Has watch culture become better than hype, or just louder about it?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between buying watches and truly collecting them. When I first got deeper into this hobby, I was as susceptible as anyone to the buzz around the latest release, the sold-out drop, the piece everyone suddenly “needed.” But the longer I’ve spent around watches, the more I’ve realized the pieces that stay with me are rarely the hyped ones. They’re the watches tied to a memory, a design detail I couldn’t stop thinking about, or a brand that got the fundamentals exactly right. I still love excitement in this hobby. A great launch is fun. A fresh microbrand discovery is fun. Seeing a brand like Seiko, Hamilton, Farer, or Formex do something especially well is fun. But I think the deeper satisfaction comes from building taste over time and learning what actually resonates with you. That’s also why community matters so much to me. Some of my best watch opinions came from handling pieces in person, hearing another collector explain why a watch worked for them, or changing my mind after a real conversation. So I’m curious: what matters more in your collecting now than it did when you started—and have you found yourself moving away from hype toward something more personal?