I have a confession to make. I do pay attention to resale value when I buy a watch. I am certainly not a watch dealer in that my goal is not to make money. If I wanted to be a dealer, I would need to invest significant time and energy into making myself into a brand and building a reputation, creating an online store, buying inventory, developing a customer base, and so on. Simply put, I do not have the interest or time for that.

However, when I buy a watch, I don’t necessarily look at it as a “till death do us part” situation. To me, trying on watches is like dating and buying a watch is like moving in together. I still do want to leave a little wiggle room in case things don’t work out. I am willing to take a hit if I end up selling a watch but I don’t want to get killed either.

The problem I find with resale value is that a watch with a high resale value, such as a Rolex, can make me feel like I don’t want to wear it. I’m concerned that if I slam it into a doorknob, or scratch the crap out of the bracelet on my Macbook, that I’ll be costing myself money. It seems stupid but it makes me not want to wear it as frequently, and I end up not making as many memories with it.

So in the end it’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I want to preserve it in good condition, but then I don’t wear it, so I end up selling it. Ironically, if I find a vintage piece in perfect condition I often “baby” the watch as well but it rarely leaves my collection because it’s so hard to find another. In that case, I don’t wear it much but I view it more as like a museum item or a piece of history.

I wonder if the drop in preowned watch prices will lead people to actually wear their watches more. Maybe it will end up being a good thing.