.
This forum is full of people all blatantly lying to ourselves.
That is very lovely indeed. You don't want Rolex overkill in such a compact collection though, you'd need to balance it off with a couple of others... you'll be back in the high teens before the year is out.Well I wouldn't mind one of these
However, I've just taken on a 'normal' full time job and am looking to move to Central London - so a life of relative penury awaits. I think that any new/pre-loved expensive watches will be off the agenda for many years to come.
Having said that - I could be tempted to flip for the new SD.......
Jeez you must have some cash in the bank!
Great choice on the LVc, I stupidly got rid of mine some time ago so I must get round to picking one up again
Interesting thread and sounds like a both enjoyable and sensible investment strategy if you have the knowledge to do so. Maybe in the future I will build the knowledge and the bottle but at the moment it's out of my league.
Cheers chaps.
I'm confident that I won't but then again a decade back I had got down to a similar number and that didn't last too long.
Yes it was http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...hlight=porsche
If you've got to ask, then maybe you're still sane ;) I commented here when I did my SOTC for 2012 http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...=1#post2556675
And another vote for the GP! I find it surprising how limited the number of beautifully designed dress white dialled chronographs there are. Hopefully JLC will put out an ultrathin version of their one (if they can fit it into the case).
That Girard-Perregaux chrono fly back gets my vote every time. Best of the lot I reckon !
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