The Collector’s Crossroads: Does the size of a watch collection really matter?

Ricardo Sime

I know. I know. You’ve probably read dozens of articles about sizes when it comes to watches. Shoot, we wrote a pretty good one right here. Well, today, that’s not on the agenda. My question actually has to do with the size of a collection. How for years, I’ve struggled to come up with an answer as to what that size should be. And the effect that has had on me as a collector.

It all started nearly three years ago at a watch meetup. I was enjoying the no mask needed atmosphere (don’t know what you got till it’s gone, I tell yah), when an attendee came in with something best described as a suitcase. It only took a few minutes before he revealed what was inside. No less than 40 watches with a mixture of affordables and hard-to-find pieces.

Though many in the room were interested in the watches, I couldn’t get past the sheer size of his collection. My mind just couldn’t grasp how someone could enjoy so many watches. How could you build any lasting memories with a piece when you barely spend time with it? And if you only rotate a small percentage of your collection, why have the rest? All these questions kept circulating in my head and I needed answers.

Before I could get those answers, the day was done and that collector was gone. Yet this experience would soon have an effect on how I collected. There would be days soon after where my collection would creep into the double digits and I had this strong urge to stop. I would think of “suitcase man” and immediately start thinning the herd; realigning my focus on what it was I wanted to accomplish as a collector.

As the years passed by, I would encounter more and more collectors like “suitcase man”. On these occasions, I would finally get the chance to ask them why they collected so many watches, knowing there just wasn’t enough time to enjoy them all. The common theme among their answers was that the ability to just look at the watches, like we would enjoy a piece of art, was all they needed as a collector.

Where I was focused on building a story with each watch I own, while also making sure the watches I owned were deserving of such a story, these collectors simply enjoyed being around the watch. Their joy was so palpable and infectious, that I could no longer think of them as “suitcase people”. They were just collectors.

If there was one major takeaway from these experiences, it was that the size of a collection doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what it is that particular collector is looking for. I’ve learned that the reasons for collecting watches at times can be just as numerous as the amount of watches one can choose to collect. So whether you have 50 watches or two, it doesn’t matter, as long as what you have keeps you happy.