Welcome to this Watch live. Hi, I'm Lydia Winters.
And I'm Boo Booey. And today we're going to talk
about culling your watch collection.
You can't make me Boo I. Don't know very well that I
can't make. You.
Well, that's a spoiler alert. That is that is that.
Yes. No, I baby don't call.
I think this is an interesting topic.
To me, it's like the thoughts around how long you should keep
a watch. Yeah.
You know. And when?
When is it time to get rid of it?
When is it time to let it go? Maybe get rid of it so
aggressive and negative. I'm aggressive and negative
around this subject. I'm like, no.
Well, you and I, I I think this is interesting because you and I
have a very different approach. Or or maybe one of us has an
approach? One time I tried it and I
haven't tried it since. OK, OK.
But first I think in order to set the stage.
Yes. It's important to, like, think
about how you even know where to thought, where your thoughts
should begin. And for me, thanks to pocket
trinkets on Instagram, I track everywhere of every watch.
Every time I wear them. So do I.
Everybody does. No, I'm just kidding.
I do not. I have no record keeping in my
body. In fact, in fact, I think you
have the opposite of record keeping because I often will be
like, you know, you haven't worn that in a long time.
You're like, no, I just wore it. But when you think about it,
you're like, Oh yeah. I was, I was, I was thinking
about this because I'm like a rose colored glasses person.
I'm like a there's a word in Swedish that I love Teeds
optimist. Like a time optimist, which just
means you're like, usually late because you haven't paid
attention to the time. But you're a realist, and so
there's a little something for everyone who might be calling
their collection. True, true, true.
But OK, so I I use an app called Watchy and I it's hard to
recommend the app. It's it's not a beautiful like
lovely interface to work with but it's very functional.
And so I use this app so that I know what I've been wearing when
I've been wearing it and it it does a great job of just number
one. It helps me see what watches are
just being a little neglected. And then I go through a process
to decide are they just being neglected or or is this not a
watch for me? What's that process like?
Well, that's difficult and there's many different ways to
do it and I haven't figured out the best one, but I've tried a
few different ways. The thing is when I I've
mentioned this before. You figured out the perfect way.
I mean, that isn't watch collecting is all of us.
Wanting. You know, like part of the the
theories and hypothesis like it. It's really fun to do that too.
So there is no perfect way. No, there is no perfect way.
But I I think we can strive towards perfection, yes, and
that can be a goal. But I I've talked about it
before. I buy pretty much every watch
thinking I'm going to keep this forever.
If I don't feel that, then I don't buy the watch, which is
why my collecting has slowed down so much, because I've I've,
I think I've been better at realizing what I want to keep
long term. And the reason I've gotten
better at that is because I have gone through this process.
But OK, I've taken two major approaches to figuring out
whether a watch is still for me or not.
The first one, which I don't know.
OK, you tell me what you think you've already told me, but you
tell our listeners what you think about these.
The first one is I'll I'll just not wear it for a really long
time and see if I miss it. Yeah, I think this was the
advice I gave you for when you were thinking about selling your
Rolex Explorer too, that you completely regret.
So I'm not sure this advice is good.
Like put it away and don't wear it and see if you missed it
because out of sight, out of mind.
Yeah. So for nine months I didn't wear
that watch. And I was like, you know what?
OK, I'm good. And the problem with that for a
person like me is that. Yeah, I am an out of sight, out
of mind person. So if I don't?
When I go away, who doesn't remember that I'm a person?
No, when you come back, I'm like.
Oh my God. I have a partner.
This is amazing. Yeah.
So I I think that method can work for some people, though
yes. That's true.
So I I've tried it, it's not the best for me.
I've done it with a few different watches.
The other is basically the opposite.
Just put it on and wear it non-stop and see if you love it.
Yeah, how has that worked for you?
Well, the problem is I feel like.
Then you love it. Then I love it no more.
What? Well, it doesn't matter what
watch it is. Cool advice from VU SO.
So most recently what I've actually done is tried not to do
any process. OK, so really, just like this
one doesn't, like, Bring me Joy. Yeah, which is a process.
What what? What I think I I did was I tried
to introduce some weird variant of behavior.
That's true that. Doesn't make.
The decision how you do things, yeah.
So. So it didn't make sense to like,
act completely out of normal to decide whether something fit
into my normal life. Yeah.
And so now I'm like, no, now I just let it be there and I have
the tracking and I'm like, OK, in the past year and a half,
I've worn a watch three times. OK, I probably am not that into
it. Yeah, back back to my You know,
like Vu's tracking methods are very, very hardcore for someone
like me who doesn't track at all.
But I will say we have this shared document that only one of
us updates. I never I look at it and I use
it, but I I vu created it and it's all of our watches.
It's just a list of them where like both the the month, the
year, the watch and then also if there was like an occasion or a
reason for it. And I do think that listed like
having a list of your watches versus just like pulling them
out. You usually don't have all of
your watches in one place at one time so like you don't see them
together. But I will say that this this
list, if you can find someone to create it for you, it is very
useful because I would say again as like the Rose colored glasses
when you ask me and a terrible like I'm either an overestimator
or underestimator. And in this, if you were like
how many watches do you have, I would definitely have said
lower. Well, yeah.
Then makes you not think about the culling 'cause you're like,
oh it's fine, it's under X amount, which is fine for me.
Yeah, you you are making up a number in your head that is OK
Yeah, you you wouldn't make up a number in your head that you
feel is too much. Exactly.
Yeah, so last night, as we prepared for this episode, Lydia
did look at the list. And you were surprised?
Yeah, it was. It was a few more than I
thought. I will.
Say more than you thought. Well, OK, in episode 14, we
talked about sentimental watches, so we're not going to
go over that today. So outside of sentimentality,
talking about some of the criteria for selling a watch,
I'm going to go through some of the watches that I've sold.
But first, I think the biggest thing I've learned about selling
watches, Mike, if there's a lesson in all of this, it's
actually that I always regret selling every watch.
Oh, here's how to call your watch collection, and we're back
to my original answer of no, no, But it won't do it.
Alongside that, I also regret every watch I didn't buy, so I
think I'm just a regretful. Person who's.
Like, oh, things could have been better, you know, like, I often
feel like, oh, had I made a different decision, it would
have been fun. But I don't feel that way all of
the time. So I regret every watch I've
ever sold, but not all of the time.
Sometimes I'm like, yeah, that was a that was a good move.
Good job there. Boo.
And I I kind of alluded to it earlier, but I have only sold
one watch ever, ever in my collecting.
That's it. So, so that includes like I
haven't traded watches, I haven't like you know just one
watch ever which I will say when VU was like you've only sold one
watch, I was like no, I've sold a few.
So once a A. List.
And I have only sold one watch. VU has sold many more I I.
I have sold many. I have been into watches for
much, much longer. So like one thing.
OK, so earlier I mentioned that if I wear a watch every day,
like trying to see if I love it, then I'll fall in love with it.
It's I think this isn't with just watches.
For me, the all kinds of different things that I own
because I collect different types of things.
I feel like when you buy nice things, like just things of
quality that will last. If you wait long enough, it's
like you'll cycle back, because then it's just about your taste.
Yeah, I mean I have heard that with like as advice in fashion
is like just put it back in your like instead of that.
If you haven't worn it in a month, then sell it or get rid
of it. It's like just leave it there
because if it's like a high quality piece, it's very likely
that it will either come back in fashion, you'll like it again.
I have a white leather backpack that I keep feeling, you know,
like I've saved it for that and it still hasn't come back
around. So maybe this advice doesn't
hold up. I I think it does for most
things, but not everything is sick cyclical and it depends on
whether or not you are someone who likes to follow trends.
Yeah. So if you if if part of your
mentality is to be on top of trends, then it may not be.
I think then the cycle will be longer.
Yeah, minus not. Trends take quite a while.
I'm never on ground. I try to purposely no.
Typically you're not. But when I think about that
white backpack. It was on.
Trends when? You bought it.
I have to wait a long. Time.
A white leather backpack is very specific.
It is very don't. Don't buy one.
It's probably a bad idea. So.
In the past 18 months I have sold 8 watches.
That's. Way more than I thought.
It is actually. If you would have asked me, I
would have said four if I if I so, but that's half.
It is. But again, prior to that I had
only ever sold like two or three watches ever, right?
So it was only around 18 months ago when I thought, OK, I need
to be more thoughtful about my collection and I currently have
watches that could be other. Watches, I was going to say it's
like that Watch money is sitting.
There is a watch amount and sometimes you have to move
things out. Yeah.
So OK. The interesting thing though, so
out of those 8 watches, four of them I had owned between 6:00
and 9:00 years already. So it's not like I was just
moving things quickly. Neither of us are quick with
this. It's pretty slow.
And then three of the remainder was between 2:00 to three years,
and then only one had I owned for only a year.
So that's the quickest turn around I've ever had on a watch.
And that was for the Omega Rail Master 1957 Trilogy edition,
which we talked about in another episode.
And that was really just because I hated the bracelet.
Yeah, and mine. My only sale was actually the
Omega C Master 1957 Trilogy Edition.
Yes. And I, you know, when I think
about it, I do think there's probably, when I look at this
now, basically, if you don't like it in the first year, then
it's easier to call out. But once you've kept it longer
than that, then you start to question it a bit more.
Yeah, I I completely agree. So it's probably best to move it
very quickly. So the most recent watch I, I, I
have let go was just last week. Oh my goodness, I.
Know it's a watch that I've owned for three years, but I've
finally accepted that this watch was too big for me.
It's a Rolex Oyster Perpetual 41 green dial and it it's just too
big and I had to let it go. The funny thing is the watch I
sold. The last watch I sold before it,
though I sold because it was too small.
Oh boy. Yeah, that's a whole different
episode called Vu being like, too big, too small.
We got a Goldilocks. Over here for sure, for sure.
And and and I regret that one because it wasn't too small.
No, it was it. It's that you know, like it
takes time to to get used to different sizes.
Especially when you've been wearing something you know
either bigger for quite a while and then you move smaller, it it
always like. Yeah, I started in the 39 range,
went up to 42 with the Speedmaster Pro and the Explorer
2. And then it's taken a lot of
work to, like, open my eyes and make my eyes adjusted to seeing
smaller watches on my wrist. And now I can wear down to 36,
but I couldn't before. So I think one of the like
important things is to feel confident that you can let these
watches go. So first you have to make the
decision, but then it's like, well, how do you let them go?
So my OP was very easy. I actually took it back to our
AD and traded it in. I have not chosen what to use
that money on yet, though. So it's I have a.
Credit at the AD That's never happened.
No, it has never happened. So that's like, outside of these
episodes, the rest of my life, if I'm not working or sleeping,
you can imagine it's just Boo talking about which watch you
should buy. But.
Welcome to this Watch live. On the Real Time Show podcast,
there was a very recent episode that I thought was awesome where
Alan from Ace Jewelers talked about the process of bringing in
watches and how how they Ace help sell watches.
And I thought that was really amazing, helping David, one of
the Co hosts, sell his watches because he was making a big
change. Totally a worthwhile episode to
check out, go and listen to. That, yeah, I was going to say.
One thing I really liked about that episode is they actually
said all the numbers. So like what?
Like which watches David was selling, how much he thought he
could get from them. If he sold them himself, then
how much he got them, how much he actually got.
So I just, it was really nice because most of the time, I mean
I know I do this. I'm more like abstractly, like I
sold it, I bought it for something, I sold it for
something and now I bought something else plus or minus.
And I really just liked that they went through, yeah, all of
the numbers and and figures and usually I'm not the one saying
that I liked the numbers. So that's very different.
One of the nice things about selling in this way are the, you
know, like the ACE example or for us, you know, I brought it.
In today or? Neiman's ER is that it's a very
safe you, you can trust the entire process, and you don't
have to deal with the end customer.
But we've also used Chrono 24 to do that.
Because Chrono 24, many people don't know this, but they'll buy
your watch. Sometimes, if it's a specific
and. It depends on when, but they you
do sometimes buy watches themselves and then you don't
have to deal with dealing with the end user.
And then there's all the ways you can deal with end users,
either through local forums or Instagram.
Reddit people sell. Weirdly, people sell there.
It's not for me. Yeah, Craigslist block it or
whatever the whatever the like. Facebook Marketplace I don't
think is hot for watches, but I'm not sure I.
Haven't left, You know, I think people sell everything.
Everywhere. It just depends on your comfort
level. I wouldn't do it.
But yeah, so when are you going to start selling some watches,
Lydia? Because we've identified 5
watches in your collection that you could let go and probably
never even realize. Yes, I would say when I think of
why I haven't sold watches it's laziness slash time involved
sometimes fear you know you're dealing with something that has
value and selling it. But I this is kind of spurring
me on to think you know of doing it and then like coming back
with some thoughts on on the process so.
We will take our listeners along in the journey, yeah.
Maybe. Yeah, that might.
That might help me actually do it.
But I I was thinking about one. One reason.
It's not exactly in the laziness, but just sometimes
when you really like, for me, I want to think about my
collection, the watches I have, who I want to be, who I.
So it's like a whole. It's like doing an inventory, a
self inventory and a self analysis.
And yeah, so sometimes I'm like, that's too deep for right now.
Maybe I'll do some of those first, like the first culling,
like you said, one set. I probably.
Won't miss. I I you know, I I know for
whatever reason. But then what I really like to
do is as I'm selling things and I do this with my clothes, it's
like, what themes do I see so that hopefully I don't make the
same mistake again Because I I find that that's interesting If
when I'm getting rid of clothes, you know, reselling them, I'm
like, oh, I bought all of these online.
So I didn't try them on. Or like, I bought them because
they were a good sale. So I got too excited about it.
But it wasn't actually like my style.
So I'd like to do that with the watch selling.
It's like, why did this come and go?
OK, maybe analyze it a bit more. Well, that sounds.
Pretty fun, yeah. Or like.
Or or or stressful. Who knows?
Let's go with fun.
Thank you everyone. Have a great day.
Bye, bye.