you are trapped in here with us
I recently bought my first Jaeger-LeCoultre. It's a manually wound Club model from the '60s or '70s. When I started collecting watches as a high-school student three years ago or so, I never would have thought I'd wear a JLC before I graduated university and started working a well-paying job. If there's one thing 2025… Continue reading Why you should and shouldn’t buy a Jaeger-LeCoultre Club
TGV has become unwatchable. He has always been smug. I have been called arrogant in my life (I prefer “confident” and “assertive”) and I own it to a degree. So, I think that I know when having an “edge” becomes tiring. Game recognizes game. But he hasn’t had an original thought about the watch industry… Continue reading Simple notions
There are various definitions of “a mug's game” such as “an activity that will not make you happy or successful” and “a foolish, useless, or ill advised venture.” Watches are, for want of a better opener, a mug’s game. At least, it has reached that point for me. It’s tough to remain interested in 2026.… Continue reading It’s a mug’s game
One of the problems with having opinions about everything is that sometimes you have to express that opinion, even when you should not. And having expressed this opinion about a trivial matter, such that it would not cross most people’s minds, you end up with a vintage watch that you did not intend to buy.… Continue reading Alive with pleasure
Goals, people, we have to have goals. What is the point of this activity if we just see something shiny and figure out how to acquire it? That’s just crass consumerism. That is being a shopping addict, not a collector. (Do you feel the burning shame of your last thoughtless purchase? Good. I feel mine… Continue reading Collecting goals for 2026
I don’t read many “State of the Collection” (SOTC) posts or watch those videos. When one plays on my YouTube feed it is usually because I dozed off watching a video on the history of the Lakota Sioux, the Seleucids, or Appalachian geography. (If I ever get to run this simulation again, I might wind… Continue reading The Purposeful Wanderer (not a SOTC)
I knew that there was a saying that something “was the thief of joy.” I have been feeling a bit joyless in the collecting part of watch collecting recently. I looked it up and it was “comparison”. Well, that covers FOMO pretty much. It is a very stoic way of looking at the world. Teddy… Continue reading My Knowledge Problem
(Written May 2025) I collect/hoard vintage watches. Very few people keep the box of a product for fifty years. Hell, few people keep the box for more than a week. This means that when you buy a vintage watch, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you get the watch, no more, no less. That being… Continue reading The joy of a box and papers
I suppose we’ve all seen the meme… I’ve even seen some videos on it - I mean it is just a meme, so take it with a pinch of salt. There are others versions of it that basically have Seiko and the end as well, but hey, we cannot always be right 😉 (emojis, really?… Continue reading Critical state watch collecting – what stage are you in?
I have lots of the same types of watches. I have my rectangular or square 1940’s dress watches. I have more than a few from the 1950’s with dagger indices and dauphine hands. I have elegant three-handers from the 1960’s that are studies in minimalism. I still have a few from the more experimental 1970’s.… Continue reading A Sennight of Pondering Chronographs…
The Escapement Room 