Tags Following
Recent Followers
Recent posts
Recta? Damn Near Killed Her
Performance Art and the Different Ways to Skin a Cat
The Future of Collecting Vintage Watches
Recent Comments
You can find a decent vintage Rolex for less than $4,000.00 if you look hard enough. Usually they are pre-WWII Oyster Perpetuals that have had "a little work done" on the dial. I am not against a little light restoration. I am not a purist in that way.
Someone on here also has the Gruen where the indices turn from black to green every 12 hours. That one is cool.
I have said this before but I think Bulova is missing a huge opportunity to corner the bottom end of the yacht watch market by not re-releasing the Spinnaker:
(It also came in orange and in Europe brown and orange.)
Finding a reliable watchmaker is key to enjoying vintage watches unless one becomes one for themselves. With my poor short vision and horrible manual dexterity I content myself with a little light clean-up, Polywatch, bracelet sizing, the occasional battery change.
I have had long stretches without a reliable watchmaker. I stopped buying new old watches because every tinkering or real repair was going to cost and arm and a leg. The perfect watchmaker is your co-conspirator in breathing new life into dead or dying watches. They must love it rather than just live off of it.
I have had at least one watch "in the shop" over three years. He calls me every 90 days or so to tell me to pick up one or two and that's when I drop off what needs work. I try to space out full services, each one costs me about $300, which isn't a bad price in today's world. I have embraced my watchmaker's "good enough for what you are using it for" philosophy. He knows that I rarely wear watches on consecutive days. He knows that +/- a minute a day is acceptable to me. I don't measure accuracy in seconds. He is willing to do just enough to get a watch into rotation and reliable.
I think the key to vintage is to have either a few expensive knockout pieces and having just the right watchmaker for them, or do like I do, have many so that 20% can sit in a drawer waiting to go the shop and still have a different one to wear everyday. When I talk with @Porthole we call it the "shallow end of the pool." There are bargains and gems to be found there. Here is an example:
This is how it looked when I bought it. I normally only buy watches that are working, but I took a risk on this one. The seller indicated that the mainspring was broken. I could tell by looking at it that it had sat in a dark place for a long time. Red fades, and this red ring and second hand was still bright red. It was stored in a dry place because it showed minimal corrosion given its age. It had an easy movement to identify, an A.S. 1287. I found a N.O.S. mainspring online in its original package for $10.00. The broken watch cost me $5.00. My watchmaker oiled it and replaced the crystal. My total cost was about $40.00 with the strap and a wait of about four months. (I get a volume discount.) It is accurate to within a minute a day:
I may have identified the watch, but having a watchmaker who values these old things is the key. I could not do it by myself, just like the seller. I tolerate imperfection, even a bit of ruin, in my watches. This one had a lot of ruin:
I worked on the outside and he worked on the inside. Not perfect, but better:
I find this so much more satisfying than just buying a new watch online.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with modern Bulova. I think that everyone can concede that the Bulova design team has a rich history of models to imitate or take elements from. Accutron models just used the Accutron name and branding when first introduced. Later, in the mid-1960's, the Bulova name appeared on the dial. Here is one from 1968:
(from mybulova.com)
You can see where some of the design DNA of your watch originated, albeit in a dressier form. This is more of Bulova playing its greatest hits.
Bulova also used the branding of AccuQuartz when the Quartz Era began in earnest in the 1970's. Since Accutron describes a technology, not just a brand, and that technology is now obsolete, I have always thought that the name (and pitchfork) was obsolete as well. Why not lean into AccuQuartz as Timex has leaned into the "Q"?
So, I must respectfully dissent. (I do like the integration of the mesh and the case. It is a nice touch.)
More posts
Save the date!
A short note about a number (a 1WC prequel)
I repeat myself when under stress (a poll)
Where are the vintage bargains?
Can only go down from here...
Time to Change
Badges
