Why you collect vintage

[River Rat]

I was wondering why some of us collect vintage ? I collect mainly for the history of them and for a few of them for there looks and to preserve them. Like pocket watches you will see a lot of movements for sale on Ebay why the cases that were silver or gold melted down for $$$. I collect mostly vintage military watches and clocks due to the history of them and they were working timepieces. You wear a issued pilots watch and wonder what aircraft it was used in were it went over seas if in a conflict (war) my ships clocks what ships were they on if they were in any great battles of WW2 if my Dad walked by one of those clocks in his youth since he was retired Navy or my Grandfather. The deck watches and ships chronometers the history they could tell of ports of call all over the world. The issued dive watches you wonder there history. And then some vintage civilian watches I added due to the cool factor that new watch cant compare to just glad I knew that before every buddy jumped on the band wagon and the prices shot up and put me out of the market. Why do you like vintage and why you collect lets hear your point of view. I got this Ulysse Nardin deck watch last month just tracing it's history was interesting I found one of it's owner Willian R Bricker and it was in a publication but the issue marks still a mystery but getting closer if the marks real but being in a collections before faking watches was a thing I think it's real and even contacted Ulysse Nardine and got a manufacture date 1930. Then a Zenith Special pilots Watch got so much info from Zenith there is a little fun doing detective work on there History.

[deepcdvr]

Hey Mike - I wish I had the guts to collect vintage - I’m too afraid of getting ripped off and don’t have the time to do research, unfortunately

[logan2z]

I love vintage watches and owned several in the past. But the vintage market can be a bit of a minefield and I had a couple of issues getting some watches serviced, so I've stuck to modern pieces for the last few years. But there are some vintage watches I would like to pick up at some point - a few of which I owned once and sold

[andrema]

I collect both. A rounded collection, if you will.

[JBZ]

I've had some vintage-ish pieces, but I've never gone all in on vintage. If you stay away from the usual, expensive suspects (Rolex, certain Omega, Blancpain, Heuer, etc.), you can get some cool pieces for not a lot of money. Depending on the model, both vintage Tudor and Omega can be had for under $2,000 or even under $1,000. Same with vintage Hamilton. I've often thought it would be cool to own a true made in the USA vintage Hamilton, but they're all too small for me.

The vintage market for the more expensive pieces is crazy and a real minefield. Right now there's a multi-page thread in the vintage section of TRF about whether the bezel inserts on the so-called "blueberry" Rolex GMT's are legit or aftermarket/fake. There's a lot of money riding on that answer, assuming it's ever definitively resolved.

[Chocodove]

The vintage market for the more expensive pieces is crazy and a real minefield. Right now there's a multi-page thread in the vintage section of TRF about whether the bezel inserts on the so-called "blueberry" Rolex GMT's are legit or aftermarket/fake. There's a lot of money riding on that answer, assuming it's ever definitively resolved.

I have no idea what the answer to that particular question is, but It reminds me of the Rudy Kurniawan wine fraud. After a certain point, it pays for people to "look the other way" as opposed to really getting down to the bottom of things. A wrong answer could significantly devalue something you are heavily invested in.

[JBZ]

The vintage market for the more expensive pieces is crazy and a real minefield. Right now there's a multi-page thread in the vintage section of TRF about whether the bezel inserts on the so-called "blueberry" Rolex GMT's are legit or aftermarket/fake. There's a lot of money riding on that answer, assuming it's ever definitively resolved.

I have no idea what the answer to that particular question is, but It reminds me of the Rudy Kurniawan wine fraud. After a certain point, it pays for people to "look the other way" as opposed to really getting down to the bottom of things. A wrong answer could significantly devalue something you are heavily invested in.

Definitely true. I watched the Kurniawan documentary off a recommendation here, and it was interesting how collectors continued to defend the guy even after his fraud was uncovered. Lots of, "well, sure, some of it was counterfeit, but the vast majority of his stuff is legit", which was completely contradicted by the evidence. It seemed like it was as much an ego thing ("there's no way I could be duped like that") as a money thing.

[River Rat]

I only got fooled once bought a CYMA WWW British issued watch at a NAWCC mart. Posted it at MWR forum and Fake. With not much home work I would of known what it was all WWW issued watch the whole dirty dozen have 15 jewel movement the jewel count was different was a original CYMA movement but not from a WWW issued watch. The case was fake for 400 bucks I thought I was getting a deal when it's to cheap some thing is usually wrong . When buying vintage just a little home for proper movement the dial and hands the case and still not sure contact anther vintage collector on the forum or some one you know locally. Did that when I got my Eterna Kontiki Super IDF to make sure the issue marks were real knew the model was legit but you pay a premium for a issued one. Books on vintage are another help I got a small library on them. I have even helped a few here before they bought a vintage piece. And one other thing on vintage you have the right watchmaker service it who knows what he is doing on vintage it will work like a new watch. Just a little for the forum to think about. Post some of your tips in buying vintage.

[KidKeith]

I like the smaller size of vintage pieces. I'm not a big fan of huge watches. Glad I never bought that Panerai a few years back

[Lukeeesteve]

Late to the discussion here. Some repeated points here...

For me,

Each nick, each scratch tells a story of how these timepieces were used. Many were used how they were meant to be, as tools.

Then there is the aspect of innovation as different companies tried to figure out the right way to do things... bezels, water proofing and crown locking solutions.

It is a mine field out there especially where there is lots of money to be made on the more desirable vintage pieces.

[aikiman44]

I’m a consumer of stories and vintage watches carry their stories with them.

[caesarmascetti]

I’m a consumer of stories and vintage watches carry their stories with them.

+1

[Albatross]

Vintage only for me. I've had modern pieces, they just don't do it for me like the vintage stuff. The history and sometimes the horological significance of some of these absolutely drive me nuts, in a good way.