u/BobbyScrumpus

Genuinely curious about this. I only bought my first watch 9 months ago. I started with Casio and Timex, graduated to an entry-level Seiko, AliExpress brands, etc. where I assumed I'd hit a cap on what I'd spend on a watch.

Now I find myself casually looking at the "next tier", i.e., Hamilton, Tissot, etc., though I know I can't afford those right now.

Given that this is the Affordable Watches sub and most of us likely don't already own a Rolex or other watches in the higher price tiers, I am curious to hear opinions on this phenomenon. I feel it can happen in lots of hobbies, not just watches.

Are you working your way up the watch price ladder? Or do you stay at a certain cap, like <$500?

Also, I know collecting is a journey, buying things isn't a hobby, yada yada yada. I don't need advice, I just want to hear about your experience as a collector.

I've been NC with my nDad for just over a month, after major issues with him upon the birth of my son, the first grandchild in our family. About a week after going NC, I hadn't yet blocked his number, and I get a call at 3 AM. Legitimately thinking that somebody in our family had died, or that there was some serious emergency, I woke up to answer the phone. Nope, it's just him complaining about how I haven't been answering his calls. I hung up, and the next day he had the gall to leave me a voicemail saying "Good thing you answered at 3 AM, at least I know I can count on you in a real emergency."

So a few more weeks have passed by, continuing NC, and I have since blocked his phone number. Fast forward to last night, it's 1 AM, and I get a call from my eMom's phone. I don't have much time to think as it startles me awake, but of course, I assume it's my Mom calling with some kind of emergency. So I answer, it's him again, and I immediately hang up.

That's twice he's manipulated me into picking up his calls, so now any real emergencies won't be coming through to me. I set my phone's Do Not Disturb to only allow calls from close friends and family members outside his narcissistic system.

What kind of delusional POS thinks that waking up me, my wife, AND our 3 month old baby in the middle of the night will get me to start talking to him?

I [30M] recently became a father and my son is 3 months old. This is the first grandchild in my family, and I knew going in that my NDad becoming a grandfather would open up all types of issues and paths to abuse.

For background, my NDad has victimized my mother (a trauma-bonded enabler) and two older brothers who are both special needs, for probably decades. My mom has never done anything to end the abuse (divorce, leaving etc.), and my brothers’ challenges have prevented them from ever being able to move out of his home. I experienced my fair share of abuse from him but was lucky to move out for college and never permanently returned to living with him.

I’ve since gotten married and my wife [30F] and I have become self-sufficient and independent from him (in terms of finances, other types of family support) and have had success being LC for the last several years, with some issues here and there.

I began therapy in the last few years, and spent a lot of it processing the relationship with my dad. I realized that having our first child was going to impact this fragile relationship. My dad, in typical N format, sees himself as the “family patriarch” and wants to be a patron of the baby offering day care, trust/college funds, etc. to give himself control and feed his own ego. I knew I could not give him access or control over the baby’s life and therefore to our whole family.

Within a few weeks of the baby being born, the verbal abuse began toward me and my wife after declining to have him over for a couple visits on days where we were either sleep-deprived from the newborn, or had other plans with the baby for that day. This led to me fully standing up to him for the first time, attempting to establish boundaries, etc.

It was a long and heated process to get anywhere, but I believed we’d come to an “understanding” about boundaries. I wanted to continue trying to make it work, assuming that he’d eventually realize the privilege of being a somewhat-present grandfather was worthwhile, even if it wasn’t on his terms. I am also very close with my victim/enabler mother, who I was far more excited to see become a grandmother.

Well, that didn’t last long. He continuously stepped over boundaries and did things to test our parental authority (kissing the baby after being explicitly told not to numerous times). I wasn’t necessarily ready to go NC, but ignored his calls a few times in the week or so after the last visit, simply because I needed a break. This led to him calling us up at 3:30 AM, waking up the baby, to complain about unreturned calls and my lack of attention toward him. Obviously, I thought it was a real emergency and answered. I think he saw it as a chance to take back control and force communication.

He tried to act like everything was normal afterward, and I didn’t respond. This has since devolved back into verbal abuse and major crossing of previously established boundaries.

I’m wondering if this it, and I’ll stay NC now. I can only imagine this cycle continuing forever, and it impacting my son and my ability to be an attentive father.

The only major hurdle to maintaining NC is the relationship with my other family members. As I mentioned, my brothers are special needs and have lived sad lives under his tyranny. They can’t move out and could never go NC, though they would if they could. I want them to be uncles, and to experience a more positive family life with us and their new nephew.

And of course there’s my mom. Despite the realizations I’ve had as her role as an enabler, she has also been the prime victim of his abuse and the only loving parent I’ve ever known.

So, I’m glad to be NC but will have to navigate the other family relationships.

So many awesome, great value watches with the VH31 that I’m hesitant to pull the trigger on because there’s no date window. There are some other options like the VK64 for chronographs with a sweeping seconds, but that’s not quite the same.

Is there any hope for this?

Looking for:

-Blue dial and dive bezel

-Date or day/date (non negotiable)

-Ideally a diver, but not a Duro since I already own one. Still open to other sporty options

-Max of 40-41mm

-Sapphire glass would be great but not required. I know getting this may not be possible outside of Chinese brands

-Automatic (ideally NH, but Miyota would also work)

I think most of my options will land me on AliExpress but didn’t get much help on r/ChineseWatches. Open to all ideas

Looking for:

-Blue dial and dive bezel

-Date or day/date (non negotiable)

-Ideally a diver, but open to other sporty options

-Max of 40-41mm

-Sapphire glass

-Automatic (ideally NH, but Miyota would also work)

-$200 max

I love the idea of getting the most bang for my buck. If there are still good options in the $100-150 price bracket please share!

I find watch-wearing habits kinda interesting. I rarely wear the same watch two days in a row, and used to roughly work my way through my collection before cycling back to wearing a watch again. However, since I got my first “daily driver” automatic (Seiko DressKX) I find I’m drawn to wear it at least every other day, and cycle through the others on the off days. Part of that is practicality (keeping the watch winded) and also sentimentality - it’s my first automatic and my most “special” watch.

So I’d say I balance an (almost) daily driver with an existing rotation on the other days.

How do you decide what to wear each day, and do you actually wear all of your collection on a regular basis?