Watches

My limit is £7K - £8K, but I really tend to look around the £5K bracket, and I almost always buy used rather than new.

I don't tend to have more than five watches (plus a couple of G-Shocks), so if I buy a new watch it is replacing an existing one.

It really depends how much you care about the movements. If you like quartz and solar movements, you can build sweet collections without much money. If you're into mechanical / automatics... It's a little different.

10k +/- a few either direction.

My DJ41 was 15.8k after tax.

My eBay navitimer was about 5.5k.

I built a nice little collection through the grey market. Just a lot of scrolling and more than a couple impulse buys. I bought an Alpina (quartz), Mido, and Jungans (quartz) for less than a Christopher Ward I bought at retail price as a graduation present. All of these were meant to keep my Hamilton khaki field company. I bought that one on the grey market ~8 years ago for under $600. But I’ve had it serviced twice, and if I need to get it serviced again, I’ll have spent more repairing the watch than I did buying it. The next two watches I want to get are both in the $1,600 and $1,900 range. I figure if I like the watch enough to repair it, I might as well get as good of a watch as I can afford and do my best to take good care of it.

What I consider affordable (as in doesn't give me pause to buy it) is just creeping up and up. Nowadays it's around €2,000, but also consider that I have a rule of only one watch purchase per calendar year, and I'm sticking to it now for the third year in a row.

I'd say probably around $200 right now.

Watches are cool and shit but they're mostly useless and Casio/Citizen/Timex put out good watches.

Like you said affordable is relative as is willingness to spend on watches. You also need to factor in how many you want to have at any given time and how much you’re comfortable having sunk into the hobby in aggregate. How much I spend on a piece really depends on the manufacturer, complications, and finishing. Recently it’s been on the higher end for me at around 30-40k per piece though sometimes I think about blowing up my collection and going for one or two bigger pieces.

I think the word affordable includes several things: affordable in terms of watchmaking means you get the premium stuff (sapphire crystal, automatic winding with good accuracy, Swiss-made label, good quality), but not the luxury stuff or brands. That’s why most affordable watches start at about 600-1000€, which cover my points.

As an early 30s engineer and soon to be father I only own one watch (Tissot Gentleman Powermatic). My next watch will definitely be more expensive (like 2000-4000€), but probably a lot of time will pass until I will get it. Other stuff like saving for the child, holidays, a house, a new car is more important.

Nowadays? About $500 including tax and shipping. Max limit is $1000 unless it's a really cool watch with a nice design, history, or artistic merit.

Anything past 1000, even in today's market, has noticeable diminishing returns. But that's just my experience though! Some of the Oris Arterlier and Nomos watches didn't look that much better than my Stowas or Mido for double or triple the cost. Even some of the finishing on Longines was a bit disappointing in the end.

While depends on the watch. I love a deal as much as the next person, and have some bangers that were in the sub 150aud range. For a normal watch, by which I mean just something I see and like, I’ll happily spend up to 600aud Then there’s grails. A list of half a dozen watches that I would happily hand over up to 15k aud for if finances at the time allowed for it.

I personally consider affordable below 1k for automatic watches, and below 500 for quartz. Notable exception to the rule is G-Shock. :-)

In all honesty, deminishing returns in some cases start with automatic watches above 500. But most of the established brands crossed that long time ago. Even microbrands - I have recently purchased Wise AD9 in 904L steel because it is affordable for 904L watch with Miyota 9-series - but it also crossed over 500 bucks. I love it more than my Tissots from the similar price range (and those are also 316L) and it comes damn close in overall feeling to SPB143 which I absolutely love (after replacing the bracelet with 3rd party one, which I also didn't need to invest in with Wise).

So that is likely where watch community influencers come from - 1000 is a nice and round number and in reality, for most of the established brands, around $1000 buys you a lot of watch technically speaking and gains beween $1000 and $2000 or $3000 are topically smaller than what you get by bumping your budget from $500 to $1000 with those brands.

The more money I make the harder it is to part with it on watches. My most expensive was $1300 and all my watches total around $5k. I'm a huge Citizen Promaster fan so most of mine are Citizen and range from $250-$1000. If I could start over I'd grab the Nighthawk I have and the DW5610 and never look at watches again.

360 to 540 thousand is my typical range

It's different for everyone, the best advice I could give would be to not spend too much thought on the haves and have nots. In any hobby, luxury ones especially, you can do that all the way up to the millions.

Enjoy what you got and if you find a watch that's a bit out of reach within reason, make it a goal to save up for. For the most part that expensive watch isn't going anywhere. For example a submariner can be bought over 5 years by saving up 150 bucks a month.

Half the fun for me is researching a watch, staring at it endlessly, and then when you're ready to buy being able to find a good deal on it!

Check out my thread. Bunch of watches people posted all under 500

Look at WR watches. From my experience the best quality for the price you can get in your price range. Miles better than any Citizen or even any other watch under 1000$.

Obviously some of their watches are a little too close to some other brands but you can find original designs there for VERY VERY good prices.

Quartz? $300. Automatic? 600. To go beyond and luxury, $1k.

If you think that 1k you can get a good bicycle (with much more materials), a great digital camera (insane more costly to produce) or a cell phone (same)...you start to think they are overpriced..even with seiko watches....

Comfortable? Up to 500.

I think that, objectively speaking, no watch is worth more than that. Sure and Omega will have more attention to detail and a better movement and maybe even design than say a Casio.

But, I honestly get a bit grossed out when I see watch YouTubers saying "I'm rocking my Patek" or "This A. Lange is drool worthy" because...those watches cost the same as several houses! It's undignifying. It feels like...not even ostentation because no one really cares what's in your wrist, it feels like a form of posing and mocking how hard life is for those who can.

Ultimately, the main thing that matters in a watch is functionality. Telling time. If it can tell time more accurately or add a function that matters to you, then it's worth it, but otherwise it very much isn't.

Because otherwise, you're literally buying bragging rights only. That's ultimately what made Rolex because they're not, believe me, an exceptional watch.

And if you're like me...you like Seikos and Grand Seikos more than anything Swiss

If I like something I will patiently save and wait until I can easily afford it, hence after 54 years I am now the proud owner of a Speedy DSOTM.

I'd say, around 200-400.

I have a couple cheap watches that I love, an "expensive" Citizen and an inherited one, after that I only plan to have maybe one other expensive under 1000 and one "grail" Omega in the thousands and that's it

Seven to Eight hundred European dollars I guess.

Above that I’m starting to find it « really expensive » and under that « quite cheap really ».

Anything sub $3000

200€ max

For under 250$ you can get either a swiss quartz watch with sapphire glass or japan automatic watch with sapphire glass. Those are also the only two options I would buy in this price range, never buy a watch that doesn’t have sapphire glass in my opinion.

I could see myself buying a 1k euro watch. Maybe even up to 2k, if truly captures me. But the one I am wearing cost me 300 and I am very aware that instead of one expensive watch I could have 3 or 4 more in this class.

I would never spend more than 500 on a modern retro design watch. It would have to be something contemporary that is not stuck in the past.

>= 3k

My take:

Anything under 1k, you are really buying into what design you like as well as the intricacies like the movement.

Anything between 1k to 5k, you are slowly seeing watches as a luxury and want to work towards the big boys. You start to prioritise brand but still buying what you like.

5k to 20k range. Brands brands brands!! Will anyone notice if this is a rolex, cartier, omega???!! The Internet doesn't like rolex cellini. Fk that! Whats the gmt price now??? Damn, JLC looks like great value, but it's not roelx!!!!

20k and up. I buy what I like because I like. People have been talking about patek, AP, VC, lange and so on, let me take a look at them and choose what speaks to me.

Please don't flame me. This is purely my observation and generalisation.

$5000

My collection for the under $1,000 price point is pretty complete imo so now I'm really looking to round out with one or two more expensive pieces. I'd say $5,000 average for those? But I'll probably wait years for the right ones.

I think the most expensive watch I own is a Tissot that I paid $450. Most of them are 150 to 350. My grail is an Oris because that is the most expensive that is reasonably attainable. I will have to save up for that. Other things have priority at this point in my life. I can't justify spending 2-3k on a watch right now and possible never will.

I think few watches you love and wear often is better than owning several that just sit in a box. About 2k is my max, don't see it changing for a while.

As I earn my money on a weak currency my top is 300 USD.

For me is incredible how easy for some other is possible to afford luxury brands.

up to $4-$5k is affordable and I don't think twice if I like the watch. Nevertheless, I have realized that it's better to (move above that price point and) seriously re-consider before buying one. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of watches you kinda like but don't really enjoy or wear.

This summer I bought a Zenith Defy. Looking to sell to buy a GS but I never thought I’d ever spend $6k on a watch. I also don’t buy often. First watch I bought was an Orient for about $200 and that was a lot because I was in college. Then I bought a Hamilton for around $600 and that was a lot because I just graduated college. And then I bought a Sinn 104 and I couldn’t believe that I spent $1800 on a watch. I was making a good salary but never thought I’d spend that on a watch. And then I bought a Zenith and now looking at Grand Seiko, which cost over $6k and I never thought I’d be spending that type of money on a watch but I am. I can see myself spending $10k on a watch in the far future. I’d probably do something like $70k if I was making a really really really nice salary. I found for myself, once I got into watches and started having more disposable income, I was able to look at and purchases things I never thought I would have when I started. And I don’t really buy much either. I like cooking and I have all the nice things I need for that. Would like some gator boots but beyond that, I don’t buy much. A boat would be cool though