Collector series 50 goals a vintage watch collector should aspire to: Part 1/5
Fine WatchesCollector's InsightAs collectors, we love to make check lists. We like to tick boxes of what to look out for in a watch. To make lists of what we are missing in our collection. We are completely obsessed by the tiniest of details. Yes you can call us obsessive compulsive.
While collecting is all about details, I wanted to approach watch collecting from another perspective. From a broad bird’s eye perspective.
What if someone told me that I had to make a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish in watch collecting. What would that list look like? Well I sat down and brainstormed over a few days and noted down first a list of 20 things. I realised that list was way to short and out of 20 it became 30, then 40 and in the end 50. Finally, I came up with 50 things that really want to accomplish as a collector before I leave this planet. Without further due here is my list of 50, starting with 1-10.
(The list in no particular order and I am writing down the list as I did it on paper and how the ideas came to my head; only slightly re-arranging so it reads better and is more logical. The cool thing about this list- because it is so broad – you don’t need 50 watches to cover the list. For example owning a simple time only watch that is manual wound and has a long Patek signature with central seconds ticks off 4 of the 50 details to aspire to already).
Where you see the sign ‘Missing’ it simply denotes that I have yet to accomplish this goal for my personal collection. You will see even though my list of 50 goals is pretty basic – there is a lot I am still missing.
1: Patek long signature: This should come as no surprise as I have stated this several times on my blog. Pateks made before 1945 (or there about) have a long signature with Patek Philippe & Co on the end (versus only Patek Philippe from the late 1940s onwards).
Not only do I find the long signature optically pleasing – there is something alluring to owning an early Patek.
2. Own a triple calendar or annual calendar watch: I think no collection would be complete before owning at least a triple calendar watch or an annual calendar.
Now a triple calendar is not the same as an annual calendar with the latter being a true complication (it adjusts the dates automatically for all months except February) while a triple calendar only shows the date, day and month. Owning at least one is a must and owning both is ideal.
3. Own a Rolex day – date: If there was 50 things to do in watches – in my view this would be one of the them. A day-date is the quintessential Rolex in my opinion and Rolex was the first to patent the display of the day and date appearing in full display.
There is no watch that makes you feel more majestic and royal than a day – date. Trust me.
(Picture credit: Goldberger).
4. Own one watch from your birth year: This may be the most over cited thing to own in watches – but it has a very good reason for being so. I think it is ‘a must’ to own a watch from your birth year. I believe that the designs from when you were born inevitably suit the owner and I have yet to find my birth year watch (I have one from a year later but that doesn’t count).
I even accept not only when it was made but also when it was sold. Below a Cartier tank from 1974 my birth-year. (Picture credit: The watch club). Missing.
5. Own one alarm clock watch: We lead most of our lives obligated to various deadlines be it at work or also our private lives. Most importantly we have to wake up every morning and are best reminded by some sort of alarm clock. As a result every person needs one type of alarm clock watch (it can be also a Casio why not).
My preferred choice would be a memovox from Jaeger in form of a Polaris but also normal memovox.
(Picture credit: Mstanga).
6. Own a manual wound watch: This might sound crazy but most people don’t own a manual wound watch. Today everything is automatic and also vintage watches are most often automatic. If I look at my own collection, most of my watches are automatic. I only have very few manual wound watches.
Watches are mostly a visual experience but when we wind them they become a sensory experience too: Not only the feel of winding a watch is sensory but also the sound a watch makes when you wind it. There is something extremely satisfying in winding a watch in the morning before putting it on.
7. Own one watch with a foreign calendar: I come from a family where we speak many languages (my sister speaks five, my mother four, my father spoke six). Languages breaks down barriers and foreign languages remind me of adventure and travel. I think there is something wonderful in owning a calendar in a foreign language.
My personal dream it to own an Arabic day-date with hindi numerals as my father was Lebanese and I never learnt the language. Missing.
8. Own one vintage Rolex submariner: I cannot think of a more pure design that is so perfect.
A vintage submariner represents Rolex DNA like no other line and was after all the very first diving watch from any brand (along with Blancpain). From an aesthetics point of view – it is the most perfect design of all vintage wristwatches in my opinion. Not owning a vintage submariner is a little bit like loving cars but not owning a Porsche 911. (Picture credit: Eric Ku).
9. Buy a new watch and make it vintage: As great as vintage watches are – there are some (very few however) great modern watches that will become future classics. Modern watches have one big advantage in that they are extremely wearable and don’t break as easily. Plus when it comes time to pass it on to your children – it is nice to give them something you bought when you were young.
Something that has your name on the guarantee. And something they get to experience and play with when they are small and growing up.
10. Own one watch with Patina: Vintage watches often have patina – a nice side benefit – when you busy something old. Patina can mean many things – it can be the dial that has aged nicely and discoloured, but it can also mean a bezel that is nicely used with scratches or a watch that simply has developed character with time.
For almost every collector – the word patina can have a different meaning but we all agree on one thing: Patina is lovely when you see it in whatever form it may take. Every collector needs at least one watch with Patina.
