Well, here it is, the State of the Collection, 2009. [and I am proud to say that it's only 16 days late this year].
I have already mentioned some of the trends, but here's a quick summary of some of the major changes from my last State of the Collection, which was two years ago, at year-end 2007:
- a definite trend toward the manual Carreras from the 1960's and the "Big Three" in the automatics (Autavia, Carrera and Monaco"); among the Big Three from the 1970's, the Autavia collection is fairly stable, five Monacos is an all-time high, and the two Carreras represent some renewed interest, after a went for a couple of years without one of these in the collection
- I added a few of the "no-name" chronographs from the 1940's and 1950's; maybe it's just me, but these seem like beautiful bargains; the dauphine guys from the late 1950's / early 1960's might be the prettiest of all
- The Split Lap Unit 77 and Memphis certainly look a little different from the rest of the family; fun watches
- In the non-Heuer category, they seem to come primarily in groups of two and three -- Omega, Zenith, Breitlling, Seiko, Rolex -- and then we have the Sinn foursome
- I added a couple of Seikos and a Citizen to the line-up; these are great watches for the money, and I enjoy wearing them.
- In terms of what these 82 watches represent, yes, there are a few more in my collection, but the ones shown in the SOTC are the ones that I think of as "mattering"; most of the ones shown here actually had wrist time over the past year; as usual, a resolution for the new year is to sell or trade the ones that are not getting the wrist time.
Post any questions or comments; most of these may be familiar to regular readers, but it's always fun to discuss the "Why?" and "Why Not?" aspect of collecting, and to tell the "war stories".
Best wishes to everyone for a fantastic year of collecting in 2010!!
Jeff
