My brother sent me a picture from a former work colleague (22 yr old lawyer making max $50k US p/a). The kid is very well off, family owns/owned a major retailer and he inherited quite a bit of money.
My brother showed me a pic of his collection, given he knows I’m into watches. The kid has pretty much bought every hype watch going:
Patek Nautilus 5711 AP Royal Oak White face ceramic Daytona Batman Sub date Hulk Datejust JLC MUT moon IWC Portuguese Panerai Omega Aquaterra Omega Seamaster 300m.
Guessing it would cost you $250k (us) to purchase.
These are all, within reason, the ‘hot’ desirable watches to own. If you put together a list of the top ten most sought after, he’d have the majority them.
It says a lot about his collection. I feel the guy is collecting to impress others and it appears passionless.
I was thinking, if he had true interest and spent the money he did spend, it wouldn’t be just hype.
The question is, $250k (us) budget… what would you buy?
Id buy
Vacheron Constantin 1921
Rolex Daydate 36 champagne dial
Patek Philippe 5230P-001
JLC Perpetual Calendar
AP Royal Oak Jumbo
Theres a reason some of those watches are popular
I was thinking, if you had true interest you wouldn’t be so poor and could afford some decent watches yourself.
I mean, they’re popular for a reason. All of them are great watches, and they don’t necessarily mean he’s not an enthusiast. Just like people with new Porsches and Ferraris are still car enthusiasts (SUV excluded). If I had the money, my collection would probably include a lot of these, too.
I’d probably pick up an A. Lange perpetual Datograph, a gold Speedmaster with a green dial, a white gold dress watch and a few “beaters” to make up the rest.
The gold speedy is 🔥
If I had that money I’d do the same thing to make all my coworkers seethe and cope about it on Reddit
I dont think this is something that could be planned ahead of time. Also it seems it would kind of loose its charm if you could just buy anyone you want all the time.
Like i am currently considering my next watch (arent we all). But i am kind of in the early stage, so there are still multiple ways it could go and multiple candidates for each.
Either the kinda dressy but still capable way (tudor 1926, longines spirit, nomos club campus…) or maybe the yet-another-sporty-one way (longines spirit zulu time, certina titanium diver, tudor black bay GMT, tudor ranger…) or the now-i-really-want-something-weird-and-unique way (longines legend diver, Oris big crown pointer date bronze, rado true square skeleton, something from cuerbos y sobrino…).
But with this kind of budget i could just literally buy all of them, plus all the grails in the 10-20k range i have been dreaming of but wouldnt otherwise get anytime soon.
And that would pretty much kill the joy of figuring out this choice. So you are almost forced to escalate to crazy expensive stuff. However i would like to not just go the most hyped way with it. But the only watch i know that i would want and is expensive enough to not just be able to buy 20 is the H. Moser Endeaviur perpetual calendar. But even that is just like 80k i think.
Typically takes me years to decide my next watch, including months of hovering over the buy now button.
I once met a rich guy in his 30’s, he was wearing a royal oak chronograph and I was wearing a Timex lol, so we struck conversation about watches, he told me he bought based on his jeweler recommendations, basically hot watches that were good investments too, that might be the case here.
Probably an Akrivia AND Simon Brette watches if I have enough. Then one or two daily beaters for the remaining amount.
Cliches exist for a reason. If everyone on this sub was magically given enough money to buy a 5711, most of them would choose the watch over any other. Same reason a salesperson would push it if given the opportunity: The hype watches are well-known and safe choices for someone who just wants to buy a nice watch at that price range. Most watch purchases don’t involve any sort of passion or actual interest in watches. Even when you’re spending tens of thousands of dollars on a watch, it’s nice to know you’re getting something safe that is a consensus pick. It’s the same thing that happens on this sub most of the time: People ask what watch they should get at X budget. Only in this person’s case, their budget is much higher.
Patek 5270J (used) Overseas 4500V/4520V blue (AD) Patek 5167a (AD) BLRO (AD) JLC reverso black dial (used)
I’m a whore for limited edition so I’d pick all limited editions
Post this story and the photo on r/watchescirclejerk.