A Watch Collector's Guide to Selecting and Acquiring Unique Wristwatches

A great watch provides the wearer with a host of beneficial functions apart from telling time. For instance, it can complement your dress code or accurately reflect your style, interests, and hobbies. It can also become a family heirloom or a long-term investment depending on the quality. Moreover, watches are one of the most popular collector’s items worldwide.

When starting your watch collection journey, there’s a lot to consider considering the abundance of endless options, opinions, tastes, and critiques. However, the good news is that there’s still a basic outline you can follow to select and acquire unique watches.

In this post, we’ll share a watch collector’s guide on how to start a watch collection.

Three Rules of Watch Collecting

Before you head online or to the nearest watch store in your area, check out these three essential rules for watch collecting before splashing your cash:

1. Don't Buy a Watch You Don't Like

Keep in mind that you need to appreciate and enjoy the timepiece you add to your collection at the end of the day, especially if you intend to wear them once in a while to parties or formal events. Many watch collectors overlook their feelings and simply emphasize an item’s monetary or aesthetic value when making a purchase. In other words, they acquire pieces that neither attract nor compel them to wear them.

A wristwatch is a very personal item. Therefore, if you want to build a stunning collection, you need to form a close relationship with your timepiece. Otherwise, it’s not worth the investment.

2. Resist Succumbing to Opinions or Influence

Most new watch collectors typically commence their collection journey by looking at what experienced collectors have in their watch collection. Depending on the exclusivity and perceived value of the timepieces, this could work. However, novice collectors should expose themselves to multiple brands, watches, and collectors for better decision-making.

Simply put, you should never buy a watch just because another collector has it in their collection or has recommended it.

3. Document Your Collecting Journey and Timepieces

Not many watch collectors document their timepieces or collection journey. By keeping a journal with new entries for each purchase from the get-go, you can add more sentimental value to it by understanding when, where, and why you bought a specific timepiece.

Moreover, you also get a transferable log which can serve as evidence when selling your item or conveying it as part of your will or estate. Finally, many watch collectors document their journey to understand how their tastes, budgets, and spending habits change over time.

How to Start a Watch Collection

Now that you’re up to speed with the three basic rules of watch collection, here’s how to start a watch collection:

1. Do Your Research

The first step in starting a watch collection is learning about watches, from their types, material specifications, popular brands, and price ranges. Most novice collectors regret their early collecting days by recalling some of their bad purchases. However, you can avoid or minimize this regret by doing your homework.

This starts with considering how much you should pay for a luxury or high-quality watch. With the help of the internet, this shouldn’t be too difficult. You can visit hundreds of websites, explore watch brand pages on social media, join forums, and watch YouTube videos to gather information.

2. Set a Budget

Watch collecting is a lucrative but expensive hobby. So, if you’re not careful, you can spend unnecessarily without even knowing it. Savvy collectors can resist the pull of luxury brands and have no problem staying in the affordable realm throughout their journey. Of course, this doesn’t mean they can’t opt for luxury or vintage options when they see an opportunity to strike a bargain.

Simply put, you should set a watch budget for every purchase and try to stick to it. For instance, if you’d like to spend no more than $500 on your first purchase, opt for options offering the most monetary and emotional value. You could find an excellent mechanical watch in this range with a great story behind it. You can steadily increase your budget and stick to it from there onward.

Considering the abundance of options, the sky is the limit when it comes to home much you can spend. Watch collectors are known for spending millions of dollars on a single timepiece.

3. Proactively Prepare to House Your Collection

Before buying and bringing new timepieces into your home, you need to proactively prepare for their arrival by finding and setting up a secure storage spot when you’re not wearing them. Most people opt for watch boxes that you can easily store in wardrobes, while others who like to showcase their collection often opt for a glass case.

Apart from storage, you should invest in watch maintenance equipment and basic tools to handle simple tasks, such as changing cells, resizing bracelets, and changing straps without professional intervention.

4. Build and Expand Your Watch Network

Once you have a solid watch collection, you can and should find people with common interests and share your collection with them. For instance, many people join forums and social media groups to find people with similar tastes and trade their timepieces.

With the emergence of non-fungible tokens, many watch collectors are tokenizing their watch ownership and trading them on crypto platforms. So, there are no limitations when it comes to socializing and building a network with people sharing this unique hobby.

Bottom Line

So, there you have it – a simple yet effective guide on how to start a watch collection. With this information, you can select and acquire some stunning watches that retain their monetary and aesthetic value in the long run. If you’re ready to shop, check out the extensive range of premium-quality stainless steel and wood watches at Stuniii.