The Rules of Watch Collecting

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In life, we are guided by our principles—a set of invisible rules that consciously or subconsciously slalom us through existence. When choosing a partner, we search out someone with similar values. So it holds that these existential guidelines should come into play when contemplating another of life’s most important pursuits: building a watch collection.

Recently, Mark Cho—a friend of GQ, ace watch collector, and co-founder of The Armoury—started posting his “Principles of Watch Collecting” to Instagram. He describes his list of 12 rules, which he’s continued to explain further via in-depth follow-up posts, as “things I learned the hard way.”

Back in 2022, Cho sold off a big chunk of his immaculate collection to help buoy his business. It’s interesting to look back on the pieces included in that auction now with Cho’s list of principles in mind. “Rare watches are not always great, great watches are not always rare,” the first rule reads. That might explain why the selection Cho sold was so heavy on oddities and rarities, like an Rolex Oyster Quartz that had been rebuilt from the ground up and an A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 with a mother-of-pearl dial. It might also explain the inclusion of a hype piece like the Rolex “Root Beer” GMT Master, which Cho described in an interview at the time as “eh.”

The list of Cho’s watch collecting principles is filled with nearly dichotomous lines that would make Joseph Heller smile. Take his second rule, for instance: “Unpopular watches may become popular but rare watches will always remain rare.” Cho explains that it’s important to understand why something is popular. Is it empty calorie hype or is there something about a watch that makes it genuinely groundbreaking? What I like about Cho’s list of rules is that it nearly always finds the sunny side. A watch may be unpopular simply because it hasn’t gotten its due yet or is too ahead of its time. Sniffing out these watches that are quote-unquote unpopular now will lead you down the most fruitful paths. Remember that a decade ago you could’ve easily walked into a Patek Philippe boutique and bought its (now-beloved, impossible-to-get) Nautilus at retail.

Cho’s third principle is, “Expensive watches can be worth the cost. Cheap watches are not always worth the savings.” This is the type of sturdy advice you hear often in collecting circles. The dealer Mike Nouveau uses slightly different verbiage for the same idea: “Buy once, cry once.” If you love a watch, stretch that budget a little bit. It’s better to end up with a beautiful, functional piece you want to wear every day than something you got a “deal” on.

While they start in different places, many of Cho’s rules have similar endings. If you were to boil and strain these 12 principles through cheesecloth into a crystal clear horological consomme, you’d find one pure dictum at the end: Buy what you like. Whether you’re stretching the budget or ignoring a piece’s current unpopularity, the most important thing to remember when it comes to a watch is that it’s going to be on your wrist every day.

Finding your own personal taste is important…but! What I love about a list of rules—whether you’re following Cho, reading GQ, or highlighting Alan Flusser passages on tailoring—is that it makes this sometimes opaque and technical hobby more approachable. For collectors just getting into the hobby, it can be helpful to have Cho’s wisdom in the back of your head while sorting out what you like. Once you understand the rules of the game, that’s when it’s possible to break them. If you’re plan on writing your own list of principles, my strongest piece of advice is to have this one at the top: Have fun.