The future of the vintage watch

With manufactures limiting parts supplies or out right stopping them, is there a future for the vintage watch?

Vintage watches are a hobby to some, a passion for others in fact they are the reason Hoursmiths exists. Unfortunately the question must be asked; is there a future for our beloved vintage watches or are they all living on borrowed time? The short answer is yes, but it’s much more complicated than that. At the moment vintage watches are living on borrowed time, as parts supplies dry up and manufactures end support for all but the most special movements. When that time comes for your vintage watch to need a service, your chosen watchmaker will inevitably start to have difficulty sourcing replacement parts. Your watchmaker will be able to clean the movement, lubricate it and regulate it, but will that be enough. If the unthinkable happens and your vintage watch breaks, will there be enough value to spend double or even triple on a part? These are scary propositions and one as vintage watch enthusiast we must face. So by now you must be asking, “where is the future?” well my fellow enthusiasts it’s in the aftermarket. When the demand is there, the free market will find the answer and we don’t have to look all that hard to find the proof.

Watches are not my only passions, in fact I’m a bit of a Porschephile or a Porsche enthusiast in less vulgar terms. In the case of vintage Porsche, parts have become expensive and for some models difficult to find, but that is where the after market jumped in. You see today there is no shortage of businesses sprouting up across the world creating and reproducing parts to keep our obsessions on the road. It’s not just Porsche, almost every vintage sports car has it’s own legion of dedicated specialist that will go as far as building you one from scratch. If you restore a car now a days you rarely use all factory original parts, first because of the rarity/cost and second because modern manufacturing along with technology has improved, making parts lighter and stronger. Now I know not all manufactures are equal, but that’s up to you to vote with your wallet on who’s up to snuff. The point is they exist, because the market need them to and when the demand is great enough there is always someone willing to feed it. Car enthusiast aren’t willing to just walk away from their passion, given most vintage Ferraris are seven digit cars now and 911 turbos from the Seventies cost more than some homes. This mentality will eventually translate to vintage watches, because it has to those Paul Newman Daytonas are trading for Ferrari money at the moment.

In the case of a Rolex Daytona 6239 they are Valjoux 72 based, and at the moment vintage buyers are on the hunt for anything with a Valjoux 72 in it because parts will be at a premium. Yes they will cannibalize some really great watches just to make sure a six figure watch has a future. This will continue to happen as long as there are watches to be striped down. I believe that something else will happen before the carnage becomes unbearable. I believe some savvy entrepreneur is sitting down right now trying to figure a way of re-manufacturing those parts. The demand exists so it’s just a matter of when not if. What this means for the average collector is that same entrepreneur will need to make volume parts in order to pay the bills and that’s when the future becomes brighter for all vintage watches. Of course competitors will follow and prices will stabilize, and because competition breeds perfection we should all eventually be happy with the results. That is as long as we can accept that some parts of our vintage Swiss watches may no longer be Swiss. I guess the real question is what are willing to accept as a community. would we be happy if the all the parts of a movement were new except for the base plate and balance bridge? For me it would be the equivalent of rebuilding the motor in a car, very few care if the internals are not original as long as the block is and the parts are quality.

I know I’ve made some assumptions, okay I’ve made a lot of assumptions, but I can live with that because they’re educated assumptions based on similar markets. For now I have another solution for those who may not believe me, and that is buy a modern vintage inspired watch. There are two brands I think are doing it really well right now and both won’t break the bank. The first is Zodiac, we’re big fans here at Hoursmiths of vintage Zodiac and their modern offerings have been impressive as well. Most recently their re-introduction of the Aerospace GMT 40 mm at Baselworld took the community by storm and really is a tasty piece. The second is a smaller watch brand by the name of Straton Watch Company who’s current collection oozes that Sixties and Seventies style without falling into the homage trap. There are others too, but I think these two are flying under the radar at the moment, and are worth paying attention to. there is a future and it’s going to take some patience, but most of all it’s going to take us a community to continue our hobby to prove that the demand exists, and that we aren’t willing to walk away.