Jiatong Product Page
Love luxury watches but can’t afford them? Feeling slighted that all the cool timepieces you seem to be interested in are out of your budget? Frustrated when people with more money and less taste than you get to enjoy the finer watches in life? You aren’t alone. One of the most difficult parts of being a watch guy (or woman) for many people is reconciling with the fact that a lot of the products you want to buy are more expensive than you can afford. This is tough to deal with, and we can’t pretend that we can teach you secret ways to own your favorite high-end watches without having to pay for them.
Having said that, we’ve put together 7 ways to survive as a watch lover on a budget so that you can enjoy as many of the best watches possible for your hard earned money. It is possible to be a serious watch lover while also being relatively economical – and you don’t even need to resort to becoming a watch blogger to do so! It will just take a bit more time and energy, but for many timepiece aficionados it will be more than worth it for the results.
Advertising Message
Experienced watch lovers will tell you that a sure way to spruce up a boring watch or one that you’ve had for a while is to change the strap. Sometimes this can even mean swapping out a strap for a bracelet – or vice versa. Of course, you need to start with a watch whose straps can be easily changed (no proprietary strap connections, etc…) and you’ll need to measure the width of the strap (often 18mm – 24mm) in order to know what strap or bracelet to buy. Furthermore, you’ll need a bit of good taste and an eye for matching colors to make sure you select the right straps.
Ideally, you can consult with a “strap professional,” but that can quickly take you out of budget territory. Remember, you pay less when doing things yourself, generally. With that said, you can always take pictures of your watch with its current strap and ask members of the watch community on forums or via social media to ask for advice on what types of straps to get for your watch. Often this comes down to just strapping a nylon NATO-style strap on an existing timepiece, but we tend to suggest investing in some nice animal skin straps which tend to look more classy in more situations.
I also want to add a statement that I think needs to be made clear: a lot of cheap watches come with terrible straps. Terrible straps that, if removed and replaced, will make your cheaper watch look so much better. Actually, this even applies to not so cheap watches that can sometimes come on boring or just plain ugly straps. Some watch makers are masters at matching their timepieces with great straps, but too many are not. The “on-a-budget” watch lover needs to master to art of “strap reclassification” so that they can wear watches that appear to be above their pay scale.
Advertising Message
Allow me to say right off the bat that when it comes to getting a good watch deal, “too good to be true” probably is. You can find cheap watches, but you can’t find that many watches which are too cheap. If they are, well – then you probably don’t want them. I say all this first because there are a lot of really inexpensive watches from brands that you’ve never heard of produced to look okay in pictures, but that are really disappointing when you get them hands-on. So when searching places to buy watches from other owners on watch-related forums or on eBay, you have to know what you are looking for.
It used to be, back in the “good ‘ol days,” that you could find amazing deals on eBay from people who didn’t really know what they were selling or when there simply wasn’t that much competition for cool but obscure watches. While you might be surprised at the volume of people just like you searching eBay for watches on a regular basis, there are deals to be had. For the best watches, you’ll get “fair deals,” and occasionally amazing ones. The trick to eBay is using its “saved search” function so that eBay e-mails you when new watches you are interested in show up. This way, you don’t have to endlessly look for the same models or brands over and over again.
Saved searches tell you when new stuff comes around and you can get a good idea of what things are worth as well as how many are around. If something is popular, you can wait around for “just the right deal,” and not potentially waste money. eBay is also about understanding seller trust and reliability. This means buying from private owners might get you a slightly better price, but the condition of the watch might not be as good as when you buy a watch on eBay from a dealer.
While eBay has competitors when it comes to online watch auctions, they are still the best deal around when it comes to selection and fair pricing. For more on watch auctions in general, read our article here.
People who love watches and often buy and sell them prefer to work within their own community when dealing with buyers and sellers. This is because of the inherent feeling of trust and mutual understanding – though, it can be risky. However, for the most part, if you are in an established watch forum community dealing with a known entity, you are going to be okay. Watch forums are very often the source of some of the best pre-owned watch deals around, because owners want to quickly sell them to fund something else. The fact that many sellers are on a time crunch is to your advantage. This is especially true when they lower the price a few times due to lack of interest.
In most instances, when it comes to buying a watch from an owner on a watch forum, the buyer has the advantage – though you do often need to troll the sales corner of watch forums on a regular basis – and you never know what will show up. A good way to help is by doing something like the saved search for eBay, only using Google Alerts. Forum posts selling watches often use language such as “FS” (For Sale) or “FSOT” (For Sale Or Trade) next to the name of a watch and model. So using Google Alerts you can have Google e-mail you when it detects new content on the internet that matches (for example) “FS Rolex Submariner.”
aBlogtoWatch currently gets about 1-5 emails a week from people excited about their new watch campaigns on crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We can’t cover them all, and in fact, we don’t cover most of them. Not fair, you say? There are some awesome watches on Kickstarter, you say? Maybe, but we prefer to write about mostly watches that we know for sure will be made or are currently available. A lot of the stuff on Kickstarter is there because it hasn’t been made yet – and sometimes it never gets made, because either the campaign doesn’t get fully funded or because technically the projects proved too challenging.
So unless something is really interesting or noteworthy, aBlogtoWatch tends to not cover watches on Kickstater. Having said that, don’t let our editorial reflectance stop you from being a crowd-funding campaign backer. I know a lot of people who are really happy with some of the watch projects they backed on sites like Kickstarter. You generally have to wait a while to receive your watch, and sometimes the final product isn’t exactly as you imagined it would be (“final production changes” aren’t uncommon).
With some risk can come great reward. Assuming you’ve identified a truly interesting watch project on Kickstarter for a good price, you are going to get a lot of watch for your money if you “back” it. This is because as a consumer, you are taking a risk, and being rewarded not only with a good value, but often something very exclusive or unique. One of the best ways to get an inexpensive and interesting limited edition watch is by backing a watch project on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.
Just be prepared to wait it out sometimes. In consideration of this last point, I know a lot of people who “invest” in a new watch project on Kickstarter each few months so that they know over time they will be getting new watches delivered to them on a frequent basis. To sum up, you can get a lot of watch for your money and some incredibly inexpensive watch deals by backing Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding campaigns – but they aren’t without some risk and a wait.
It goes without saying that if you don’t want to pay full price for a new watch, you can try to locate a used one. The pre-owned watch world works similarly to that of the used car world. Items lose value and depreciate after their initial purchase but given their inherent values live on to be sold and sold again after the original owner has let go of them. Pre-owned watches can be purchased from individual sellers or, more commonly, from dealers who compete to offer consumers the best watches as the best prices.
Looking for pre-owned watches can be an excellent way to get the watch you want for less money, and often in a condition you can live with. Of course, you won’t be buying a brand new watch, and it won’t come with that new watch factory warranty, but in many respects, you are getting much of the same experience.
The caveat to advising you to purchase a pre-owned watch in lieu of a new watch in order to save money must be tempered with the advice that buying a vintage watch is not always a good way to save money. aBlogtoWatch goes back and forth discussing the merits of buying vintage timepieces. Vintage watches can be cool, have wonderful stories, and offer a special ownership experience that might not be matched by a new timepiece. Having said that, many vintage watches are like vintage cars – and with that comes all the servicing and maintenance headaches. Furthermore, depending on how old or rare a vintage watch is, it might not be something that can be serviced at all.
Be weary of purchasing vintage watches with unique technology or parts. Chances are that if it breaks (or it might even arrive broken) you will never be able to get it repaired at any price. If you happen to find that one person around the world that can fix your rare vintage watch, good luck getting a price that isn’t insane.
Remember, if your goal is to save money or spend as little as possible, then that interesting vintage watch with its attractive price can quickly become a money pit when it comes to repairing or servicing it. You are far better off purchasing watches that are less than 20 years old if you are looking to get a pre-owned timepiece as a way of saving money on buying a new one.
People with deep pockets have the luxury of buying many of the new watches they want without having to think too much about it. That is just a fact and something the luxury watch industry is well aware of. Because these types of people are more concerned with “cool, exclusive, new, etc…” versus mere price, many high-end watch makers seek to appeal to them in areas outside of offering a good price for a good watch. What has made this worse is that watches that were once much more affordable 5 to 15 years ago are now sometimes two to four times their historic prices.
What this means for many watch buyers is that people need to be much more considerate with their purchase choices. The majority of watch collectors today are buying fewer watches and being smarter with their money. This inherently also means saving up for new watches, and selling watches in order to fund new purchases.
Some aBlogtoWatch writers as well as people I know actually spend relatively little new money on watches when they acquire new items. They do this buy selling and trading what they have for what they want. aBlogtoWatch has a good article on how to trade watches here, but the basic idea is simple: work with a dealer or private individual to trade a watch you have either wholly – or with some money for something else you want. Sure this makes it difficult to “grow” a watch collection, but you do get the benefit of variety and being able to explore many more watches than you’d otherwise be able to afford. Even a lot of “rich guys” engage in frequent watch selling and trading – only with watches that are at levels most people might never be able to afford in the first place.
The moral of the story is that if you invest wisely in watches that are known to retain value well and have ongoing desirability, you can move value around in clever ways without having to resort to buying new watches outright when you want something new. Becoming skilled at trading watches as well as selling unwanted pieces from your collection is a time-honored approach for enjoying a lot of luxury watches without needing the full budget for them all.
When people ask me about getting new mechanical watches for under $500, the first thing out of my mouth is always “get something from a Japanese watch maker like Seiko, Orient, or Citizen.” I say this because for the most part, these companies produce the best quality “cheap” mechanical watches. I suppose that also goes for quartz watches, if you are into that. When I talk of quality, I don’t just mean the movements, but also the cases, dials, straps, etc… Japanese watches are often the first “real” watches most watch lovers end up getting, and many people (even though seriously into luxury Swiss watches) find themselves buying Japanese watches for years.
Why are we mentioning Japanese watches versus “Asian watches?” The latter term incorporates Chinese watches as well – and this is a bit of a contentious topic. Allow me to explain. Chinese suppliers produce many of the parts that go into a lot of the watches people love – even very high-end ones. This is one of the Swiss watch industry’s dirty little secrets, but it is a fact of life. When it comes down to it you should only be concerned with quality, and not where things come from.
Having said that, I cannot testify to the ongoing reliability of Chinese-made mechanical movements. Some are fine, but many are not. There are too many problems with Chinese movements for me to wholeheartedly recommend them. Even if they work for a while, Chinese movements are currently far too likely to break over time compared to Swiss or Japanese movements. If looking for an economical mechanical movement, your best best is still something from Japan – and the major producers of Japanese mechanical movements are Seiko, Orient, and Citizen (Miyota).
aBlogtoWatch previously published an article on how Orient dress watches are a solid choice for budget lovers, and we’ve regularly recommended the Seiko Monster dive watch as one of the best “first mechanical watches” for people just starting out. Citizen is producing more and more mechanical movements in their own collection, and their company Miyota produces the majority of Japanese-made mechanical movements found in third-party watches. For a few hundred dollars, you can easily get a fantastic mechanical watch made in Japan that would be unthinkable at Swiss Made prices.
Some of the best new watch deals out there are from smaller, often new independently-owned watch brands. We at aBlogtoWatch try to cover these companies as often as we can – and most of them have new watches that range from a few hundred bucks to a few thousand. The kicker is that because they are made by watch lovers for watch lovers, you are going to get pretty good deals by people who attempted to produce watches “that they want to personally own.” That is a win-win situation in many instances.
The problem with buying watches from smaller companies is that you have to deal with all the issues that comes from working with less organization and budget. Very few of the smaller independently run watch companies produce their own products – which is universally true for all watches priced at under $1,000. It is only when you get into extremely high-end watches from small brands do they produce their own parts and thus have more control over when they can deliver products – and such brands are way outside the scope of this article.
Smaller watch makers work with third-party suppliers to make what they feel are cool watches at prices that they hope will excite customers. Some of these watches are beautiful, and many are just plain ugly. What you are often buying is the taste and attention to detail of the founder. So just make sure your own tastes and attention to detail match theirs.
Finding small independent “indie” watch makers is also tough. Forums, blogs, and social media are the best places to find them. I say forums because many of them poll active watch communities there for feedback on upcoming models and designs. However, more and more of this is occurring on social media. By the time a small brand is covered on aBlogtoWatch, chances are that the products are available for sale – though given the amount of these projects out there, it can be difficult to learn about them all or constantly be on the look out. Just be aware that getting timepieces from established small brands with a direct to consumer sales model (no middleman) is often a very healthy way to get a great watch at a good price – and many are priced at under $1,000.
These seven points conclude our suggestions and ideas for watch lovers out there on a budget – as most of us are – but we are looking forward to hearing your relevant ideas and experiences as well, so don’t hesitate to share them in the comments!
Watches are an expensive indulgence. With the exception of perhaps the billionaire class, there’s a tier of watch expense that will make you think twice no matter how well-heeled you are, even at the “entry” level. They’re even more so if you do as watch brands want you to do, and make your purchases at MSRP. Like a new car, the minute you peel the stickers off, most watches lose 10-30% of the money you just paid. In most cases, this immediate lost value is completely unnecessary, thus this article.
I am a well-blessed middle-class American, but am not as prosperous as most watch brands would like me to be. Enjoying variety in this hobby requires me to be perspicacious of the actual value of what I buy and sell.
The tips I give in this article are the most important ones that have helped me personally not lose money on watch collecting. I hope they help you, too, to feel better about your acquisitions and allow you to try a greater variety of watches without the sunk costs.
Note a small, but important detail: This article is not on how to make money on watches. Collectibles in general have skyrocketed in price as people look for places to put money outside of traditional investments. The AD waiting list and outrageous gray/secondary market prices for certain hyped watches are a part of this hobby now. More and more brands and watch journalism outlets have realized the immense attention and interest a collaborative limited edition commands, and the steady stream of these has given rise to an entire new class of scalpers and quick-typing middlemen who get there first.
While it’s hard to condemn scalping on principle, there is something strongly wrong-smelling about the valueless profiteering that has become commonplace in this hobby, and I don’t promote it or recommend it at all. I myself have yet to snap up an LE for resale, and I’ve managed so far to make the watch hobby profitable for myself in spite of it.
I also won’t recommend trying to get on AD waiting lists. That’s a running joke that you will inevitably be the butt of, even if you are able to cajole your way into actually getting a watch.
Disclaimers and philosophizing done with, here are my tips for not losing money on watches, in rough order of importance.
Or at least abandon the idea of having multiple grail watches. This is kind of a silly term we use in watch collecting, really. In the Arthurian legends from which it is taken, the grail is the goal of a lifelong quest, an item to be obtained at any and all cost. Certainly no watch actually fulfills those criteria. These are luxury trinkets, after all.
If you decide to pursue a so-called grail, a piece that will entail more money and time to acquire than is probably wise, do so cautiously, and do so rarely (once).
My only grail. I try to practice what I preachMy personal experience has been that it’s more rewarding to read, learn, and talk about watches that are more in my responsible price range, or else watches so wildly above my price range that the thought of acquisition is laughable. To me, it’s more fun to study a Seiko or Glycine release that I may actually own someday, than to look longingly, face pressed against the glass, at the latest iteration of something from Tudor or Rolex. Fixating on watches that are just a bit too far beyond the pale of responsibility will likely just cause frustration.
In the end the heart wants what the heart wants, but the heart is also deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. It’ll trip you up and leave you wondering how you got to this point if you just chase it willy-nilly.
We have a peculiar compulsion as humans and especially as collectors to make things that we like our own. If you can learn to appreciate a watch and be happy that it exists without feeling the need to try to own it, you’re in for a lifetime of enjoyment and a well-funded 401(k).
I like to think of watches, particularly expensive ones, as I do fine art: I have no desire to own a Monet, Hopper, El Greco or Van Gogh, but seeing pictures of them and learning more about them is still a delight to the mind and senses. This is normal in the art world; it should be more so with watches.
photo courtesy Patek PhillipeThis has never been easier than in our current time. An enormous wealth of photos, writing, even video exists on virtually every watch imaginable. Depending where you live, you may even get to see some in person at a friendly dealer or collectors’ meetup. A highly detailed photo of a Lange chronograph movement is among my computer desktop backgrounds, and I never get tired of admiring it when it scrolls around. I don’t have aspirations of someday trading my house for one, though.
photo courtesy A. Lange & Sohne
FOMO: the Fear Of Missing Out. It seems like this has become more ubiquitous than ever, thanks to the way the Internet operates, and ultimately the way humans operate.
Brands and dealers do everything in their power to fuel this feeling by pumping out highly hyped limited editions, and we as a collecting community aren’t guiltless either. There’s a lot of prestige and clout, albeit fake and empty, that comes with being the first to acquire a new or limited release that everyone’s wild about. You can humble brag about it on social media, post your initial thoughts for everyone to breathlessly read about, and enjoy the satisfaction and pride of being on the cutting edge of horological consumerism. I’m not bitter, honestly.
A great watch, but not at the hype priceNow of course that’s not to say you should never buy a popular watch, or get in on a new LE. But make sure if you buy, you are buying for yourself and not for the fake Internet points. If you’re buying for yourself, the value you’ll place on the piece will be more in line with what it’ll be worth to you after the hubbub dies down and it becomes yesterday’s news.
In episode 133 of the 40&20 podcast (still the best one ever, in my opinion) Everett went into some detail on a concept from blogger Anil Dash: JOMO, or the Joy Of Missing Out. The idea is that there are experiences and things out there that other people are enjoying, ones that you would enjoy yourself, but you can joyfully step back and not participate. It’s taking control over your feelings and obligations, and as such being able to relish what you do participate in all the better.
This could be a whole article on its own, and has profound meaning in many areas of life. I recommend you listen to the podcast and read Anil Dash’s article, easily found by searching these terms.
In 2021 Instagram is the king of watch social media, but this applies to any past or future forms as well.
Owning and updating an Instagram account is almost a given amongst watch enthusiasts. It’s where a lot of conversations happen, and where we go for a visual watch fix. Since it’s widely known that some people are able to make it big using Instagram, it’s tempting to pay a lot of attention to things like follower count, likes, reposts, etc. There can be the thought in the back of the mind, “Maybe I could be a watch influencer too!”
Don’t fall for it. Instagram (and all large social media platforms) doesn’t care one bit how good your photos are, how much work you put into them, or how earnest you are about it. They care about one thing: how to more successfully advertise.
Post photos like this for immediate Instagram mega-successEveryone’s familiar with the algorithm frustration; that even though you may have followers interested in your posts, the algorithm hides them in favor of whatever else it deems more likely to get them to buy something. You can’t fight the algorithm and you can’t fight Instagram. If the IG gods frown on you, no amount of reasoning or justification will change it. We’ve even seen in recent times unnerving instances of well-known watch media outlets being shut down unjustly, and while some have been restored, others have not.
How does this tie into not losing money? When you’re pressured to keep a steady stream of fresh and exciting content coming, you’ll be apt to try to buy more, at worse prices, just to keep up the flow. Even worse, it can force you to participate in FOMO when perhaps you would have been happy to experience JOMO.
Instagram’s a good platform, and can be a ton of fun to use. But the best way to use it, I’ve found, is to not really care about it as its own entity, or turn it into a business, and treat it like the simple communication utility that it should be.
OK maybe more like thisAnd now we get to buying and selling advice. This one should go without saying. Used prices never equal new, except in certain unnatural cases. The best way to buy a watch is usually used.
Doesn’t have to be this well used, but this isn’t a bad look, even. Image courtesy Wycombe, Watchuseek ForumIn my opinion, factory warranty is not often worth the extra you’ll pay for a new watch. Swiss watch companies are notorious for their painfully slow turnaround times and are likely to leave you on the hook for expensive international shipping. Japanese companies tend to simply say a watch is performing within tolerance, unless something is actually really broken.
And as far as the AD experience… one’s value system could perhaps use a bit of an overhaul if that bit of pomp and circumstance is worth many hundreds or thousands of dollars to you. Or you may just like it, and that’s ok, but you’re not going to Not Lose Money On Watches.
The other option, though a bit rarer to come across, is just to buy a new watch on sale at average used price. Watch Recon is a great way to determine what the market thinks a watch is worth, as well as eBay- make sure to filter by “sold” items only, though.
These kinds of deals aren’t usually available year-round, but often during holidays there are a few good bargains to score. Forums, such as Man on Time’s Watch Deal Forum, are great resources.
The other half of this is also simple: don’t feel like you have to chisel the last cent out of a watch sale. If you were shrewd enough in buying, you should be able to resell and give the buyer a bit of a bargain as well. And if not, shrug your shoulders and chalk it up as a learning experience.
Since private watch sales, especially those conducted online, are built purely on trust, your reputation will be helped by quick sales and happy customers who feel like they got a good deal as well. Reputation is key, and can give you advantages in bargaining and in things such as preferred payment methods.
A watch sale through which I made a friend, if not a profitPerhaps if you list that watch high someone will buy it, or it may get discontinued and the market prices will rise to meet it. However this article is on how to not lose money, not how to make money, and in the goal of not losing money a quick, low-profit sale is always better than a slow, maybe higher-profit sale.
I guess it’s become painfully obvious that only the last tip is directly tied to the action of buying and selling watches. In my opinion, it’s probably the least important. In his masterpiece Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig wrote:
“If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government. There’s so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.”
The key to not losing money on watches isn’t just “buy low, sell high”, or “find the best deals;” such advice is far too simplistic. It’s modifying the way you enjoy the hobby, so that your good habits naturally prevent you from making poor or costly decisions. If you impulsively buy watches chasing grails, keeping up with the Instagram Joneses, or because you must have it if you like it, no amount of deal-finding or high-reselling will keep you in the black. Your pre-existing constructions of systematic thought will work against you. Get them on your side, instead.
Enjoy the hobby, and don’t lose money!
Click here to get more.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of industrial polyester felt. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.