Collection - Personal Holy Grails (Part 1)
Traders in the stock market pay attention to gaps in a stock's price. For example, if a stock closes one day at $10 per share and opens the next day at $12 per share, then there is what is called a gap. Even if the stock continues going up, traders will watch in anticipation of the stock returning to "fill the gap" from its move from $10 to $12. Funny enough, however, the most famous gap of all can be found in the London Underground system, where signs everywhere warn you to "Mind the Gap."
I am a seasoned watch collector, having bought and sold hundreds of watches over the past twelve years. Lately, I find the most fulfilling acquisitions to be the watches that I wanted in the early days of my collecting, but never actually owned: in other words, the "gaps." In speaking with seasoned collectors of anything, this desire to go back and fill in the gaps of one's collecting experience is a common phenomenon. In a way, I suppose, it's a rare opportunity to go back in time and relive the excitement that you felt when your collecting passion was at its zenith.
So, in this series of articles I want to pay homage to the watches that I missed collecting in my early years, some of which I subsequently acquired and some that eluded me.
In all types of collecting, there are entry-level acquisitions that are normally easy to find and affordable. While there are watch collectors who start at the top, dropping a few hundred thousand on a platinum Patek Philippe grand complication and subsequently working their way down is certainly the exception—and a watch dealer's best customer. Accordingly, I started out with a collection that looked like a rainbow with all the different dial colors of Seiko and Citizen automatic diver's watches. (Who can forget the early Seiko Orange Monsters?) I mean, really, what could be more insanely cool to a beginning collector than a 42 mm orange-dialed automatic diver's watch for $129 brand new?
I soon followed that up with a Hamilton Atlantis, which was the spitting image of a Rolex Submariner. I got hooked on Hamiltons for about a year and then moved on to Omega Speedmasters. Rolex comes after Omega for many collectors, and I was no exception, acquiring a vintage Datejust, then a bunch of Submariners, GMTs and Explorers.
After that, I entered the typical "snob" stage, in which one discovers the pedigreed brands like Jaeger LeCoultre, A. Lange & Sohne, and IWC. At this stage of watch collecting, you find yourself ashamed for having recently been so uncultured that you actually loved your Rolex and Omega watches and that you own so many of them. So, you sell all of your former lust objects to fund your "holy grail," which is typically a watch retailing for more than you paid for all of your Rolexes combined and maybe for even more than your car. You tell yourself that you will stop after your Holiness is strapped around your deserving wrist. This special watch is often a Breguet, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe—or perhaps an F.P. Journe? All excellent choices as your collection's "crowning glory"
At this point, many collectors morph into connoisseurs, and while they may still acquire a watch once in a while, they are basically sated, basking in their horological knowledge and the satisfaction that comes with having done something well and to its fullest. Others keep collecting with gusto for years, or indeed for the rest of their lives.
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