I blame Joel for this one. Kev too. A while back they convinced me to buy a new watch. It was nothing fancy, just a cheap digital one.
But that was enough for þe olde Youtube Algorithm to start showing me videos about watches. There is a whole world out there and it gets very expensive very fast. I’ve been suggested multiple videos that are some variation of “The Best Watches Under $1000”
Let’s get some perspective here. I’m into fountain pens. Those can get pricey. I have spent more on pens than any reasonable person. But watches are another world altogether. If your cut off price for a list of pens is $1000 USD that’s going to include essentially every pen that’s commonly talked about.
I am thinking particularly of the brand Montblanc, which is essentially the Rolex of the fountain pen world in terms of their target market and general image. Even their flagship model, however, would fit in the “affordable” category.
For the really expensive pens you’re looking at limited editions hand crafted in exotic materials. The promotional material is going to mention how long the apprentices have to train before they are allowed to even think about touching a pen.
I feel like I am looking into a completely different reality. I don’t think I have the budget to even think about it much.
I do feel a need to say that there are very good reasons for watches to cost more than fountain pens. After all, they are much more intricate and complex. Even quartz watches are significantly more complex than a pen which has no moving parts. They are only so cheap because of the mind boggling economies of scale that electronics afford. Maybe the unreasonable thing is to expect them to be comparable.
You don’t have to spend huge sums on a watch. I am wearing a 20 $USD Casio watch as I write this and it’s perfectly fine. I understand that these videos are targeted at people who like watches as a hobby.
Confession time. This post has taken longer than I expected, and I have forgotten where exactly I was going with it. I think it was really just something along the lines of “Wow, there’s some really expensive hobbies out there. Now I don’t feel so bad about the money I’ve spent on mine.”
We all have that thing that we spend too much money on. Unfortunately often that thing is just staying alive, but I hope that all of you reading this can have more than that, that you can have little treats and frivolous things that just make you happy. I would love to hear what they are.