There are a few ways to tackle watch collection in my opinion. You can go and start buying the latest releases of the big luxury brands; you can go an find budget alternatives of the most famous and known timepieces; or you can go to the vintage/antique/old watches, and try your luck in hunting for a hidden gem in antique stores or vintage markets in wherever you live, and those are just a few of the possibilities. One can even do a mix of all the available possible scenarios.
I follow many YouTube channels, many Instagram accounts, and most of the time those accounts have a very specific path. You need cheap alternatives, you go to Just One More Watch; you want to know about the history of high horology, go follow The Urban Gentry; you want to learn about impossible pieces to find and unattainable limited editions and special releases, that’s Hodinkee’s role. I still haven’t found my niche, but I know I do like a few things: to find limited editions of affordable watches, and to collect small, unknown vintage pieces.
Actually, the vintage hunt was what brought me back to the whole watch collecting that I am doing now. I have started my watch collection last year, when I found a very interesting and odd watch in a vintage and antique market. At the time, I had no idea what that piece was, but eventually I learned that it was an early 1980s Seiko 5. It struck me so much, that that same day, as soon as I came back home, I decided to research and find more information on the watch. Many months and many watches later, I included vintage markets as essential tasks during my weekends with my fiancee.
Also, besides the markets, I found a quite interesting resource on the internet. However, that offers a small danger, the possibility of refurbished, not original reassembled watches, with modern or not correct parts and pieces. I have both the original, actual old and used Seiko 5, and the refurbished, FrankenSeiko (is that a thing? maybe it is) in my collection. And in my eyes, both have their roles and values. The former, a true, original piece of history; the latter, an attempt to maintain original pieces, supported by wrong, weird, and unoriginal cases and straps.
What are vintage watches then? I am still trying to learn what those are myself. Based on discussions about it, vintage watches would normally follow a few specifications: it needs to be older than modern watches, and at least being of two or three iterations earlier than that of the contemporary pieces; it needs to have been valuable at the time it was made and acquired, either by rarity, heritage, brand, or materials; it has to have some sort of story behind its provenance; it needs to feel like a wearable watch, independent of era; and finally, it needs to be able to hold its value further through time.
How is my experience and agenda with vintage watches? I try to look for at least two or three of those characteristics in a watch. I might find a really pretty piece, that I would happily wear, and that has some provenance, but not necessarily it would be an investment watch. Or I can find an interesting, cared for piece, from a old renowned brand, that would definitely hold its value, but is not a rare find or a history-changer.
For example, one of my most interesting latest finds was a Rodana wristwatch, dated from the 1940s. It is a beautiful piece, with a salmon/copper dial, small seconds at 6 o’clock, working, manual winding mechanism. That ticks a few of my needs. It is wearable as a dress watch, it has provenance, it is a rare find, from an early century brand that does not exist in its format anymore, and it can definitely hold its value if I want to push if forward. Not an investment watch however. I can put a mark up on what I paid, but I will never be able to sell that for a thousand pounds. In this case, this is what I like to call a high-end mover, rather than an investment. It allows me to gather more cash for more small pieces, but it will not support the whole collection for a large period of time.
Another example is the watch I bought the following week. It was a really nice looking, gold plated early version of the Seiko 5. Very wearable, a little beaten up, but nothing that would detain daily use, movement is working well and keeping time, it is not a modern Seiko 5, it is for sure a historical piece, but not a rarity, not highly valuable, and in the grand scheme of things, it would either be wore by myself or used as a low-end mover, meaning, will be small cash for same value watches, or build up for a more expensive one.
Both those watches are very collectible, very interesting, and definitely worth of been called vintage, even if for quite different reasons.
Another type of antique, vintage watches are pocket watches. The concept of pocket watches is already a “vintage” idea. Pocket watches were the norm, and until the early 20th century, only women would wear bracelet watches. In fact, while men’s pocket watches maintained its form and function, women’s timepieces had an enormous creativity on their production, design, and materials at that time. And through the needs of the military, and Cartier’s insight into producing timepieces for men’s wrists as well, pocket watches became obsolete. However, they are still interesting, and many brands still produce pocket and chain watches as part of their company’s output. Vacheron and Patek for instance put their most intricate and complicated pieces into pocket watches (yes, one offs, but still…).
There are so many ways to go by hunting for vintage pieces. I love finding cool pieces that tells a story, that I can use, and eventually I can push them forward for another one. I am not at the stage of looking for the antique Patek, or rare Rolex, or historical Blancpain. I will keep gathering cool watches such as the Seiko 5, or Rodana, or Longines, or Tissot, or Hamilton, and will be quite happy.
The Column Wheel 