Originally Posted by
walkerwek1958
It depends on the OPs priorities, I`d rather see words like passion or enthusiasm than investment when answering such questions. If I was investing it wouldn't be in watches, but there is a middle ground where a watch is a good bet to hold its value in the future. Having said that, most vintage watches have risen considerably in value over the past 10 years against a backcloth of the general decline in watch wearing on the whole. Whether this is sustainable is open to debate, other areas of antiques and collectibles have seen sharp falls as fashions change and this could easily happen with watches. Keeping them maintained is a growing problem, wouldn`t surprise me if watch repairers were as rare as mole-catchers in 10 years time!
If the OPs interest centres around sports Rolex, forget it. This horse has already bolted, prices have gone silly. An interesting area is sports chronos from the late 60s/early 70s from brands like Tissot, which are chunky enough to satisfy the modern misconception of the right size for a watch. When looking at vintage watches it pays to be able to see them in context, in the 60s and 70s a 34mm with 18mm lug width watch was fairly standard size, 60s designs tended to be slimmer with shorter lugs whilst the 50s/early 60s styles generally had longer lugs, which alters the way a watch looks on the wrist. If folks really are hung up on the size issue maybe vintage watches are best avoided, it's a bit like me moaning about how narrow my MGB is compared to modern cars, you have to accept these things for what they are.
I`ve just received a beautiful early 60s pie-pan gold-capped Constellation this morning for servicing, one of the best I`ve ever come across. These watches are still good value for money in my opinion and I question why people (like myself!) have paid double the price for a solid gold version. There's some seriously stylish high quality vintage stuff out there if you just lift your head up instead of following the rest of the herd, my advice is to buy what you find appealing and don`t get too hung up on future values. I own an extensive collection of vintage Omegas simply because I like them, it's nice to know they've appreciated but I`ll be happy if they can simply 'eat nowt' in the future and stay as they are.