Basic tips before buying first vintage watch?

Read @Porthole (so that we don't reinvent the wheel).

1/ I would focus on a well known marketplace (e.g. Chrono24) for transaction security and target a professionnal seller in order to reduce all kinds of problems (movement malfunction, etc.).

2/ I would search for a classic caliber, like ETA, and/or brand easily serviceable and not too expensive.

We need to sticky the vintage guide… that’s two similar posts in 24hrs.

hint: only buy the time bomb that ticks, when they stop it blows up your wallet.

Very apt analogy.

Read some of porthole's posts. I'll just add do lots of research, plenty of stuff out there, budget accordingly as your going to need them serviced, unless you buy from a genuine watch maker/repairer. There's lots out there that's been serviced but there's serviced and serviced and some have probably been serviced by the bloke who serviced the lawnmower(I know I've bought em). If you can find a local watchmaker that's good your halfway to a jackpot. And remember they are like old cars, beautiful but not as reliable and trouble free as the modern equivalent.

Hey, without taking away from anything others are saying, I always used this guide for vintages watches:

1. Do you like the aesthetic of the watch considering the functionality might be delicate.

2. What’s your objective with the watch, buying to flip, buying to hold, buying to experience.

These two questions kept me from overpaying & from talking myself out of “investment watches” that aren’t really going to appreciate much over time.

If you set a max budget & pick a design language before you start looking it will really help you narrow down the selection.

All the best.

I tend not to go for unicorns, rarity is nice but you just can't get parts easily. There's a million other reasons not to go vintage, just like with cars tbh 😁

Cool vintage watches...check them out

Personally, I’m sticking to quartz at the moment. The lower likelihood of needing to service the watch is a major selling point to me. I like to spend money buying watches much more than servicing them.

A million?

I’m all ears…

You’re wearing an automatic today though… am I missing something?

It's a figure of speech, but I think you know that. I have a fair collection of vintage watches btw, I'm in no way saying it's bad to collect them. Just saying there's a lot of reasons not to, balanced by a lot of reasons to.

I’m still listening.

You ain't the OP mate, just a gatekeeper. I'm done with you.

I’m genuinely interested in the numerous reasons why we all need to avoid vintage; it’s probably useful to discuss them in a thread that wishes to ask about vintage pitfalls no?

I meant vintage quartz. I still prefer auto/manual wind and mostly buy and wear those, but when it comes to “vintage” I feel a little safer with quartz. Of course I’m old enough to feel like it’s not vintage if it didn’t come from the 50s or earlier, but that’s a whole other thing.

I can’t speak for that guy, but I’ll answer for myself. I have a few vintage mechanical watches which I love and will probably buy more in the future. That said, there’s something about a watch that just does it’s job. No babying, no excuses about accuracy, it just does the job. Every time I put on a vintage watch there’s a littl part of me that’s a little nervous. Like it’s delicate. Maybe not even delicate, but I think the cost/effort of getting it fixed will be pretty high.

As I said, this doesn’t keep me out of the world of vintage, but does make quartz watches more attractive than they would normally be. If I had a good watchmaker, I’d probably be a lot more chill about older watches. And the whole thing is funny because I think it’s ridiculous how afraid people are to get modern watches wet. If it says 100m, it can go in the pool and there’s no part of me that’s worried. I don’t claim it makes sense, but there it is.

I’m not entirely sure why people get scared about the fragility. If the movement has shock protection, then it should still be ok. You should be careful with every watch; I’ve seen people post modern Tudors they’ve dropped and they look like they’ve just disintegrated upon impact. My Bubble destroyed a hotel door frame and came away without a scratch (the crystal is immense).

My eldest cat, every morning, will throw whatever vintage watch I wore the day before onto the floor from a 2 foot high side table, all to ensure she gets fed, and no, 4 o’clock in the morning is not her breakfast and hasn’t been for the last 13 years. This month alone she’s thrown both Vertex, the UG, every Smiths, a few Omega, the VC, and a Roamer without shock protection, all onto a hardwood floor and they all work fine. Last month she had it in for my Enicar, every day it went on the floor in protest. Case construction should also be fine.

Watches are a lot hardier than they look. I have watches that went to war, so they can take a day in the office. They do the “job” so to speak.

How about this bad boy? Im eyeing on this particular piece…any thoughts from expert Crumchers?

I took a quartz beater to go hiking in the mountains this weekend. Weather and plans changed and I wound up hiking with a 60 year old Elgin instead. We both survived.

It is just the wear and tear of daily use that does all watches in eventually. I have a fairly big rotation so they just get the occasional day out.

Have you really seen all the choices under 1,000 euros?

Beware of the vintage market...I have literally hundreds of vintage watches and can speak from experience that it is a vast minefield especially when encountering chronographs and pin-pallet escapements.

Here are some modern watches for around 1,000 euros that you might have missed...(price I paid brand new box and papers)...

Ball Fireman Victory

Farer Aquamatic Thurso

Synchron Poseidon Ice Diver

Glycine Airman SST "Pumpkin" GMT

Seiko Presage 100th Anniversary

REC TTT ICON

Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster "No Barracuda"

Jenny Caribbean H.R.V. Black

Certina DS PH200M Powermatic 80

Le Jour LeMans Chronograph

Dumoreau DM02

Christopher Ward C65 Super Compressor

Nivada Grenchen Antarctic Spider

I could keep going, but you get the idea.

My guess is that you probably haven't seen several of these, and they are all brand new (or were before I started wearing them), purchased within the past 24 months, and cost around 1,000 euros or less.

So much safer than vintage...

Have you read the description?

Very good condition with revised dial..

So…

If you really want vintage, don't let anyone talk you out of it!

That said, be extremely cautious, it's a minefield out there. The safest way is to buy from an established, well-regarded watch site. Buying on your own is treacherous as is shown in my post from earlier:

https://www.watchcrunch.com/salgud/posts/1947-omega-bumper-32756

Hopefully, you can to better.

I heard many rollercoaster and horror stories about vintage watches very few happy endings out there. The best advice they told me is expected not to work, two expect to spend a lot money and good luck finding a good watch repair shop that is legit that can fix it.