When you talk to many watch collectors who have been in this business for a long time, you find that one thing they truly value is collectability. It is not resale value or hype; it is collectability. An easy way to make a watch collectable is to make the supply scarce, whether it is a Rolex type scarcity where they still produce around 1.2 million watches a year, or it is a micro brand or ultra luxury brand that makes 100 watches a year.

Another easy way to make a watch collectible is through limited editions, especially if the watches are specifically numbered. A powerful, limited edition release can be a great hit and boost for brands as it can be a tool used for marketing purposes. It doesn’t matter either if a brand makes only one limited edition watch ever, or it only makes limited editions, so long as the watch is limited to a very scarce amount.

Look at a brand like Louis Erard; all of the watches they make are limited to just 178 pieces. This makes every watch feel special. It also helps that they make every watch special, with dials that punch well above their weight and collaborations that mean so much more knowing that there are under 200 people worldwide that have access to any given piece.

Collectability can also be through the means of Rolex, where long waiting lists create the sense of scarcity and collectability that many desire, as having to wait a few months or years gives you a true sense of owning a highly desirable watch.

But not everyone can be as good as Louis Erard in how they create limited models. The worst offender in my eyes is Seiko, and Grand Seiko to a lesser extent. In the first half of 2025, Seiko has released 111 models, of which 41 are limited edition watches. This means that 37% of Seikos’ releases for the first 6 months were limited editions. But that number tells us nothing in reality; the big thing is that if you take these limited editions together, they are making 76.843 watches that are part of these limited editions. This means each limited edition has an average of 1.874,2 watches made.

This is a far cry from the 178 models of Louis Erard, and this makes most of these limited editions feel overly accessible. If nearly 2000 people can get the watch, it instantly becomes a lot less desirable than a watch that is limited to a couple of hundred or even up to 5-600 pieces.

If we move over to the premium side of Seiko and to Grand Seiko. In the first half of 2025 they have released 20 watches of which 10 are limited, half of the watches are limited editions. I will give credit as I think its due, for the first half of 2024 they made 5.888 units of limited edition models, this year it dropped down to 3.393. This means an average of just 339 pieces per limited edition model.  Grand Seiko is a luxury brand so credit to them for not going the same high capacity limited edition route of Seiko.

But if I have been positive about limited editions this whole article, then why did I name it the limitation problem? Well, now we get into the negatives. I use Seiko as a prime example, as I think they are the worst offenders. If it feels like every watch you make is limited edition, then nothing is limited edition. If you make over 40 watches in 6 months, limited editions, and most of them have a capped capacity in the thousands, they just become another watch, and become just a normal watch release.

These limited watches that should be highly collectable and should feel special don’t. There has only been one case of them feeling special this year, the Seiko 5-sportsxPepsi limited edition is the only limited release for me that has felt special and like something you should get for collectability and memorabilia. That watch is still capped in the thousands. I do think it is a worthy watch to be capped in the thousands by the way, as it is a meme in the watch world, but can you name another release from Seiko this year that felt special as a limited edition? Because I can’t.

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