The entry point was cheap, that's exactly how it gets you every time.
Back in the 2010s, I worked as a photographer. I remember exactly what it felt like to stand next to someone with a full-frame body and a fast prime lens while I was making do with a cropped sensor and a kit zoom, and feeling that quiet, specific envy that only fellow hobbyists understand. It wasn't really about the photos. It was about wanting the gear that the good photographers had, convinced that the next lens would be the one that finally closed the gap.
I thought I'd left that feeling behind when I left photography. Turns out I just found a new outlet for it. These days it's watches.
The hobby that was supposed to be cheap
Watch collecting has this reputation as an accessible hobby, and technically it is. You can pick up a decent automatic for a few hundred ringgit, and there's a whole thriving scene of budget and microbrand watches built specifically around that promise. That's exactly how it pulls you in. The entry point is genuinely affordable, so you tell yourself this is a sensible, disciplined little hobby, nothing like those friends who dropped serious money on a hi-fi setup or a road bike.
Then you notice a strap that would look better on the watch you already own. Then a second watch, because the first one doesn't quite cover "formal" occasions. Then you're reading forum threads about movement accuracy and lume quality at 1am, and somehow you've developed opinions about bezel actions.
None of these individual purchases feels reckless. That's precisely the trap. A RM300 watch here, a RM50 strap there, it never feels like the same category of spending as a big one-time splurge, even though the total quietly climbs past what that splurge would have cost.
I recognise this pattern immediately because I lived a version of it already with cameras. Back then it was never "I need a new camera", it was always "I just need this one lens" or "this one flash", framed as small, reasonable upgrades that would supposedly make me a better photographer. They didn't. They mostly made me a photographer with more gear sitting in a dry box.
Why this is such a Malaysian trap specifically
A big part of what makes this so easy to fall into locally comes down to how frictionless spending has become. Between e-wallets, instalment plans, and how lifestyle inflation quietly compounds through small recurring purchases rather than one dramatic decision, it's genuinely hard to feel the weight of RM150 leaving your account through an app versus counting out actual cash. Your sense of "normal" spending just keeps drifting upward without ever registering as a decision you consciously made.
And the timing makes it worse. According to RinggitPlus's 2025 financial literacy survey, 39 percent of middle-income Malaysians now save less than RM500 a month, up from 31 percent the year before, and nearly half are living paycheck to paycheck. At the same time, 60 percent report spending less on leisure and hobbies overall.
So we're collectively tightening our belts on the big obvious stuff while a "cheap" hobby quietly slips through the gap, because RM150 for a strap doesn't feel like the same category of decision as skipping a holiday.
Gear versus identity
Here's the uncomfortable question I eventually had to ask myself, back with cameras and now with watches: am I actually buying something I need, or am I buying a small piece of the identity I want to have? Owning the gear that serious collectors own feels like borrowing some of their credibility, even when your actual skill or enjoyment hasn't grown an inch.
A photographer with three lenses they barely use isn't a better photographer than one with a single lens they know intimately. A watch collection isn't more meaningful because it's bigger. But try telling that to the part of your brain that lights up every time a new listing drops.
My take
Set a hard budget cap before you start, not after you've already got three watches you're pretending you always intended to buy. Decide the number in advance, in ringgit, for the month or the quarter, and treat it the same way you'd treat any other fixed expense. Not "I'll spend what feels reasonable", because "reasonable" is exactly the thing that keeps moving once you're a few purchases deep. A real number, decided before temptation shows up, is the only thing that reliably holds.
The hobby itself isn't the problem. Watches, cameras, whatever it is for you, these things genuinely bring people joy, and there's nothing wrong with that. The trap isn't the hobby, it's mistaking "the entry point was cheap" for "this will stay cheap." It won't, not unless you decide in advance where the line sits, and actually hold it once the next tempting listing shows up on your feed.
Kamarul Azwan (k.azwan@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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