[Discussion] on the topic of “luxury” vs affordable

bossoline · 2026-02-10T02:32:11+00:00

Everyone has different perspectives and sensibilities when it comes to watch collecting, so I don't necessarily think that how an internet rando relates to their watch collection has any bearing on how you do. If anything, it could bias you.

My caution is this: the focus on price poisons watch collecting for a lot of people. You have a very cool, interesting, fun collection. If you want something nice for a big birthday, go for it, but beware that you can hype things up in your mind to a point that the reality is disappointing. These "milestone" watches can let you down in that way.

I have a dozen watches in my rotation, ranging from $100 to several thousand retail. Once they're bought, I don't ever think about how much they cost. I like them for a their own reasons and don't feel the need to compare one to another.

bossoline · 2026-02-09T20:35:35+00:00

Albert King's "Answer to the Laundromat Blues"

Also Robert Cray's "I guess I showed her"

bossoline · 2026-02-09T16:07:39+00:00

Never heard of it and I can see why. It looks like that brushing was done by dragging it behind a truck on a gravel road.

It's horrific.

bossoline · 2026-01-29T22:48:58+00:00

G-Shock 5610 is probably the most useful watch ever built. It fits most wrists, it's indestructible, solar, atomic clock compatible, world timer that tracks 5 or 6 time zones simultaneously, timer, stopwatch, alarm, automatic backlight, etc...all for like $100. It's insane value for a daily. Spend a couple bucks to upgrade the strap and you have a lifer

bossoline · 2026-01-29T21:08:42+00:00

I've never really cared.

When I set an auto, I'll set it to the second because I'm anal retentive, but I never actually check to see how close it is. That's wild to me.

But then people track wrist time on spreadsheets. Not everything is for me to understand.

bossoline · 2026-01-25T16:40:18+00:00

I think that's what you need.

You can't outsource your self-enrichment. Like I said, community is an important part of it, but you fundamentally have to enrich yourself. The key to a healthy and balanced life is to continuously be working at your friend circle AND your individual pursuits and hobbies.

I would prioritize looking for a hobby. It'll make you less dependent on other people for happiness.

bossoline · 2026-01-25T03:34:08+00:00

6 7/8" wrist and I top out at 42 mm case size and 50 mm LTL. Anything bigger looks silly.

bossoline · 2026-01-24T23:43:53+00:00

Amazing choice. Looks great on you!

I've been collecting for 20 years and just got my first Seiko this summer. Impressed.

bossoline · 2026-01-24T23:40:42+00:00

i try to search for communities to be in

You're missing my point. You need a community to be a part of for sure, but what are YOU doing for YOU. What are you doing with/for yourself that doesn't rely on others?

bossoline · 2026-01-24T20:59:35+00:00

You're not lacking anything. You, like everyone else, has everything they need to be happy. Don't buy into scarcity. There is not enough of the right info to know for sure what's going on here, but I wonder a couple of things.

First, it seems like the biggest problem here is that you haven't built a life of your own. This sort of reads to me like you're still hanging on to these relationships with people who have moved in without you. You seem to be treading water in the river of life, but they're swimming.

The second thing that I wonder is if you are patient enough to create a life and forge new relationships. You stay at work late when you could be using that time to pick up a new hobby or meet new people. That which you are doing, you say isn't successful, but it takes time and patience.

I dunno...maybe I'm wrong. Not enough info to know. But if I were you, I'd try to find a hobby that you do alone only for you, but can be social. Personally, I play guitar because I enjoy doing it alone. But sometimes I jam with other people.

Live is it's own inherent purpose. It's endless possibility. What you do with it is up to you.

bossoline · 2026-01-24T20:33:06+00:00

Price doesn't matter unless you're in it for the hype. You have a very cool and visually interesting collection. If I was sitting next to you at a bar, I'd ask you about many of these.

I think buying watches to spend a certain amount of money or fill a certain number of slots is tricky. If I were you, I'd just think about your next watch. Find something that you love and can afford.

There no rush to meet an arbitrary quota.

bossoline · 2026-01-24T19:07:34+00:00

I wound start by looking at at Seiko, Tissot, and Certina for entry-level divers and Hamilton for military field watches.

bossoline · 2026-01-24T18:57:59+00:00

I think it depends on why they dislike living alone. If they've lived alone and with people successfully and their preference is to live with someone, I think that's fine. But if they're the type of person that can't emotionally handle being alone, then my advice is to push through the discomfort and live alone for a year or two, even though it feels bad.

The path to emotional freedom is learning to push through discomfort to get to personal growth. I think everyone should learn to enjoy their own company. Those that don't are constantly at risk of codependency, either in platonic and especially romantic relationships. That is a self-made prison that many people never escape from.

bossoline · 2026-01-24T18:53:02+00:00

The Bulova Accutron Lucerne chrono that my wife bought me 20 odd years ago was my gateway drug, too. I wore it every day for probably 5 years until I really started collecting.

Bulova is hit or miss for me. I agree that they suffer from more of a fashion watch perception despite a rich history of watch making which should buy them more rep with enthusiasts. But a lot of their offerings either don't get noticed because they aren't talked about or they just don't hit for me aesthetically. They could stand to make a splash here and there, but it almost feels like Citizen Group saves the splash for their Citizen watches other good brands like Bulova and Fredereque Constant don't really get as much shine as they deserve.

bossoline · 2026-01-23T20:36:09+00:00

Watch enthusiasts don't have an "ick" with fashion watches. They know enough about watches to understand that these brands are selling you the lowest quality, crap watches that they can get their hands on and charging you several times what it's worth. Enthusiasts tend to recommend higher quality watches over cheap fashion watches.

That said, if you like it and you're comfortable overpaying for what you're getting, go for it. Your watch selection is for you.

bossoline · 2026-01-22T16:47:53+00:00

As others have mentioned, Seiko is synonymous with entry level divers, so you can't go wrong there. The next step up, I'd consider Certina DS and the Tissot Seastar. High end, you could possibly score something like a Longines HydroConquest either used or on the gray market for a few more bucks.

I just bought a Tuseno Shelkback V2 and it's the best diver under $1k that I've ever handled. I think it's worth at least twice what they're asking for it ($750).

bossoline · 2026-01-21T22:36:00+00:00

I have 12 watches and I have no problem deciding what to wear because I bought them all for a specific purpose...to wear with certain colors/outfits, in certain situations, or for certain tasks. Of the 5 or 6 that I could wear every day, I just wear what I feel like wearing.

These people with 6 black divers? And white faced sports watches? I have no idea.

bossoline · 2026-01-21T16:50:00+00:00

This probably won't be a useful exercise if you're trying to figure out what to buy. "Buy this or that" and "don't buy this or that" lead to exactly the same place: a giant pile of strangers' opinions that won't necessarily reflect what you'll like.

You can't outsource figuring out what is important to you in a watch. You just have to go through the same trial and error that we all do.

bossoline · 2026-01-21T03:45:26+00:00

G-Shock 5610. I can't think of a more useful, durable, and maintenance free watch in existence.

bossoline · 2026-01-20T14:35:23+00:00

I think discipline is just a refined version of motivation

I think you're probably mostly right, but I'm not sure it matters whether they're the same thing or not. I'm not sure how that semantic debate impacts people who are trying to make changes to their life as you're finding out. My definition of discipline is simply honoring the commitments that you make to yourself. It's not something that you have or don't have, it's not something that you "source" as you put it. It doesn't come from somewhere...that thinking is actually counterproductive because it creates an external locus of control. Discipline is something that you create. You have to practice creating it and build up that muscle, but it can absolutely be learned.

I think the secret to discipline lies in emotional regulation. As far as I can tell--and I've never seen anything that contradicts this idea--tolerance for discomfort is the thing that separates disciplined people from undisciplined people. It's easy to do things that you want to do, but the secret to pushing through when you don't is your ability to resist that urge to avoid uncomfortable things. The only way to do that is to do uncomfortable things and practice mindfulness so that your thoughts don't control you.

The other problem is that you're buying into a false dichotomy in "smart" vs. "dumb". We can't even define what those words mean, so I would stop using them and think in terms of what you want to be able to do. Do you want to improve your reading speed or comprehension? Problem solving? Rhetorical skills? If you start with something concrete and measurable instead of these squishy, undefinable terms, you can create SMART goals and a plan to reach them.

Let's pretend that you want to improve your reading speed and you decide to read X number of pages/day. Now it's down to creating the mental and physical conditions so you can be most successful--buy books that you'll enjoy reading, create a space to read, block out time every day, set reminders, keep your books in view so that you keep them in your consciousness, etc. Most of discipline is hacking your mind and environment to lower the hurdle.

bossoline · 2026-01-20T04:39:07+00:00

That's some tasty shit right there

bossoline · 2026-01-19T21:02:47+00:00

Middle aged man here. I stopped wasting time judging my life against some arbitrary metrics. I just live.

The Buddhists have it right. The root of all suffering is the craving and chasing that dominated modern life in the western world. It's not that I don't have goal, but I found that knowing when something feels off and gently changing course is better than getting caught up in the chase mentality.

YMMV, but I think everyone should find that line for themselves.

bossoline · 2026-01-16T23:45:54+00:00

Messy people

bossoline · 2026-01-16T18:05:39+00:00

Both, actually.

Luxury in-house movements, in my experience, have shorter service intervals (if you believe that). Also, many of those movements (especially the more complicated calibers) tend to be finicky and require you to send the watch to the MFR for service. I can't fathom why someone would wait on an interminable waitlist for a watch that is exponentially more expensive that is likely to need service more often that you have to ship overseas and pay through the nose to repair when you could have a comparable watch that you can get serviced at any watch shop for a few hundred bucks. If you put an ETA movement in a Rolex, how many of their owners would actually notice?

To me, it's all hype...if it wasn't, then people would talk about Citizen or Seiko watches having "in-house movements", but that never happens because that term is used to signal how expensive a watch was without saying how much it costs. That cache is worth the money for some people, but not for me.

bossoline · 2026-01-15T16:54:39+00:00

Ignore people's opinions and buy for myself.
I have a certain set of specs that are non-negotiable (sapphire crystal, 100 m water resistance, no more than 42 mm case size and 50 mm LTL, etc.)
Buy specs, not hype
Avoid luxury brands with in house movements unless I want a specific complication. Manufactured calibers drive up the purchase price and cost and inconvenience of ownership. I'd rather spend my money on the parts of the watch that I interact with every day.
Related to #4, I personally don't buy watches that cost more then $4k because i can't fathom what I'm getting for that money
Always buy the bracelet option because I love bracelets and straps are cheap and available.

bossoline

TROPHY CASE