Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by alfat33
Proper chap just like Paul above, and knows his onions!
Interesting debate. I’m very much into vintage/old/classic stuff and have been for many years. I was born in ‘58 and grew up in the 60s/70s so it’s no surprise that I like things from those eras. Besides the styles and designs, it’s the honesty and integrity of the products that appeals. Far more focus on quality and function with a lot less marketing and hype involved.
I’ve got mixed feelings about the watches based on old designs. Longines gave done it very well with some with some of their models apart from making them bigger than the originals; that I don’t like, but otherwise their fforts are commendable. As for the brown/ aged, I’m not a fan. No watch was ever sold in the past with lume that looked aged, it started off either white or green. I don’t mind lume that’s aged naturally on an old watch but let’s not forget that it never looked like that from new. For me, the recent Omega Railmaster’s spoiled by the lume, if they’re going to make the lume look old maybe the next step is an aged dial and distressed case! All a bit too contrived for my liking, I would’ve preferred the Railmaster with honest white/ green lume and a smaller case.
One of the problems with retro- styling is how to modify/update it..........where do you go next with the design? I think the carmakers have fallen into this trap. Jaguar produced the S type in the late 90s, a car very heavily influenced by the 60s designs which was impossible to facelift/ update, it was a blind alley and ultimately they moved away from the retro- infuence completely.
Paul
Proper chap just like Paul above, and knows his onions!
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Nice dimensions
Aren’t Aston Martin and Jaguar now remaking (pretty true to original) versions of their classics? I wonder if any current watches will see reissues in 30-40 years...
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In Slovenia, where I come from, we're not quite there yet - you'll find the odd retro design in a shop, but it always tends to feel as if it's there by chance rather than the store manager having consciously got it in, and most of the time, it's vintage-inspired stuff anyway, not true vintage reproduction. One reason is probably low purchasing power so most merchandise in stores tends to be unremarkable and premium options are often simply not sold (I don't think I could get leather trainers at my local shopping centre, and I live in the capital), but I think we may also be culturally behind - one of the few sportswear manufacturers from Slovenia that survived the transition into market economy, Toper, simply doesn't do authentic reissues of their iconic 1970s and 1980s stuff, despite the vintage craze all over the Western world - mainstream demand must simply not be there ...
I think you're right. People want only the best bits of a world gone by.
Yes, they forget polio and whooping cough in children, men dying of dust on their lungs from coal pits and many other heavy industries, women with no lives except household drudgery, smog, a world war every now and again. It certainly wasn't Heartbeat, James Herriot, and Downton Abbey.
There is no evidence that the world war thing is over... ;-)
You’re right. Much as I like nostalgia I have to remind myself that I probably wouldn’t be here without the advances in medicine over the past 25 years. I’m not alone, lots of people leading perfecty normal lives could say the same. A very sobering thought.
Paul
I am not sure if it is connected in any way but I have been looking at a lot of research into Chinese consumer behaviour recently; I guess similar research that the luxury watch brands have access to, and it seems that here in China the habits for the young 'post '90s generation are changing which may be having an influence on the watch industry.
A few years ago in China it was all about conspicuous wealth, big Prada/Gucci logos on your clothes, yellow gold diamond encrusted Day Dates etc and to a certain extent it is still like this in some of the lower tier cities. What I now see more and more in the tier 1 and tier 2 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu is that the wealthy young people are less interested in showing off their wealth in a conspicuous "look at me" way but are instead seeking out experiences and brands with history and provenance and also to differentiate themselves from their parents generation and their peers, this applies to clothes, wines, cars everything.
This change has probably happened for many reasons, it could be that the crack down on corruption has dissuaded people from showing their wealth so openly but I think it is more likely to be because the younger generation have grown up with money not suddenly come into it like their parents did. Many young Chinese have been educated abroad and have a different outlook on the world. For many years it was frowned upon and in some cases even dangerous to be an individual in China and the younger generation are now changing this slightly and wanting to create their own individual identities and in some way they do this through how they dress and what brands they associate with.
Generally here with any product there is still the feeling that 'second hand' or 'used' is not good and of course there is a high risk of fake watches in China so I think there are relatively few (billionaire collectors aside) Chinese buying true vintage watches but for many people the vintage style, purchased new, from a brand with a rich history really appeals. This is why a lot of the watch brands here go to great lengths to emphasise their history and have events like the Breitling launch in Shanghai earlier this week where they showed their new vintage style offerings alongside their historic pieces.
These are just my thoughts on one of the factors which might be driving the watch brands to keep looking to vintage but could be a load of rubbish and nothing to do with it!
Worrying, but very true!
This is a really good question, and it's really hard to imagine ones that will. Very few of our already nostalgic designs seem modern and confident enough to merit a revival. Some of the higher end dress watches perhaps? An ALS Saxonia might age well. Perhaps a Rolex oyster will remain essentially unaltered. It's hard to imagine the more brash watches looking good in a few decades unless it's an ironic statement.
In fact, it's hard to picture anything from our current era as the treasured vintage and design classics of the future. The technology will just be obsolete junk, though people do get sentimental about things from their youth. An original Playstation 4 or Oculus Rift maybe? The last generation of petrol super cars or F1 cars?
Cheers bobbee, but I expect you and Paul have forgotten more in a week than I have ever learned so far. Every day is an education though.Proper chap just like Paul above, and knows his onions!
Certain classic designs have enduring appeal because they just work well, take the simplicity and immediate legibility of the Smiths GS.4701/W10 for example. I took to the PRS-29 at first sight, oblivious to its origins. I was similarly grabbed by the Precistas PRS-5, 14 and 22.
Although I loathe modern designed obsolescence, I am uneasy where a design or construction remains unchanged for decades. It risks complacency, smacks of cowardice and stifles design creativity, denying the obligation upon all of us to at least try to improve. The idea of a classic design evolving over time whether through technical improvements or stylistic updates sits more easily with me, though admittedly I suspect this may be exploited as an opportunity merely to simplify and lower production costs. Though not to my taste, the Galante range from Seiko are daring and exuberant, the product of a confident, forward looking company.
Worst of all is when a design becomes so ‘iconic’, so laden with heritage and mythical heroism that it acquires a status as some sort of rite of passage, typically assumes a twee code name and ends up beyond criticism and overpriced. Honestly, who really believes that for the regular bloke, a plastic crystal has any place on a multi £k watch and is preferable to a high domed sapphire one?
I wouldn’t call it a craze it’s a natural progression of wrist watch hobby. Pre 1940s there was no such thing as wrist watches so it’s taken some decades to build up an historical inventory of watches to collect and the back stories
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lads do yis member the memberberries from southpark? im sure they covered this.
Oh no, I’ve just ordered a Speedy
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Blame it on hipsters. 😂
Watch designs are a product of their times, and great innovation doesn't often happen in isolation. The designs of the 60s and 70s were tied to post-war cultural revolutions and still seem fresh because of that. Today's designs have mainly been driven by the emerging nouveau riche middle classes in China, and the growth of the global super-rich. Fortunately there are also some new technologies in the mix, driving both smart watches and advances in mechanicals. New and interesting designs though may require new, interesting and confident times.
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