drunken monkey

There are far too many watches that I like so my buying decisions had been boiled down to a simple set of "rules" as it were:
minimise repetitions of brand, style, type and type.

That is an easy thing to follow if one were so disciplined but of course, that is not always the way.

I can't pin down when it was set down in that fashion but it was likely to have been after I bought the Carrera but before I had bought the Planet Ocean. I recall that I was mulling over a Submariner vs the Planet Ocean as at the time, both were on their way out, soon to be replaced by their maxi-lug and 8500 successors.
The choice that I had made was that which ever dive watch I ended up buying, I would then make the next watch, either the Aqua Terra of Explorer 1 from the opposing maker.

Very neatly, that would result in me having the three "major" watch types (chronograph, dive, regular sports) from the three major mainstream, middle market makers (TAGHeuer, Omega, Rolex).

As I said, things never really worked out that way and I am still missing that Rolex Explorer; the watch I should have bought after I had gotten the Planet Ocean. Some of that is that the 36mm was already out of production when I was looking. Some of it, it has to be said, was that the 114270 was just a little underwhelming whenever I tried it on. I knew that it was just a watch and I'm fine with that but the sticking point was that there were details on never Rolex that weren't on the Explorer. At the time, they had introduced better bracelets, better clasps and the movement had a little more updates to the parts in the 39mm 214270.
In short, buying the 114270 felt like buying the old and inferior when compared to the 214270.

As luck would have it, while I was stumbling around deciding on how much I wanted the Explorer, Omega were rolling out Master Co-Axial versions of the Aqua Terra. That meant that a lot of bargains were to be had on the non-Master versions. I ended up buying a blue dial and a white dial one for the (retail) cost of a 214270 and thus broke the planned trilogy.

I still have my three types of watches but brand diversity too a step back.


I still want that Explorer but not as much as I thought I did. I think that set of rules in the beginning made me want it more than I liked it. There is certainly something very tidy about the concept of three watches, covering three types, from three makers. As much as it fit the pattern, the Explorer just didn't scratch the itch when it came to actually buying. As I say, it is still on the want list but there are other older Rolex models that possibly interest me more than it does.

In short, there are other watches that I just like more and that is the only real way to go about it, right?
Buy what you like.
It's said often but not often carried out.
In my case, I had convinced myself that I wanted that set of three but doing so would've gotten me three watches, one of which would've been a compromise.

Itches are strange things.
You can try many ways to scratch it but in the end, only one will do the trick and that one isn't always the one you thought it would be.