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“COLLECT THINGS THAT YOU LOVE; THINGS THAT HAVE VALUE THAT GOES BEYOND DOLLARS AND CENTS; THINGS THAT SEND YOU DOWN RABBIT HOLES LOOKING FOR THE TRULY UNIQUE. THERE IS AS MUCH AMBITION IN COLLECTING AS THERE IS IN ANY OTHER PURSUIT IN LIFE - IT IS ABOUT FINDING NUANCE AND EXCITEMENT MOST OTHERS FIND DESPERATELY BORING AND ABSURD.”
Materialism gets a bad name because it is not viewed as experiential. There is as much experience in finding rarity as there is in traveling to a new place - you just come out with something tangible.
Watches
Watches became an asset class when the craftsmanship and utility met the aspiration. the best watches are heirlooms - passed down from one generation to another - each recipient is merely a custodian for the next.
I still remember growing up and wearing a watch at a very young age - maybe 5? I miss those days of the plastic Swatch watches. I then went to G-Shock - ridiculously oversized digital watches that could withstand being driven over by tanks. But that made G-Shock’s desirable - they were ‘standard issue’ for so many police departments and government agencies - Keanu Reeves wore one in Speed where he played a member of the LAPD. I got my first ‘luxury’ watch when I was 14 - a gift from my parents - a Panerai Base Logo - a niche Italian watch brand made famous by Sylvester Stallone in a movie called Daylight. So many of my ‘watch friends’ started their watch journeys with Panerai - a brand that has lost some of its luster over the last decade, but I brand I still collect. Panerai may have lost some of its popularity but hardcore Panerai collectors (Paneristi’s as they’re called) are known as the most devout evangelists of any brand out there.
I got my first Rolex at 16 and the love never really ended. Rolex watches are scoffed at by many, but like Porsche’s, they are iconic. Rolex watches don’t do anything crazy - no ridiculously over-complicated movements. They have been refined marginally for decades-and-decades. In recent years, they have become a symbol of wealth to some or all-too-typical to others…”Look at that d-bag, I bet he wears a Rolex.”
Like anything in life, I have learned to collect and appreciate what a watch means to me - it tells time, yes. But, every watch has a story - and that’s when you know that the idea of ‘watches as wealth’ have transcended into a world of ‘tools carrying experiences’.
Rolex watches have changed little over the past 20 years - the only thing that has changed is the need to insure them. Wear the watches; I have two watches that I’ve never worn sitting in a safety deposit box - but they are very unique pieces that would be foolish to wear - the times we live in now have demanded some stuff never sees the light-of-day.
Haute Horology
Tudor
Panerai | IWC | Omega
