++ on vintages. Start straight away with vintages and vintage builds on the one hand,
care less about minor details and buy more of the cheaper 6497 and 21j ones
to try out and have nice beaters on the other hand.
Get 3 Seikos and a Steinhart first. Give more importance to sourcing good straps.
Maybe get 1 or 2 used gens instead of super-reps. Definitely if living in Conus, less so in the EU.
All put together it´s a journey and You don´t get to one without the other,
"watch-wise" have never been so happy and definitely better off with all the
knowledge and the rep-collection than stuck with 1 or 2 gens bought
overpriced from the AD in my country instead.
At least now I know exactly the gens I would go for and be happy with.