The Best Vintage Watches And Where To Buy Them

Age improves many things. Men, wine (sometimes), cars and most definitely watches. It’s the primary reason why every watch brand’s R&D department spends half its time covered in book dust down in the archives in an attempt to find the most obscure reference to reissue.

Vintage watches are comforting, they hark back to simpler times and, in terms of sales, they are gold. However, what this heritage reissue revival has also triggered is an interest in seeking out vintage designs – the originals that inspired the latest crop. Smart watch buyers are zeroing in on a decade with an aesthetic that appeals and investing there, lured by the bargains to be had.

Although there may be deals and steals, buying vintage can be a bit of a wild west. So, we’re here to go first through the double doors of that particular saloon to let you know where any dangers lie.

Why Would You Buy A Vintage Watch?

There are so many bright, shiny timepieces out there that you can buy from reputable retailers, that still have all their papers and that you know have all their original parts, so why buy vintage?

“In the same way that vintage car collectors may drive a modern one but collect vintage, the same is often true of watches,” says Adrian Hailwood, senior watch specialist at leading UK auctioneer Dreweatts and a private watch consultant and valuer. “A vintage watch may not have the same toughness, accuracy or reliability as a modern one and it certainly won’t be covered by a three- or five-year warranty but it has history and reflects the development of watchmaking over the years.”

If you read up on the watch you want and trust your seller as well, it is also a way to buy into an iconic brand model at a substantially lower price bracket than if you bought new.

For example, as Chris Mann, host of popular watch podcast Time 4 A Pint points out, an Omega Speedmaster from the 1980s or 1990s is a bargains at auction and you can pick up the head (i.e. no bracelet) of an iconic ref.145.022 (the first Speedie to use the calibre 861 and the pre-Moon watch) from back in 1968 for around £2,000-£3,000. Although you can find them listed for £13,000, so it pays to be savvy.