2024 was a year of changes in my collecting

What a strange year it has been? A year I hoped would be a steady, leveling period to get caught up on many things in my life ended up getting a little Topsy-turvey. I procured fewer watches, which is good, but then the ones I did get were higher priced watches than I normally buy? My interests have changed in some ways and stayed the same in other ways.
The good thing is I wrote more about my watches and collecting this year than I did last year. When things are getting stressful in other parts of my life away from watches, writing about watches or getting some repaired energizes me. Writing about my collection also make me appreciate what I have already. It reminds me of the reasons I went after the watches I do have.
More Timex Repair Woes
Just when I thought the Timex repair system would be getting back on its feet I see it is still a mess. It seems Timex is such a big operation that the various moving parts don’t connect with each other? Their web site managers, Customer Service, Shipping/Receiving and Repair operations don’t seem to work together? It is a new adventure every time I send a watch in for repair. What seemed to be a smooth system a few years ago is now chaos.
A big part of my watch collecting is Timex. That can be a good thing. The other big part of my collecting is preowned/discontinued/vintage Timex, which can be an inherently bad thing…These latter categories entail repair which Timex is proving to be incapable of doing as time goes on? I’ve related some of my Timex repair experiences before. My current mess is trying to track down two Archive Acadias I sent to Timex in September 2024. At the time they were sorting out two MK1s I had sent that they could not track down!

Once I finally got the Mk1s back, I decided to send in the Acadias I acquired from a France online store. After much expense and hassle the watches arrived, not working?! They were, I guess, what could be considered new old stock? In Oct, after I tracked them as received at Timex, I contacted customer service to prompt them to send me the Paypal invoice so we could proceed. Nothing happened….
I the meantime I bought two new Deepwater Reefs from Timex and went through a passionate return process with one of them…While this was going on I redoubled my effort to find the status of the Acadias. I kept being told my issue was forwarded to the appropriate contacts….Somehow the online repair request has disappeared from my profile. I think someone at Timex deleted it thinking it was for the earlier Mk1s I was complaining about? Luckily I did a print of the request data and kept the tracking info.
So, entering Jan 2025, I still don’t know where the watches are. They could very well be in the Philippines being fixed, but the Customer Service people don’t seem to be able to access that info? No one will get back to me except to say “be patient”? As I reflect on my collecting, this kind of stuff makes me weigh the benefits and drawbacks of collecting Timex. Am I hesitating to get more of them? Update: 3 Feb 2025 both the Acadias delivered from Philippines! They were finally found in Jan. Since out of warranty, even though new(old stock), I had to pay $30 each for new movements/battery…Timex comes through again, with lots of prompting and prodding from me. The system is still messy. Seems to be lots of disconnects between receiving, repair and customer service. But, I guess it works.
Things Change
Watch brands have to move on with the changes in the market and economy. You know the feeling; you fall for line of watches, from any company, at a point in time, then suddenly, they move on to bigger and better things. They have to keep up with the trends, though, I don’t think they really need to as much as they think? Watches are like cars a lot in that regard? One brand releases something that seems to be popular and before you know it, every brand is doing something similar. I wonder, though. Is that what we want? Every brand doing a version of the same thing? I don’t think so? Maybe we do?
Our collecting tastes change, too. Sometimes we need something new and different. But, we sometimes come back to the watches we forgot we loved so much. Every watch was something new at one point. You didn’t like the line previous to the ones that got you excited, and you don’t like their replacements, so you are left trying to maintain the allure of the era you staked a claim to.
We all have our favorite lines of watches. Certain years we like and years we don’t like. For example, I became really interested in watches in general and Timex in the few years preceding the covid pandemic, then jumped in with both feet during 2020-22. I love the Archive era offerings, but am not thrilled with what Timex has been offering the last few years. With Christopher Ward, I love the C65 Tridents of three or four years back, but not so much the current C60 Tridents, even though they are, spec-wise, better. So when I got my first CW in 2024, it was not new; it was from 2020. If you read my posts you know I mostly buy preowned. When I try a new kind of watch I am not as influenced by current trends as I am with cost and design. As you get older, new trends aren’t as much of a pull, I think. You become more confident in what you like and focus on your niche. Still, I am influenced by bigger long-term trends like retro dive watches or military-influenced watches.

In 2024 I kept building my old collections and also started trying out some new things. I got, for me, some quite expensive watches. I will be writing about these in the future. While we don’t like some things to change with our favorite lines, we also see new things we do like! I finally got a Praesidus, and a new one, at that. It was proving hard to find preowned examples from past small run releases I liked, so I had to jump in on one of the D-Day commemoration styles and pre-order. Praesidus has been a brand I have watched but never purchased. Because of the limited number of watches available, it is not an easy brand to start collecting. I guess all brands do this; smaller, limited runs, without committing to anything long term? I wonder if social media has created an atmosphere of where there has to be constant turn-over at a faster rate?
Custom Straps

2024 was also a year I started getting custom made leather straps. Is it an example of the watch collecting evolution that the more you know the more expensive your tastes become? Sometimes you just get tired of trying to find a standard strap that will meet the style, material, and size for a special watch. We all have them; watches we don’t wear as much as we want to because we don’t like the way the strap fits! Too long, too short, hole spacing not quite right. As I write this I am thinking of several recent acquisitions that came with straps that just don’t work for me. I am now going through the process of trying various types of straps for them. Each watch is unique design problem. As my strap knowledge expands, my tastes in this area have become more expensive, too. I have some combinations where the strap cost more than the watch. It does make me pause, but when you love a watch you want to love the strap too.
Overall Slowdown
In general, the overall watch enthusiast space seems to have slowed? Its not just the luxury watch segment. Without any readily retrievable data to support this, I just get the feeling watch buyers in any price segment are not buying as many new watches or straps? Maybe everyone is just feeling the effects of the high cost of living and not buying as much of anything?
2024 seems to have been a regrouping year for the whole industry. I base this wholly on an unscientific observation of many watch blogs and my email inbox. Of course the diminution of Hodinkee within the space surely signals an overall slowing of the market. Besides that, it just seems there were fewer releases and articles across the watch spectrum this year. Lots of blogs have content (I’m starting to hate that word) from writers who are slowing down on watch purchases, slimming collections, trying to appreciate what they have. I’m in that group myself.
I don’t use social media and try to use apps on my smartphone as little as possible, so I can’t speak for social media watch activity. From what I’ve read, there is watch release and wrist shot fatigue. Influence fatigue in general, TMI.
My email in box tells me sales are slower because strap company and watch company sales seem to drag on. Black Friday becomes Black Week or Black Month. Cyber Monday starts the Wednesday before and extends into the next Wednesday. Every holiday becomes an excuse for a sale. Every watch release is a limited run. No company wants to commit to anything. Brick and mortar stores, and even online stores keep stock to a bare minimum. Its not just watches and straps. Have you noticed online clothing companies don’t even have the items in their catalogs? They wait to get enough orders before they even get stock. Of course they don’t tell you they are “out of stock” until after you have ordered.
None of this is really new. These are things companies have always done, but I just feel an overall sense of slowdown? Did I hear someone say, “Duh?” I read some good end of year articles on watch blogs but failed to record them! I think one was from A Blog to Watch, about the watch community’s latent desire, meaning the enthusiasm is still there even though people are not buying new watches. If they are buying, it is preowned. That is a good point; we still love watches but just can’t afford to buy many new that we want. That about sums up the history of my collecting.
More Stories
Maybe this is good? Maybe we get more stories about existing or older watches, the watches we already have? Less on new releases? How people use their watches other than to show off. Maybe we get stories about new programs for dramatically increasing the number of watch makers available? Maybe watch companies will invest in ways to keep their watches on wrists longer? Of course we need to keep designing new watches, but at what pace? What about making more repair parts? What about new watches via refurbishment?
How about more stories from the sub-luxury segments? Watch media and watch enthusiasts are a funny bunch. Even more so than with cars, we seem to read more about watches we will never own than the watches we will actually buy? Don’t give me that trickle-down technology line. I think it is good to read about all kinds of watches, and cars for that matter, but I for one and tired of reading about luxury watch releases.
More stories about U.S. watch production would be good, right? I’ve sort of planted in my mind to get more U.S. content/built watches. I think we all need to do this a bit more. I really need to get another Vaer or another Paresidus? I discover so many other American microbrands on a regular basis that its just a matter of time before I start looking for some. Some Loriers and even Colorado styles have turned my head over the years. Vero, MKII, so many…Again, its hard to find preowned and I’m going to have to start paying more for my average watch, but I want to support U.S. watch makers.

Image Lorier
This article from A Blog to Watch, succinctly lays out the problems…its a broader and deeper set of issues that can’t be quickly resolved. Still, you have to start somewhere.
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