Rules for Vintage Watches that Helps to Make Your Collection Fruitful

Collecting and investing in Vintage Watches can be both wonderful and frightening at the same time – wonderful because of the variations of styles and brands and frightening on where to start!

Here are some general rules that we follow in our store and hopefully this should help you on your voyage into collecting.

Firstly from a collecting point of view, mechanical Watches hold their value over quartz (battery) powered. Mechanical can be either hand wound (manual) or automatic.

Secondly name always sell. A vintage stainless steel Omega Seamaster from the 1960’s will sell more quicker than a 9ct gold watch of the same era by a less known Swiss watchmaker.

Condition is always important and it is always a sure thing to pay a bit more and get a watch that is in excellent condition over one that is cheaper but has a damaged watch case.

This also applies to the internal condition of the watch. A watch that does not run well may need to be serviced at a cost of several hundred dollars.

Originality is important and having a watch with the original dial is better than one that has been re-painted. However if the watch dial is so badly damaged that it is no longer readable, then sometimes one has to bite the bullet and get it repainted.

If the band is steel or gold then it is great to have the original band but make sure that it is in good condition and doesn’t suffer from flex too much.

However the main rule of thumb to go by when buying a watch is go for what you personally like. There is no point buying a watch that everyone tells you is collectable if you don’t like it. Go for a watch that you will enjoy wearing even if it happens to be a repainted dial or by a lesser known watchmaker.