You told us about the watches you bought and sold, then bought again (and again…)

Luke Benedictus

On the poster for the classic rom-com Groundhog Day, Bill Murray is depicted pointing at a clock.  This, of course, is to signify the film’s basic premise in which (spoiler alert) the central character finds himself stuck living the same day over and over again. But after hearing from the Time+Tide community about the watches you bought and sold, then bought again (and again), I now view the timepiece in Murray’s hand in a different light. For it seems that, much like the film’s cynical weatherman, a number of you happily repeat the same behaviour on an interminable loop.

That’s the only rational explanation to the response we had to this story in which members of the T+T shared tales of the watches they’d bought and sold on repeated occasions. Thor and Zach kept circling back to the Tudor Black Bay, Matt found himself returning to the trusty presence of a Rolex Submariner.

Judging by the messages we got on Instagram, such behaviour is, in fact, surprisingly common in the watch community.  In fact, @atc_cpv admitted that he’d bought a Panerai PAM88 six times.

 

 

That’s a “can’t live with ’em / can’t live without em” psychodrama for the wrist. But this was hardly an isolated example – it turns out this repeat-buyer practice is rife.

And we mean really rife…

In fact, it’s an epidemic.

 

Intriguingly, one watch kept coming up in the conversation. The Tudor Black Bay seems to tumble in and out of people’s watch collection with bizarre regularity.

 

What does this say about this particular watch? That people don’t appreciate it as being an indispensable piece in their collection (until they belatedly realise that it is)? Or that the Black Bay is a sleeper hit whose deeper appeal slowly creeps up on you over time? Or perhaps that the Black Bay has come out in so many different iterations – gold, silver, bronze and black ceramic this year alone – that collectors keep switching to different models like @abc.watch.

 

I suspect the reality is a little more prosaic. The Black Bay, particularly the Fifty-Eight, is a watch with widespread appeal to all sorts of watch buyers, so there’s always a decent level of demand. For people who are looking to trade in a couple of watches in order to freshen up their collections, the Black Bay is therefore a reliable bargaining chip to leverage.

More pertinently, while the Black Bay is a desirable watch, many of the models are still relatively accessible. You’re less likely to face an interminable waiting list to get hold one, certainly nothing compared to sourcing a piece from Tudor’s big brother brand. Not having to negotiate that scarcity issue, presumably makes it less daunting for an owner to part with a Black Bay, compared to a watch they’re unlikely to get their hands on ever again.

Yet the responses from the T+T community ultimately present a cautionary tale – many people who sell their Black Bay ultimately live to regret it. And that’s when the watch-trading merry-go-round begins all over again.