Your `level` of (in)sanity???

Based on a few threads I noticed a common level of IWC insanity. This uncontrollable affliction manifests itself by forcing victims to purchase multiple IWC timepieces within a short time span. I myself could not resist the urge to purchase 2 IWC within 15 days!! My symptoms are only getting worse as now I am seriously trying to figure out a way to get an Ardois Portuguese!! Of course, this irrational draining of my kids' college fund is not my fault as it is this illness that is controlling me (that is what I tell my wife). Not only can this illness cause bankruptcy but also lead to many lonely nights spent on a cold couch.

So, how many of you have been afflicted and to what degree? How many IWC's have you purchased within a short span of time? Please tell me Norbert and I are not alone in our illness....

Don't worry we all have IWC Uhren virus >

I have bought 9 IWCs since June 2006 and sold only 1. And the forum and events have most certainly have been a major part of that ;-)
I thought the Ingenieur and Big Pilot were not for me....until I wore them on collectors events and it was implanted in my brain.
I have sold many other watches to fund these but as I type this it sure makes me realize 9 is a lot in 2,5 years.
But I have enjoyed every minute of the ride very much!

Now there is another reason for...

the insanity. Falling values of pension and profit sharing accounts not to mention stock portfolios are so bad that some are starting to spend more on watches. At least you get a hard asset for money spent. And with the dollar getting stronger there may be some buys out there. I know, I am looking....

It's an interesting journey...

and I guess I buy and sell about 2-3 watches a year. I slowly moved up from the less to the more expensive pieces and I must admitt I always sold a watch first to be able to fund another purchase just to make sure my family gets something to eat also ;-)

This year I really fell for the Big Pilot and it almost looks that with two BP's in the house the craving will be over for some time, but you'll never now when the itching will start again.....

Regards
Norbert

The itching will start again ...

sometime next week.

Insanity ?...I'm having a Great Time

My business case

is enjoying life and surrounding myself with objects, people etc etc who bring additional (non-monetary) value to my existence. Watches is one pillar of my strategy and in < 2.5 years I have bought 19 IWC watches and two have left my collection. Before this I did not own a mechanical watch. During 2008 I have bought one IWC per month - making me in the club you describe - and a phenomenal impact from the collectors forum is evident - I may have stopped at 1 per year without meeting the forum participants "in virtuo" and "in Schaffhausen" or "in Geneva".

All sounds normal to me >>>

I have been averaging 3 IWC's/year for 10 years.

Your wife and children should be delighted at your purchases...These are IWC's!
--
Cheers from Isobars.

I join the club

I bought my first mechanical watch in 2003 and this was not even a IWC! Via the very costly detour of watches of other brands, I noted this year that I must concentrate on IWC and go for the very nice (and as a consequence costly) rare pieces. As a result of those thoughts I added a tourbillon, a minute repeater and a Big Pilot to my collection in 2008. But what do those watches add to my life:
- I meet other collectors (in person or in the net) that have the same passsion as I have. And I learned a lot about mechanical watches from them.
- Mechanical watches are very emotional to me. Not only seem they to live with their "tic-tac" (a steam lokomotive makes the same impression on me), they also remind me of my parents having lived in Schaffhausen. And do not many of us have the childhood "souvenir" of sitting on the knees of the father or grandfather, listening to the sound of that misterious metallic device? And I can see another generation of children experiencing the same situation (when you look at post with photographs of small children "going" for their parents watches)? What a wonderful idea that those children will look at the same watch in 30, 40, 50 years and remember their parents?
- Isn't it nice to touch the smooth surface of a wonderfully crafted watch?
I might be considered as crazy in my familily, but I will not stop the journey to collect IWC watches.
Urs

Insanity ?..Well, from the non enthusiast...

it might just appear that way. We know better.

Loving every minute

Seven IWC in 18 months.
Most of which I would not have heard of or considered without this forum.
And a direct result of getting an IWC W.W.W. was an interest in a side-line collection of W.W.W. (11 out of the 12 now). And an Omega '53.
Is this sanity? I hope so.

Ross

Very Well Spoken,Urs........(nt)

You're all crazy. I, on the other hand, am

quite insane.

A Mark XV was my first good mechanical watch. How petrified I was as I sent a Cashiers Check for lots of dollars to someone I didn't know! How thrilled I was when that package arrived!

Over the 8 years I have bought and sold dozens of IWC's, with the current IWC collection at 7. And I want more!

But the best part is that I have made friends with people around the world, some of whom I hope will last a lifetime. And the warmth of the friendships will by far outlast the watches that my heirs will inherit.

Good luck on finding number twelve

I've seen all including the KNIL WWW in one collection, during a lunch time get together.

Happy hunting.

Cheers from the cellar

Top scientists around the world have been...

looking for a cure for the IWC Uhren virus. This incurable virus has spread from a small Swiss town called Schaffhausen and infected all of Europe. Thanks to global travel, it made the jump over the Atlantic where it has spread like wildfire over North America. Asia has not been exempt.
There is no cure, and it just gets worse from what I hear.

It has also been reported...

that the only way to stop the virus is the acquisition of IWC products although this is deemed a temporary solution. It seems each succeeding inoculation of product only serves to make the new viral strain more virulent.

We are all doooooomed!!!!

...at least our bank accounts are anyway.

No ladies & gentlmen, one day there will be a IWC>

24 h dial line. Then the Uhren-Virus will rest.
--
Isobars.