An enormous part of the joy in the watch hobby to me is learning about what else is out there. So I am setting aside a 10pc watch box someone gifted me a couple of months back for a "learning collection" - 10 affordable (under $500) vintage watches that can be used as an entry point to appreciating other interesting watch brands.

Purchased so far for this box:
- 1967 Longines Conquest
- 70's Grand Seiko High Beat 4522-8000
- 60's IWC caliber 853

Other suggestions that will help to grow my appreciation of the watch hobby? I already have Omega (of course), Rolex, Tudor, and Zenith - so none of those. Must be vintage (25+ years old), affordable, and representative of the brand.

 

How about one of the WWW dirty dozen. My personal favourite is the Cyma which if you are lucky can still be found under the $/ €500 mark. A great size, cool on the wrist and designed to last

 

Nice, I have forgotten about these - was considering an Omega / IWC dirty dozen but didn't want to pay the prices.. will check it out!

 

Great concept!

There are many to consider. A few that caught my eye over the past few years. All can still be found <500 with a bit of patience

Hamilton W10 mil-spec


Bulova A17A mil-spec



Bulova Wrist Alarm



And harder, requiring more luck... Zenith Defy diver

 

Agree that the Cyma is a nice place to start; but prices of good examples have (along with too many others) skyrocketed as of late. Hard to find one <700 now.

Bulova a-17's and 3818 are a nice, if small military watch to start with. They certainly can be found for <300.

 

I would propose a Certina a (for example an early DS) and an Eterna like the Kontiki.

I wonder what kind of SEIKO GS you got for less than 500. The good ones I see are above 1.000 USD.

Sent from mTalk

 

I know you have a Seiko already but a 6309 is an iconic diver and fits the criteria.

 

One of these, handwind 36K bph, case still pretty sharp and that fragile medallion in great shape

Already inbound! But your comment makes me wonder if there's something wrong with it..

 

This thread is a great idea, thanks!

 

Wo that seiko GS is really a classic! I would pick it up for less than 500 USD instantly!

Sent from mTalk

 

You can't go wrong with a Seamaster 30. With some patience you can find a nice example for around $500.

Edit: Never mind, I saw that you're looking for non-omega. Doh.

 

You can pick Mondia's up for a few hundred dollars. Some great 70's designs out there.

 

I've seen some really fun Mondia designs, what is the relation (if any) to Zenith?

 

Eternamatic full rotors were not only innovative, they were and still are the most influential automatic calibers ever made.

Hamilton (pre-1960) set the bar for quality manual wind calibers. The 770 and 982M are still regarded as watchmaker's dream movements.

 

There was some sort of collaboration between Zenith / Mondia / Movado in the 70's / 80's where they were using each others Calibers. Can't tell you more than that unfortunately.

 

This is great idea. I'd be afraid though if I did the same, the 10 watch box would fill up pretty quick!

 

Bulova Accutron for so many reasons: technology ahead of its time, featured in Mad Men, essential to NASA etc

 

I would suggest the Seiko 6139 automatic chrono given its place in history .You could easily put forward an argument that it was the first automatic chrono and given the price of the other contenders for this title it represents good value.
You could look for a pogue with the additional space history although you might struggle to get a nice specimen within budget but other 6139 can easily be found with good provenance well within your budget

 

Indeed Hamilton even utilised Eternamatic full rotor automatics in their earliest auto watches.

you need some American watches in your collection Elgin/Waltham/Hamilton all fall within your budget and some from the watches from the 30's are state of the art with respect to design and quality of movement.