Watchlords

What do you think of vintage watches?

I've owned a lot, and I used to appreciate the history of each one, the stories that led them to my wrist. Now I feel like I want to wear new (or newer) watches and create my own history of the watch, my stories. These days I'm also not as accepting of old caked, cracked, spooge as I was in my younger years.

Any thoughts?

Recliner, I have and like both.

If watches could talk. . .

Vintage? Ahh, no. Sorry.

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I purchased this one ± twenty years ago..... does that count as vintage? It is even 38mm.



If s0, I probably have moore if I look hard enough.

I still appreciate them, but I no longer seek them out. I have what I have, but I tend to overlook them.

For me, vintage watches were once an interesting source of horological (and, in some cases the individual owner’s) history and were usually available on the cheap.

Now most of the bargains on desirable vintage watches seem to no longer exist unless the watch is a total basket case.

Kinda takes the fun out of it…

Might as well buy something built with newer and in theory better tech made within the 21st century - since there are so many options.

I don't collect them, but I still have watches that I bought when I was a kid that have become vintage along with me, and I have inherited some very cool vintage watches. When I wear them, they're bookmarks to the chapters and the characters they are bound too, that with the passage of time hardly noticed, have become an old man's buoyant nostalgias.

To think of that, I've been straying from vintage lately. Don't get me wrong, if I see a good deal for a vintage piece that resonates with me, I might just grab it. The problem is that compared to when I started collecting 7 years ago - fuck, that's quite a while, I was 20 then, now I'm 27 - vintage was and is becoming more and more problematic. Outrageous prices for mediocre pieces, shortages of parts... When I was making a big buy, I could have looked at vintage Constellations, 1950s Tudors... But no, because a) I fell in love with the Longines Spirit, b) at that price point, I'd be looking at vintage specimens likely to have issues.

I hope I'll manage to sell some of my vintage stuff. I'd happily buy a Longines HydroConquest 41mm with a ceramic bezel in their place.

Of course, there is something like 15 vintage pieces I'd keep, but well over 40 watches in total, most of them vintage and a lot of them requiring some work, that's just no fun anymore. A smaller piece with a hesalite crystal, full of charm of days gone - hell, yeah. But when it borders on unsustainable hoarding as it does in my case, perhaps it is about time I revised my priorities.

I have dozens of vintage watches.
I have gained a good bit of knowledge, since what I own comprises of a lot of these.

I did learn that if you buy one at a fair price be ready to invest in a service / replacement of worn parts. It's just part of the game.

I like mine.

95% of my collection is vintage. I am too cheap to buy new. Now with vintage prices gone through the ceiling, I am more open to look into the newer ones, in particular as the current design seems to hype the 60ies (my favorite epoch), but I am not buying a lot anymore, for years now. Also my current watchmaker is less reliable, so I am struggling a bit.