Hodinkee
The Art Of Being A Value-Driven Collector
The industry-wide market fluctuations that took shape in the wake of the pandemic pushed an often-taboo conversation in the collecting community: are we collecting for investment or are we collecting for pleasure? Sure, it's not quite that black-and-white, but certain shifts in the market and collector behavior over the past six years are undeniable. When the value of particular brands and models began to skyrocket, the secondary market showed clear signs that people were capitalizing on the opportunity to profit, and, in turn, the pure notions of "I buy what I like" or "I collect because it's fun" began to come into question. At one end of the spectrum, many collectors were essentially becoming dealers, seizing a moment when there was a massive return on investment to be had. However, even those collectors who didn't get fully swept away in the hype at the height of the market became acutely aware of the value their watches held and how, quite literally, in the blink of an eye, that value could change for better or worse. "Hype moments are not inherently bad or good," suggests Charles Tian, Founder and CEO of WatchCharts. "Some hype is expected for a healthy market—if the market is actually alive and things are happening, that means there are passionate people in the market, and you are inevitably going to get some hype. The question is how you navigate these moments in the context of your own collecting journey." According to WatchCharts and Morgan Stanley's quarterly ...
