The explosion of the vintage watch market over the past few years has been nothing short of a phenomenon. In the dizzying modern age of technological innovation, there still seems to be something so appealing, so indescribably ‘cool’, harking back to the days of the classic mechanical wristwatch. A smartwatch or an iPhone may tell the time more accurately, but in terms of expressing personal style, nothing beats wearing a small piece of history on your wrist.
More and more people are discovering a fascination with owning and collecting vintage copy watches, and the industry itself is immense. If you are new to the field, the sheer scale of everything there is to learn can be daunting to say the least.Even though the internet has made it possible to instantly access huge amounts of information, simply finding a place to start is something of a challenge.
That’s why we have put together this handy guide, where we have trimmed it all down to the most important points for those now getting started. Read on below to find out all you need to know about buying and owning vintage luxury watches.
The bad thing is that there is no simple answer. In fact, you could ask 10 different people when ‘vintage’ officially starts and receive 10 different answers. For some it goes by date, but even that seems open to interpretation. One person might consider anything before 1990 as vintage, someone else will say it has to be pre-1980s. Another group tends to believe a watch qualifies as soon as it is superseded by a newer version, and others will point to when a certain component marks the point of vintage. Different from the world of classic cars, there is not one unanimous definition. Generally, it’s any watch that is over 30 years old. But this is n0t a hard and fast rule. So while it may not meet the strict definition of a typical vintage watch, it is however collectible.
Finally, it may be easier to say what is vintage or not vintage. First of all, you will come across many occasions where the word is used interchangeably with the word “second-hand”.