Changing tastes

[kernow]

Well folks, I've been here for almost two and a half years and my tastes have changed over that time. When I was the young noob I was into almost everything; discovering new names that I just had to try out. Then you get into a grove, you know what you like and you like what you know. 

Oddly, I didn't come here for Rolex, it was and still is Omega that gets my juices flowing. However, with such great reps of Patek, AP, Panerai, JLC, VC etc you just have to try them out. I went mad and must of purchased around 40 or so reps in my first year here, some from TD's but most M2M here and across the fora. I stalked our AJ in the sales section and came away with several nice pieces.

I now seem to be in another phase of my collecting, looking at micro brands and lesser know, but affordable gens that I can carry off. After all, jeans, a tee shirt and a nice Nautilus may go unnoticed in Hollywood, but not in my neck of the woods. 

That brings me to the question, should one care about who notices your watch, rep or gen? Personally, no, but I'd feel foolish meeting some of the people I deal with for them to point and ask "is that real?" So I try and (mostly) collect what I'd be able to afford. Sure this includes a Rolex or two, naturally several Omegas, even some Breitlings and Tags, but I still have a couple of APs for posterity.

How about you? What's your journey through repdom been like?

[droptopman]

Similar journey,

Small gen collection when I got here.  Rolex wearer since the late 80's.  Joined here to try some of the new modern Rolexes with the idea I would test them and buy the gen of the one I really liked.....and at one point had about 20 reps with pieces coming and going all the time.  Then the franken phase of doing moderate to high end builds. Then lately back to gens.  The "taste" that changed the most was the shift to vintage Rolex.  As long as I have collected watches, I could have saved myself a lot of money if I would have known I loved the vintage pieces 20 years ago when you could still get them for reasonable prices.

As for others noticing my watches, it rarely happens.  My friends and co-workers know I am a WIS and frequently ask, but in public it is pretty rare.  I do a lot of presentations in front of large groups and every once in awhile someone in the audience will ask about a watch or on the rare occasion when I run into another WIS.  Usually that happens when traveling.  I do tend to only wear watches that I can afford whether gen or build.  Even when I was buying OTB reps, I usually wore models that I could afford to wear the gen of.  Not that I really care, or that most people would even know the difference.  Even as a WIS, I never really knew how much PP cost until I did some research, I mean I knew they were expensive but in reality many models cost more than I would have guessed....

Wear whatever you like!  

[whoopy12]

Wear whatever you like!  

+ 1, wear what you like

[SSTEEL]

I have around 20 watches in my collection, half of which are gens, and these last few months I have found myself wearing my gens more.  That said, I did get the new SD4000 which I love, so that was on my wrist for a few weeks until I got the new JF 15400, that was on my wrist for around a week after deciding its so nice, it really is only best for when wearing a shirt.  Today I am wearing my G-Shock.