How do you mentally make sense of your collection?

[Der Amf]

Some lucky people have a big spread of watches, and each day pick the one they fancy and off they go, seemingly without a care in the world. The recent musings of whatmeworry and OhDark30 make me think that making sense of all one's watches can be a hard task.

How do you rationalise your pile of watches?

(The rest of this post is veryyy skipable.... )

I own 16 watches, but only regard the 10 that get worn as my collection.

These ten consist of an inner set of six:
* 4 daily wearers in strict rotation, one a week, changing each Sunday, two new autos, two vintage manuals, all four different sizes
* 2 prettier weekend vintage watches, taking it in turns.

and four occasional watches:
* 2 quartz (one with rubber strap, one with good WR) they sit ready for distinct purposes
* 2 older vintage manuals that only get worn for a day here and there when the mood takes me.

Of the other six watches I own
* 3 are retired from wear, but I'm hanging onto them for sentimental reasons
* 2 I've never worn, but have the intention of giving away
* 1 was forced on me by Matt at the g2g, and thus is a momento of a happy day.

So I have four levels to my ownership,
* regularly worn
* occasionally worn
* never worn
* on their way out

[crownpuller]

Easy:

[FuzzyB]

My collection makes no sense and there is absolutely no way I can rationalize any of it.

I have way too many watches. Every time I buy something new, I promise myself that I will sell one I already have. I'm not good at keeping promises and should have learned long ago not to trust myself. I'm a slow learner, too, and maybe someday I'll figure that out.

I have a lot of watches I don't wear but I get emotionally attached to them. When I even think of selling them, I find some excuse not to go through with it. It's too hard to replace. I have some memory associated with wearing the watch. It has a great set of hands. Or I'm just too lazy to actually get around to selling them.

[whatmeworry]

I think I probably have similar categories, just higher volumes

[93EXCivic]

Right now I have

6 daily wearer watches
1 fun weekend/ evening watch
1 occasional wear vintage (may move to the daily wear category when my bund strap gets in)
3 beaters
1 sentimental watch
1 watch that was given to me for Xmas that I don't know what to do with

[OhDark30]

I just need to get a grip :-)
Realistically, I've worn the Strela uninterrupted for several months
While it is nice to discover on unearthing my collection that I have some very cool other watches, I don't actually *need* any others
I think I *want* to keep a few more though
The irony is, I've got into full-blown minimalism on the rest of my stuff. I've had a mega clearout, ditching over 80% of what I own, and feel much happier and lighter without it. (I used Marie Kondo's method)
So, I'm sorting the watches now, now that I've got the mental and actual space to do it
I think watch collecting is a simple pleasure, and I still love discussing design, history and mechanics
But now I no longer need many of the physical watches to bring them to mind - photos recall many of my highlights.

[Colin63]

I think watch collecting is a simple pleasure, and I still love discussing design, history and mechanics

I just like shiny, pretty watches.

[KennethRSloan]

So...in theory...it might be an Ebel

[wschofield3]

I used to adhere to the "buy a good watch if it's a good deal and I like the way it looks" rule. I then found I had 150 watches, way too many. Consolidation came and I had a bunch of goodies including Bretling, GS, Omega, Ball and others. I was working towards what I called my "perfect 12", beater, better and best in four categories including dressy, chronograph, dive style and all rounders.

I gave that up when I found my GO and am now looking at a perfect 8 watch collection with a beater and the best I can afford in each category, above. I have two categories covered and am still looking for my "best" in the chronograph and all rounder categories.

That's how I make sense of mine....at this moment anyway.

[Der Amf]

I just need to get a grip :-)
Realistically, I've worn the Strela uninterrupted for several months
While it is nice to discover on unearthing my collection that I have some very cool other watches, I don't actually *need* any others
I think I *want* to keep a few more though
The irony is, I've got into full-blown minimalism on the rest of my stuff. I've had a mega clearout, ditching over 80% of what I own, and feel much happier and lighter without it. (I used Marie Kondo's method)
So, I'm sorting the watches now, now that I've got the mental and actual space to do it
I think watch collecting is a simple pleasure, and I still love discussing design, history and mechanics
But now I no longer need many of the physical watches to bring them to mind - photos recall many of my highlights.

Your relationship with the watches you own, the boundaries you place on what you perceive as your collection, reminds me of a tidal estuary - sometimes just running through the central core, sometimes expanded to the full width of the valley, and constantly on the move from one to the other