As many of us are hopefully beginning to venture further afield once more, this question becomes relevant again. Personal choice of course, but it's one area where my habits have changed a bit.

I’m not thinking about a night away or a weekend here; let’s say a holiday of one or two weeks either in your country or abroad.

For a few years after I first got into watches I would take three or four on holiday. Usually two for daytime duties and one for evenings. I've even taken my Speedy and Tank to Greece and Cyprus, though clearly not for pool/beach duties.

Then in 2018 I got a Trident GMT, and decided to take just that to Greece for 2 weeks as an experiment. Could I survive two weeks away with just one watch? Of course I could! I took that one on several holidays but sold it on during the first lockdown as the crown had been rubbing the back of my hand quite badly - it was really too big and heavy for me.

The Trident's replacement, the much smaller and lighter Sealander GMT, came to Greece last September; the Ulysse Nardin Posh Traveller came to Cyprus for Christmas (I did take the Glycine Airman as well); and the MeisterSinger came on the Nile Cruise in March.

Once I'm away somewhere I stop thinking about watches and just enjoy the trip. Something like the Sealander is versatile enough to do everything from beach to “activities” to nice restaurants…and it’s easy to change straps/bracelet. So I’m a confirmed one-watch traveller.

How many do/will/would you take?

Two for me, Steve. One as a dress watch and one for daily use. I’m still scarred from when I had my Breitling Navitimer stolen in India in 2003 and the company’s insurance capped out at £1500. On the last few trips I’ve favoured my CW C9 Jumping hour on a Milanese for the dressy watch and my C11 MSL on a Strapcode Engineer 2 bracelet for bashing about, but I’m flexible with this. Good post mate…

Just looked at pics from our holidays in the past 5 years or so. Ended up ticking the four or more box.

There is though a difference between how many I take on UK and overseas holidays.

For overseas it is typically a couple of my best watches with 100m or more WR, suitable for swimming and anything else. Plus a CW and maybe my Nomos, in case I want to wear anything much lighter in the evening.

For the UK where holidays are typically coastal or mountain walking holidays, often with a few days tacked on at the end in a decent restaurant with rooms, it would typically be:
Three of my best watches, worn for anything we get up to (unlikely to bother including a dress style watch). Plus a CW and maybe a Seiko, if I fancy a change.

Regardless of UK or overseas I also always take an F-91W or W86 Casio. Sole purpose being so that I know how long I have been lazing around in the bath at the end of the day.

Neil

My last four holidays have been a watch count of two:-

2018 Sep/Oct - Ten days Exmoor and Snowdonia road trip - C60 Trident Chronograph P'type plus Seiko Samurai bought whilst away.

2019 Sep/Oct - Ten days NC500 Scotland road trip - C60 Trident Chronograph P'type and Visitor Duneshore.

2020 Sep - One week in Northumberland - C60 Apex and Breguet Type XX Aeronaval LE

2021 Jun - One week in the Lake District - Elliot Brown Bloxworth and Breguet Type XX Aeronaval LE

2022 Sep/Oct - One week to Spain, Costa del Sol (my first overseas holiday in nearly 40 years) - haven't got to thinking about it yet.

Guy



Sent from my XPERIA 5 III using Tapatalk

Just the one.

scooter aka Mrs Wembley

A whole week of holiday? I think the last time I did that was during college...

Were it to somehow happen though I'm sure I'd take one watch. If it's civilised it would be the C65 Classic LE (150m water resistant and dressy enough for anywhere I can afford to eat) or if camping/active my Citizen beater if it's not going to get wet, but if water is involved it would be a tough choice. Probably the C600 which already has some scars.

I take one, it will be one of three choices.
CW Trident, Tudor Pelagos or Omega Seamaster, depending on the colour scheme of clothes, I've gone with, and the general holiday vibe.
Which to be honest is mostly blue casual clothes, a bit of golf and drinking, so it will the Pelagos usaully.

Regards Steve

Interesting range of replies.

When I look at what we used to travel with (not even counting watches). Before the advent of the smart phone I remember taking a phone, a camera and a music player, all of which had charging leads with three pin plugs, adapters and so forth. Nowadays it’s a USB plug-in and a couple of little cables.

I used to take two or three books whereas now I take a Kindle. I even used to take things like shower gel until it dawned on me that Greek shops actually sold it! I used to take far too many clothes and shoes, but I learned an awful lot about laundry on the go when I spent five weeks walking the Camino in Spain and carrying my life on my back. I travel much lighter these days.

My one indulgence is shirts, though I don’t think I’m in the same ball-park as Ferg and Nigel!

I voted 3 in the poll as I like to switch regularly, so for a full week or more I would take 3, for a few days I would take 2.

As my collection is almost all automatics, I can keep them all running if I rotate with a change in the evening. More than 3 on a longish holiday makes that difficult.

If I’m off abroad then it’s definitely just one watch. However I’ve not been abroad the last few years and won’t be going again in the very near future. When normal holidays resume for me then it will still be one watch.

For holidays in this country I had started taking two. We tend to use private self catering accommodation so I do t have to worry about leaving one in a hotel room.

My last trip I took one watch but took a selection of quick release straps as well so I could swap and change depending on what I was doing. Leather for evenings and tide or bracelet for wet or hot activities.

I like to bring along 33.3% of my collection...yep, just the one watch for me.

I have some simple rules when holidaying. 1) pack light, generally walk on luggage only. 2) minimise non-essential decisions. 3) Forget about time, in the conventional sense, I'm on holiday.

Also, in travelling with just one watch, it's nice to be able to look back and associate that one watch with a particular trip. It becomes a travel companion of sorts.

Des

strapline wrote: ↑Sat May 28, 2022 1:37 pm 1) pack light, generally walk on luggage only. 2) minimise non-essential decisions. 3) Forget about time, in the conventional sense, I'm on holiday.

Yes, all of this. And definitely no “tell me what watches I should take on holiday” post.

Just the one for me - partly for the ease and partly to minimize anxiety. If I brought more than one, I’d worry about the one not being worn. I tend to obsess a bit about all the stuff I bring on a trip and keeping track of it. I want to come home with what I brought. I’m one of those types who checks every drawer, under the bed, and in the closets before I leave to make sure I didn’t for get anything. And then I check it all again. And then I double check all the pockets on my luggage when loading up the car. And then again at the airport. See a pattern? Throw an additional watch into this mix and I’d be a hot mess.

I’ve also become a “watch strictly on bracelet for a trip” person. Spending a 2 nights in DC this holiday weekend and put my C65 Trident Vintage back on its bracelet for it!

One is plenty for me. I might take an additional QR strap for some variation, though.

just one. i used to take a few, but it's just one more thing to worry about, like jkbarnes said. and 99% of the time it's the PO.