Finding 'Enough'
The Greatest Hunt in Watch Collecting
Can you even remember the excitement of getting your first proper watch?
I can.
It was much more than a simple sense of achievement; I would constantly glance at my wrist, and feel immense pride when someone noticed it. I was filled to the brim with gratitude and wore that watch with a feeling of pure joy for many years.
Now think about your latest purchase. To borrow from Marie Kondo (thanks Josh!), did it ‘spark the same joy’? I’m going to bet it was rather fleeting, and maybe even that is being generous.
The topic of enough comes up so often in collecting circles, that I feel it will never get old; despite covering it a couple of years ago, I felt a refresh was well overdue. So, when is it enough? What is enough, anyway? How do we know when we’ve reached it? These are the types of questions which should be at the heart of our hobby, but most of us struggle to answer them honestly.
Let’s fix that.
Estimated reading time: ~15 minutes
The Hedonic Treadmill
I have zero doubt that every single watch collector has experienced this; a new watch arrives, you wear it constantly for a while, and then... something changes. The excitement fades. You spot something on Instagram. You start browsing Chrono24 again. Before long, you’re lining up your next purchase.
This sequence, as it happens, has a name: hedonic adaptation. Over 50 years ago, Brickman and Campbell coined the now-iconic term “hedonic treadmill” in some seminal research which showed that positive events – like getting a new watch – create a temporary happiness spike before we inevitably return to our baseline level of contentment. Later studies confirmed this effect, and they found that even ‘significant’ positive events, such as winning the lottery, do not permanently raise the winner’s happiness levels. That’s a pretty crazy finding to me, because I’d bet most people would be convinced they’d be happier if they won the lottery!
For watch collectors, this research explains what I am sure you can relate to from your own experiences – every new watch provides a shorter-lived thrill than the last. The Batman GMT you thought would be your ‘one watch collection’ at the start of your journey, often turns into ‘just the beginning of a journey into sports models’. A watch which once seemed like the ultimate grail now chills in your watch box while you lust after something even more unattainable.
“Natural desires are limited, but those which spring from false opinion can have no stopping-point. The false has no limits. When you are travelling on a road, there must be an end; but when astray, your wanderings are limitless.”
Why We Collect, Matters
It feels like stating the obvious to say the way you approach collecting will dramatically affect your satisfaction, so I won’t say that. Instead, I will reference Tim Kasser’s research (also detailed in his book The High Price of Materialism). His work shows that people who chase after possessions primarily for status or external validation tend to report lower well-being, greater anxiety, and reduced levels of ‘connectedness’ with others.
Need I say more?
Just think about your own collection of watches, and decide which ones bring you the most joy. Is it the most expensive one? Or the one with the best story like the one you wore on your wedding day, or the one that reminds you of a career achievement?
What I am getting at here are the ideas of materialism vs. intrinsic motivation - when you frame watches primarily as status symbols (external, materialistic) instead of seeing them as sources of personal joy or appreciation of craftsmanship (intrinsic), you are setting yourself up for perpetual dissatisfaction. If you’re unhappy with your collection it probably isn’t because you have too few watches; you’re unhappy because someone else has more. You might be perfectly content with your collection until you see someone else’s Instagram post; in an instant, what made you happy yesterday makes you miserable today… but why? Nothing has actually changed, right?
External validation is a terrible mistress, and it relates directly to what researchers call “acquisition centrality” versus “possession centrality.” This old paper by Marsha Richins noted that materialists often get more pleasure from buying things (acquisition centrality) than from actually owning them (possession centrality). When people get too addicted to the hunt instead of ever realising the value of basic appreciation, it quite literally creates a cycle of chronic dissatisfaction – exactly what we see in collectors who can’t stop buying new watches (despite rarely ever wearing the ones they already have!).
The point is, how many of us work harder to earn more money to buy more watches, all while sacrificing the time we could be enjoying the watches we already have?
Finding Satisfaction
To better understand why some collectors might feel fulfilled while others seem to be perpetually dissatisfied, let’s look at some more research. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is an approach to human motivation and personality which says that humans have three basic psychological needs: autonomy (making your own choices), competence (mastering skills and knowledge), and relatedness (connecting with others). As a watch collector, your collecting habits satisfying these needs will make you more likely to experience genuine fulfilment. Some examples might be:
Autonomy: Do you choose watches based on personal taste (your own choice), or are you chasing whatever’s hyped or being worn by your favourite celebrity (not your choice)?
Competence: Do you develop your own expertise about watchmaking, history, and mechanics, or do you just accumulate watches with no knowledge or understanding? Do you even know why you bought every watch you own? Is it just because it looks shiny? What are you, five?
Relatedness: Do you connect with a community of fellow enthusiasts and share knowledge / appreciation, or are you collecting in isolation?
Every collector I personally know who seems satisfied with their collection, and isn’t constantly hunting something, appears to approach the hobby as a journey of learning and connection. They literally have no interest in competition with others for ‘the most impressive’ (or valuable, or any other title) collection. They only ever make purchases which are aligned with their personal values and interests (autonomy), they have an immense curiosity when it comes to understanding the technical details of their watches (competence), and they also actively engage with a community of like-minded enthusiasts (relatedness). Sure, this might be my confirmation bias kicking in, but I have tried to think of contrarian examples, and I’ve failed!
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
Epictetus