All Other Things Equal, Is There a Better Heirloom Watch than Rolex?

This is the nightmare scenario. You hand down a Vacheron & Constantin and your idiot son thinks its an Abercrombie & Fitch knockoff. Sells it with a ridiculous BIN on Ebay and 40 years from now the watch will just be someone's incredible story at the Hour Lounge from the guy who got a great deal from a tremendously ignorant seller. As much as it pains me to say this, this scenario would never happen with a Rolex.

I've actually given this some thought recently as I have 3 boys (ages 4, 3 and 1). I thought Rolex myself for many of the already mentioned reasons. However if I'm ever in a financial position to purchase a VC or PP then I will do so with the intention of passing it (or with good luck them) down. I consider it to be one part of my fatherly duties to share my passions with them and educate them on those things. They don't have to share them necessarily but at least they will know what they will be receiving and won't be selling my watches for $20 on eBay!

This is a great thread - been going through the same soul search myself this year.

For the time being I'm using a Reverso GT as an heirloom piece - my initials, my son's below and room for a third set.

Regardless, I hope explaining to my son that I bought a watch and took care of it for him to do the same will make it the perfect heirloom.

I dont know---not surprising to many of you. my Gfather left me a 1965 accutron. I remember when he brought it home. I wore it for 30 years in business. It's a $500 watch, but not to me. I think you don't plan ahead for what to leave your sons (and lets not forget the daughters). Wear what you want. It will mean more to them than a planned out passing of the torch. Of course if you have more than one child it is complicated. In that case, let them fight it out. There is nothing like a good family fight while you are in repose. And that is an all to real situation in the real world.

I don't think I would've thought my PloProf to be the single coolest watch ever if it hadn't been my dad's: https://omegaforums.net/threads/your-most-sentimental-watch-and-why.48632/page-2#post-581837

Sure, it helps (a little) if it's not a cheap Timex. It could be any Rolex. Or any Omega. I think if you love it, and live life wearing it, your kid will love it.

In this day and age with the internet. It is very easy to find the value of an item. Prior to the www if you did not know watches or clocks you needed to have books to find the value. Today I doubt that anyone would sell a watch without looking around the www as to the value.

Your chances are a 50/50 shot the person that recieves the hand me down watch would even be interested in the watch other than it belonged to you. Parts for watches are available. I do not think rolex is the answer although they make a nice watch.

Plenty of choices for watches. I gave my Son a few high end watches that I owned. I figured that I would give them to him prior to my passing, so I would be able to see him enjoy them.

The condition of the early gifts is that he is not able to sell any of them until I am no longer on the green side of the grass. If I am no longer around who cares what he does with the watches that would be on him.

The watches I received as heirloom watches from my Granddad and Father are noting great. Nice watches a couple Longines wrist watches and a few pocket watches Hamilton Master piece 12s Paul Ditisheim 12s Hamilton 16s early 993 all of these watches are in 18k cases which is nice to have.

Since my Son already received his early hand me downs upon my passing these watches will go to my Grandson.

Well statistically speaking, 50% will be to the left of the bell curve ... Just saying... 😁

If you buy a watch with the sole purpose of handing it down, add it to your existing collection and wear it like any other watch, you'll fail. Value or some idea of "objective quality" of a given item have nothing to do with it, happy memories and feelings have.

If you really want to gift something that will be of strong emotional value, take care to notice that the kid likes, and wear that more often and on special occasions. That's about as speculative you decently be.

Death has a funny way of sneaking up on us all. I'd assume I'd just donate whatever pieces I have at the time of death to whoever I feel would appreciate them for what they are and give collecting a shot. Forget having them keep a piece, if they get into collecting enough they'd most likely move it a long for funds to acquire whatever piece brings them in further. Interesting topic, everyone has a separate understanding of their collection & how they'd like it to be passed down.

Condition is king...live & die by those words, if something is being put aside for a future heir, make it perfect so they see what drew you into collecting

Thomas

Does that bell curve apply to WIS? How do we all fit on that left side?

I grew up in the deep suburbs, the kind where children could go out in their bicycles at night unescorted and minors like me and my friends could take our rifles to the local dam/reservoir to hunt game. Growing up our family home was home base, a refuge. If everything fell apart, I could always go home. And I thought that family home would be sort of an heirloom to me and my siblings.

Decades later my parents moved to NYC for work and when it was our time to work, me and my siblings also moved to the city. Our area was re-zoned for mixed use. Our neighbors houses were torn down to become apartment buildings, auto repair shops, etc. Our house was rented out and used as a day-care center. I was away but the houses I bought and lived in, I repainted all the rooms to have the same color scheme as the house I grew up in. And in the back of my mind, I always knew that at the end of the day we would end the lease and if we wanted to still be able to come back home.

After a few more decades, back property taxes, unauthorized unpermitted construction at our house (to extend the amount of day care space), my parents decided taking back the house and restoring it was more time, effort, and money than they wanted to spend. So they sold it. I was shocked and one of my sisters was upset for a very long time. My parents tried to make up for this fiasco by giving out our "inheritance", basically the proceeds of the house. But I didn't want the money, I wanted my childhood home.

So even with the best of intentions, heirlooms get lost. For many different reasons. Every day online I see watches with family inscriptions and dedications that probably should never have been available to the market for strangers like us to buy, yet it happens. So the best I can do at least is to choose something that will require the least amount of effort for my heirs to keep in the family. What has a personal attachment is something that can be 100% controlled. If at the outset you decide to buy a Rolex / Omega for your wrist, or a Timex or JLC - in time either will develop the same amount of attachment to your wrist. But not all of them will be as easy to keep in the family.

My wife and I are discussing having a child in the coming year and if/when we do I'll be purchasing a Speedmaster in his/her birth year to hand down someday.

Yes! And if the child does decide to sell it, and trades a quick sale for getting the most he/she could for it, then that's their decision and doesn't hurt anyone but them.

Omega. My vintage, cca 1968, sm300, passed on from my grandpa (sorry, no uncle! lol) spent 8 yrs with me nonstop under the toughest circumstances while landlording in North philly. And their value goes up and up... Nothing but basic maintenance and to this day looks amazing, patina and all. 🥰

😲 A deal... more like a steal! As a Leica nut myself, I am simultaneously happy for the buyer getting a singlestroke M3 for $13 (as if $15 wasn't good enough.. greedy jerk)... and furious at your sister for letting such a valuable family heirloom go for dirt. argh! And that was with the summicron on it? Holy moly...

My dad wasn't into watches, but he always wore a fairly cheap quartz casio. For his birthday the year before he passed I bought him a G-Shock GW2500 ana-digi. It was cheap comparatively to pretty much anything discussed here at ~$175 but it was by far the most expensive watch he had ever had. He was so surprised when he opened it, and I could tell he really, really liked it. He wore it every day until he died suddenly 9 months later. I wore that watch for a year after he passed. It was my connection to him as his death had ripped a hole in my heart. I will never part with it.

In short, what you buy and what you have to pass down doesn't really matter. It's the connection to your dad. I love this watch because he loved it, and he wore it every day. It means far more to me than if he had had a Rolex in a drawer that he never wore except on special occasions.

I only have one really nice watch now, and that is my birth year '77 Speedmaster. My plan is someday it will be my son's as I doubt my daughter will be interested, but who knows? I don't know what else I might end up with before my time is done, but for me the Speedmaster is my favorite, and I hope that he will keep it and wear it in remembrance of me.