Time + Tide
Regret is something I have experienced a few times. But unlike Frank Sinatra, watch collectors have countless things worth mentioning. Watch collecting is a long journey that many believe never ends. Ideally, watch purchase regrets only happen in the early stages of collecting, but these purchase regrets happen to all of us at different stages of collecting. No one is immune to regrets, and we certainly envy you if you don’t have a watch you regret buying. Skeptically, we would also add, “Give it time.”
In our latest Time+Tide Tribe video, Andrew, Zach, and Marcus each share a watch they bought and regretted. We’re sure the trio has a lot more to share, and some of our team members definitely have stories you can relate to, so it’s safe to assume this is only part one. Check out the video above and let us know in the comments which watch you immediately regretted buying.
*Please don’t spoil the video*
*Please don’t spoil the video*
*Seriously? You want to spoil the video?*
I bought this watch and drove back to my home in Mount Eliza from Melbourne. It was a long drive and my Tudor Black Bay 58 Bronze was still in the box on the passenger seat and I kept looking at it and saying “this was a mistake”. I didn’t tell my wife I was going to buy it. It just didn’t go according to plan. It took months of spending on my budget but I made a video. I made sure to post the video. I knew it was a mistake the moment I bought it but I’ll tell you why I fell in love with the bronze BB58. It was lovely in its original condition but I hadn’t even left it outside for two days. I think I swam in a chlorine pool once and it started to show that funky green patina and I just couldn’t accept it. I had no idea that Tudor bronze could patina so quickly and so violently. So I took our article on reviving bronze and scrubbed the thing with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Then I brought it back to Newtown. I can’t explain it. I loved it at the time, but on the drive home I quickly realized this was going to be a two-night stand at best.
Zac’s Instant Regret Watch – Candino Power Reserve Automatic Chronometer
I have done this many times, but it is too often chasing the “easy win.” You just bought a watch, and you hate to admit it, but you are still craving and yearning for another one. Then something less expensive comes along and you get a false sense of security by impulse buying. When this Candino arrived, I was at the stage in my collecting where I didn’t yet have a watch with a power reserve indicator, and I really wanted one with a power reserve indicator. As I have since learned, collecting to own all the different complications is not a winning strategy. In that moment, I thought the case lugs had an interesting shape, like a cornes de vache. There are strong design elements that work in this watch’s favor, such as Breguet-style hands, and perhaps a guilloched engraved dial. But I should have known how jarring the 12-inch date window would be. Once I noticed how prominent the certified chronometer engraving on the caseband was, I couldn’t forget it.
I regret this watch and others I impulse bought to satisfy short-term watch interests. It’s been maybe 3 or 4 years since I picked up this Candino watch, like Harry Potter locked in a cupboard under the stairs. If you add up the cost of this watch and the other 5 or 6 watches on my table that fit this criteria, it comes to a Tudor Black Bay 54 that I actually wear. So my regret is that I should have the discipline to not always go for the quick and easy thing. This has since served my collection better.
Marx’s Instant Regret Watch – Itano Technology Monte Carlo Carbon 43 and Abratros Grande 49
If you look at these two watches, your eyes might sting a little bit. This was before I met Time+Tide or Andrew McCutchen. This was when I was collecting watches, like my wife collects shoes. I was in Italy and I passed by this little cheesy watch store or whatever. I saw this flashy color and I was like, “Wow, it’s really green,” and “Oh, it glows, that’s kind of cool.” I just didn’t think it was big and crazy. I probably only wore it maybe twice at most. Honestly, even if I told my kids they could buy them, they wouldn’t want them. So I really, really regret buying them. This was a time when I was buying watches because they were easy to buy, and like Zach said, if you add up all the easy things you can buy, you get something better, and then when I started working with Andrew and Time+Tide, I literally stopped buying them overnight.
