Daan’s 2024 New Year’s Watch Resolutions — Enjoy The Classics And Avoid The Temptations

It was a very eventful year for my watch collection in 2022, and 2023 showed me that I made the right choices. But who knows what will happen in 2024? I’m certainly not ready to consolidate and sell some of my watches yet. On the other hand, I don’t think that I’ll add many either since renovations for my family’s new house are putting pressure on the budget. However, I do feel that I’m a little more open to looking at new opportunities. That doesn’t mean there’s a clear objective, strategy, or plan at all, though.

My watch resolution for 2023 was basically to sit back, relax, and enjoy all the newcomers in my collection. And that’s more or less what I’ve been doing. Apart from the occasional bonus watch, not much happened in my collection last year. And to be honest, I don’t expect that to change all that much in 2024. But, of course, there are always temptations lurking around the corner.

Enjoying the classics

The majority of 2024 will still be about enjoying the watches that are already there. I get to choose every morning between classics like the Cartier Santos, Rolex Explorer, Omega Speedmaster, Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, and Breguet Classique. In addition, there are a couple of Oris and microbrand watches and, of course, the Bioceramic and quartz bonus watches. I can assure you that it’s not an easy choice, but I still enjoy making this decision every day. Sure, there are a few watches that don’t get the wrist time they might deserve, but so be it.

For now, that’s not a reason to get rid of any of them. And I’m also not getting bored of any of them yet. Selling a few of those classics could free up some budget to go for another very nice and interesting watch. However, I don’t think I’ve found the specific target just yet. That could very well happen in the blink of an eye at some get-together or because a very nice watch is sent to the Fratello office for review. Or it could also be because a certain colleague decided to start a watch brand of his own and produce a watch from scratch.

VPC watch launch

This might sound like a sales pitch to some of you, but I’m genuinely excited about the watch that Thomas is going to launch, probably in a few months from now. Over the past year, we’ve all been able to follow his development process. In particular, the conversations about his journey with VPC to this point and the concepts that he’s shown us in the office excite me. It looks like he’s about to launch a watch that’s unbeatable when it comes to value for money. The finishing and feature set will be up there with many watches from much bigger brands, but the price will be a lot lower than most of those watches.

Of course, loyalty is also a factor at play here. I see how much time and effort he puts into his project, and as a friend and colleague, I’d like him to succeed. Buying a watch from him is a way to support him and his project. However, that doesn’t mean I’m doing it only because of that. The watch should also be something I truly want to wear, of course. But from what I’ve seen so far, it looks incredibly promising. So I can’t wait to see the final prototypes and then put in my pre-order for my own VPC Type 37HW. It’s probably going to be the green-dial version, but I’m also still trying to convince him to make a sand-colored one. Let’s see.

Who does what?

I visited a few watch manufacturing sites for the first time last year. I went to MB&F’s new M.A.D. House just outside Geneva during Watches and Wonders, and I was invited to take a look at the Nomos manufacture in Glashütte. More recently, I got the chance to go to Les Ateliers de la Montre Hermès. During these visits, I learned a thing or two about how watches are made. But what I also find interesting is to see which brands do what. Nomos, for example, doesn’t make its watch cases and dials, but the rest is all done in-house. MB&F and Hermès don’t outsource too much of their manufacturing and produce most of the components that go into their watches themselves.

Of course, I knew about these differences before going, but seeing it with my own eyes was super interesting to me. It really changed my view of watch brands overall. It’s not about whether brands that outsource many of their production processes are worse than brands that don’t. Rather, it’s something that helps me understand and explain why a watch looks the way it does. In 2024, I’d love to visit a few more manufacturing sites and see how other companies produce their watches. But even without having to visit them, I’ll already pay more attention to how the manufacturing process is set up and how that might influence a watch, for example, during a review.

Temptations, temptations…

As I already said in the intro, there are always temptations lurking around the corner. In the article on my favorite watches of 2023, I already named a few serious contenders. TAG Heuer, Grand Seiko, Serica, Zenith, and SpaceOne are all on my radar. In April, there will also be another Watches and Wonders with even more brands than ever before that’ll be presenting their novelties. In a context like that, it’s hard to resist the temptations and not make any unexpected or unplanned moves. The good thing is that our new house is taking up a lot of our attention and money at the moment.

That puts potential watch purchases a little lower on the priority list, but I’m almost certain that at least one or two will slip through the cracks. What about you? Do you have any clear trajectory when it comes to your watch resolutions for 2024? Let me know in the comments below.