Vintage watches - I don't get it

[Gobo]

I love the look of quite a few vintage watches but most of them are sadly to small for my taste.

[Alessi156]

I also have a mix and would buy new if possible. The fact there aren't many companies that make them like they used to. One of the reasons I like Panerai is that the watches tend to have an vintage feel to them, i.e. no gloss dials or white gold surrounds. It is also why I like the omega speedmaster professional. I only wish rolex had taken the same approach with the Submariner!

[seadog1408]

whats not to like?? :lol:




cheers
mike :wink:

[supercarl]

whats not to like?? :lol:




cheers
mike :wink:

No white gold, no original oyster bracelet, no ROLEX around the rehaut, brown markers, no COSC text, no glossy dial :bom:

[seadog1408]

whats not to like?? :lol:




cheers
mike :wink:

No white gold, no original oyster bracelet, no ROLEX around the rehaut, brown markers, no COSC text, no glossy dial :bom:

oh, ok then :wink:

[Argon]

whats not to like?? :lol:




cheers
mike :wink:

That strap :twisted:

The watch is an absolute beaut though.

[marksh]

you will at some stage of the game just that bit about them character and history wise .

[hannover_dk]

Many seams to think that vintage means trouble, watches you cannot wear daily. Nothing could be more wrong.
A friend from our Danish watch forum Vintage watches know I like old watches and came buy with some watches collecting dust with him - thinks from the passed, from flea-markets and so

3 from around 1940 - from the hand engraving in the caseback - serviced probably last time 1950-1960 or so - a little shake, and the autos started - and kept time - Standard watches of the time - and standard for vintage I would say - two of them with great amplitude and a quick "swing".

I wear different vintage watches, from the 1940th over the 60th great Eterna and many chrongraphs from that period - Speedmasters , up to 1995 - Zenith ElPrimeros - and I have no problem wearing them
br

[Omegary]

I love the look of quite a few vintage watches but most of them are sadly to small for my taste.

Does that include the one on the right? :wink:


(Pic courtesy of Paul AKA Silver Hawk)

Cheers,

Gary

[MIKE...]

Thats a cracking collection, not one there I should not like in mine :wink: I don't recognise them all any chance of a rundown of whats there.

As for the original post, vintage (60's-80's) for me with a few newer models, if they catch my eye. The vintage designs seem to "do it" for me while some modern watches leave me cold :shock:
Having 50 odd watches, they don't see much wrist time so having a brand new watch seems a waste if it's not going to get any use. Where as I can justify not wearing the vintage so much, as I'm helping to preserve an old watch that has survived all these years so far.

[dickstar1977]

The thing here is;

Yes, it is lovely to own a shiny, bling new watch which is the pride and joy of your life, Omega, Breitling, Rolex hell even Patek, right up to the point you wander out of the 'showroom' door and loose a wedge of cash on it! If you can take that hit and all is still going well, just wait until you see your watch on the arm of some footballer or worst case (as in mine) some rangerover (with 24 inch wheels) touting lout in the car park of Blue water.

Ever since then I have gone vintage and never looked back, most of my collection is Vintage Omega ranging from a NOS 1963 railmaster right through to a Marine Chronometer, I wear them all regularly and love ever piece. Most have been in the hands of STS (Omega UK) and look like new, some (like the RM are).

The big difference for me is, I like rarity and individuality, every Tom, Dick and Harry (those of you who know me get the joke there) has a new Rolly, Omega or something nice on their wrists, but they are no more rare than a new BMW, Merc or Porsche, I prefer mine a little more 'exclusive' and with a story. Outside of these circles I have seen very few nice vintage swiss watches, the one I really recall was on the wrist of a very nice understated chap in Sainsburys near me, a lovely early 1970's Omega Speedsonic, I stuck up a chat with him and he told me about how it was the first electornic chronograph chronometer (well informed I thought) he then drove past me in his jet black Ferrari 599, nice!

Anyway, IMHO, there are hundreds of amazing new watches out there, but why spend £2000, £3000, £4000+ on a watch which will (in most cases) depreciate like a house brick, you are likely to see at least four or five other people wearing, when you can buy vintage, usually for very good money, if your shrewd make a sound investment and have something people will admire and ogle, because lets face it, we buy these sort of watches on most occasions out of a sense of vanity! (well I do anyway)

Cheers Tom

[keygold]

There are great new watches, however, a great vintage watch is simply superb. You are buying not just the quality, but the history.

[walkerwek1958]

Am I the only one who loves nice new shiny watches, not old used ones that have been on many other hairy forearms? :)

I know this might sound ridiculous, but I don't get it, and from this forum I feel like the odd one out. Am I?

Yep.....If you need to ask the question you won`t understand the answer.

Paul

[jd]

I don't get modern watches - oversized, overpriced, not much variety from the Swiss at least.
Mostly I just think modern Swiss watches are ostentatious and ugly. There are exceptions but not that many :D Each to his own of course.

[Pablo]

The thing here is;

Yes, it is lovely to own a shiny, bling new watch which is the pride and joy of your life, Omega, Breitling, Rolex hell even Patek, right up to the point you wander out of the 'showroom' door and loose a wedge of cash on it! If you can take that hit and all is still going well, just wait until you see your watch on the arm of some footballer or worst case (as in mine) some rangerover (with 24 inch wheels) touting lout in the car park of Blue water.

Ever since then I have gone vintage and never looked back, most of my collection is Vintage Omega ranging from a NOS 1963 railmaster right through to a Marine Chronometer, I wear them all regularly and love ever piece. Most have been in the hands of STS (Omega UK) and look like new, some (like the RM are).

The big difference for me is, I like rarity and individuality, every Tom, Dick and Harry (those of you who know me get the joke there) has a new Rolly, Omega or something nice on their wrists, but they are no more rare than a new BMW, Merc or Porsche, I prefer mine a little more 'exclusive' and with a story. Outside of these circles I have seen very few nice vintage swiss watches, the one I really recall was on the wrist of a very nice understated chap in Sainsburys near me, a lovely early 1970's Omega Speedsonic, I stuck up a chat with him and he told me about how it was the first electornic chronograph chronometer (well informed I thought) he then drove past me in his jet black Ferrari 599, nice!

Anyway, IMHO, there are hundreds of amazing new watches out there, but why spend £2000, £3000, £4000+ on a watch which will (in most cases) depreciate like a house brick, you are likely to see at least four or five other people wearing, when you can buy vintage, usually for very good money, if your shrewd make a sound investment and have something people will admire and ogle, because lets face it, we buy these sort of watches on most occasions out of a sense of vanity! (well I do anyway)

Cheers Tom

Tom, you've made some really good points there, and summed up the attraction of good quality vintage pieces.

regards,
Nick

[tista]

Thats a cracking collection, not one there I should not like in mine :wink: I don't recognise them all any chance of a rundown of whats there.

Thanks, Mike - these were not easy to track down...hence the fun!

Left to Right, Top Row - Eagle Star branded Squale 500 atmosphere Professional, PVD --- Spirotechnique badged Squale Master 100 atm --- Scubapro 500 --- Breitling Superocean "Deep Sea" 1000m w/passive HRV built into caseback, quartz ---- '68 Doxa Sea Rambler w/U.S. Diver's logo ---- Felca Seascoper III, w/Bucherer badge

Center: Chronosport Sea Quartz 1000

Bottom L to R : Sicura chrono, w/Lemania 1341 & internal bezel (same case as Sinn 144 etc) ---- Lorenz Lemania 5100-based Dive Chrono (sub professional) - ---- Seiko 7A38 diver

[GraniteQuarry]

The big difference for me is, I like rarity and individuality, every Tom, Dick and Harry (those of you who know me get the joke there) has a new Rolly, Omega or something nice on their wrists, but they are no more rare than a new BMW, Merc or Porsche, I prefer mine a little more 'exclusive' and with a story. Outside of these circles I have seen very few nice vintage swiss watches, the one I really recall was on the wrist of a very nice understated chap in Sainsburys near me, a lovely early 1970's Omega Speedsonic, I stuck up a chat with him and he told me about how it was the first electornic chronograph chronometer (well informed I thought) he then drove past me in his jet black Ferrari 599, nice!

Anyway, IMHO, there are hundreds of amazing new watches out there, but why spend £2000, £3000, £4000+ on a watch which will (in most cases) depreciate like a house brick, you are likely to see at least four or five other people wearing, when you can buy vintage, usually for very good money, if your shrewd make a sound investment and have something people will admire and ogle, because lets face it, we buy these sort of watches on most occasions out of a sense of vanity! (well I do anyway)

Cheers Tom

Very well put Tom, agreed 100%.

As an aside, a couple moderns are good for everyday wear - being properly water-/dust-/shock-proof and easily replaceable - but a nice rare vintage ticking away on the wrist is something rather special IMO :)

[Eddy C.]

The big difference for me is, I like rarity and individuality, every Tom, Dick and Harry (those of you who know me get the joke there) has a new Rolly, Omega or something nice on their wrists, but they are no more rare than a new BMW, Merc or Porsche, I prefer mine a little more 'exclusive' and with a story. Outside of these circles I have seen very few nice vintage swiss watches, the one I really recall was on the wrist of a very nice understated chap in Sainsburys near me, a lovely early 1970's Omega Speedsonic, I stuck up a chat with him and he told me about how it was the first electornic chronograph chronometer (well informed I thought) he then drove past me in his jet black Ferrari 599, nice!

Anyway, IMHO, there are hundreds of amazing new watches out there, but why spend £2000, £3000, £4000+ on a watch which will (in most cases) depreciate like a house brick, you are likely to see at least four or five other people wearing, when you can buy vintage, usually for very good money, if your shrewd make a sound investment and have something people will admire and ogle, because lets face it, we buy these sort of watches on most occasions out of a sense of vanity! (well I do anyway)

Cheers Tom

Very well put Tom, agreed 100%.

As an aside, a couple moderns are good for everyday wear - being properly water-/dust-/shock-proof and easily replaceable - but a nice rare vintage ticking away on the wrist is something rather special IMO :)

Spot on IMHO! No watch has more attitude than a nice vintage with beautiful patina, some dents and flaws. Not one modern day watch has the coolness of a great vintage piece.

My own favourite vintage watches:

[Bootsy]

My own favourite vintage watches:

Case closed with that pic. Beautiful pair.

[gunner]

I know what I like and I like what I know...

I know its human nature but there's not much point drawing an arbitrary line and making a statement about whats on either side. When does 'vintage' start? I wear an '89 zenith de luca most days and think of it as vintage as I wasn't buying watches when it was made.

For me its just a question of good design, the watch either looks 'right' to me or it doesn't.

I like new and vintage but I'm much more likely to buy vintage for a number of the reasons already stated - depreciation, rarity value, the thrill of the chase...

[triumph coupe]

I wear this:



Because it matches this:



:D

I guess some people just don't 'get' old stuff. Different strokes for different folks and all that. It is all about the style, the feel of using something different from the norm, the pride of keeping life in something old and the pleasure of preserving history for both your and other people's pleasure.

Old watches & cars ore not for everyone. They do require more maintenance but that also is part or the charm for some of us.

[MIKE...]

Thats a cracking collection, not one there I should not like in mine :wink: I don't recognise them all any chance of a rundown of whats there.

Thanks, Mike - these were not easy to track down...hence the fun!

Left to Right, Top Row - Eagle Star branded Squale 500 atmosphere Professional, PVD --- Spirotechnique badged Squale Master 100 atm --- Scubapro 500 --- Breitling Superocean "Deep Sea" 1000m w/passive HRV built into caseback, quartz ---- '68 Doxa Sea Rambler w/U.S. Diver's logo ---- Felca Seascoper III, w/Bucherer badge

Center: Chronosport Sea Quartz 1000

Bottom L to R : Sicura chrono, w/Lemania 1341 & internal bezel (same case as Sinn 144 etc) ---- Lorenz Lemania 5100-based Dive Chrono (sub professional) - ---- Seiko 7A38 diver

Thanks for taking the time, I appreciate it :wink:

Mike

[Filip]

Nope, I'm not a vintage fan either. Mind you, that's because I buy to wear, not to collect, and for some reason I felt nervous about damaging them when I wore vintage pieces I owned (despite generally being very easy on watches I own).

Funny you mention this: it's why I do only vintage watches. They already have some marks so I'm not bothered if I add some of my own :D

[Filip]

Going to an AD for a new watch is thrilling. Who doesn't love to buy shit. But for me, it's the thrill of the chase and the quarry being particularly hard to find. I don't like having what everyone else has - though my Sinn U1 is pretty damn nice (and get's worn a lot 8) )

I also like to have my watches serviced and water tested - otherwise, they're useless to me. My vintage watches are every bit as capable as a new watch and look twice as cool bearing the patina of a life lived, ready for more.

Tista, is the bezel on the Seascoper one of those you made yourself? Maybe I should send you my orange one after all (still didn't get round making my own)...

[tista]

Hey Filip - The Seascoper has its original bezel (and it's beautiful!). That said, I think I could replicate this bezel without too much trouble - as an insert, mind you, no machine work here. You should just send me the bezel and when I pour my new Scubapro bezel project, I'll pour yours too.

Best

chris