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How many of you buy vintage and store it away without servicing

chipsotoole
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Hello Omegoids,
I've been puzzling over something lately.
We all buy project watches and fixer uppers...some projects take significantly longer than others...But I think we all like to see a vintage watch restored and running..Gives a certain sense of satisfaction to bring a timepiece back from the dead.
The thing is for me as a freelancer family man, Covid has changed aspects of my buying habits and of the market. I've always been more of a low end purchaser (with a couple of exceptions) and as discussed before in another thread, the vintage market is still galloping along growing in many directions making hitherto relatively undesirable watches suddenly (and puzzlingly) desirable. Finding bargains or reasonable deals is becoming significantly more difficult. Added to this it seems, in my area at least, that my usual go to watchmakers are quoting me hikes of 30-50% for repair and service . This leaves me in a quandary...I still might be able to buy the odd piece, but I'm not sure if I can afford the outlay of an additional service. So my question is this, would you or do you buy vintage watches (running or not) that should get a repair or service but know that in your possession they will be unlikely to do so and have been purchased to round off a part of your collection or boughtfor their relative scarcity and desirability?
 
tyrantlizardrex
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I too tend to buy fixer uppers and get them fixed up... as it has always been much more affordable (and often a way to get a better watch) than buying something mint/prepared.

Over the last 18 months I've found myself buying things I know I can't afford to/justify fixing right now, but will do in the future.

Slowly working through and acquiring parts, but have 7 broken watches waiting to be brought back to life as time/money allows.

I plan to work through all of them, and bring them all back to working condition - I'm not setting myself a time scale though.

At the moment, having cash in the bank to pay for unexpected things (like my contract being ended a few weeks ago) is taking priority over old watches.
 
Canuck
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I have many watches that are not included in my stable of watches that I wear. Most of those would do well with a service, but I don’t bother doing them. It doesn’t make sense (to me) to go through a watch I never (or rarely) wear, then have it languor in the safe again, for another decade or so. It is not a matter of expense as I do my own repairs. I have numerous watches that I may have serviced years ago, but that are rarely (or never) worn. If, on a whim, I might choose to wear one of those for a day or two, as long as they run for that short period, no harm will be done.
 
Duracuir1
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Canuck Canuck
I have many watches that are not included in my stable of watches that I wear. Most of those would do well with a service, but I don’t bother doing them. It doesn’t make sense (to me) to go through a watch I never (or rarely) wear, then have it languor in the safe again, for another decade or so. It is not a matter of expense as I do my own repairs. I have numerous watches that I may have serviced years ago, but that are rarely (or never) worn. If, on a whim, I might choose to wear one of those for a day or two, as long as they run for that short period, no harm will be done.
Thank you! This is what I do. @Canuck You have a lifelong knowledge in this field and I will “unfollow” this thread and follow your wise advice!
View attachment 1032588
 
janice&fred
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Interesting topic. We were spoiled when living in Cebu City. A few members here from the Philippines also know it's not very expensive to get quality service/repair work done there as there are some extremely talented watch makers on those various Islands. We would pretty much have everything we found serviced up by either my wife's Godfather who is Rolex trained or by Rey who is quite well known in Cebu for handling complicated watches and difficult resto jobs. Now we use a couple guys in NYC that have done work for us whenever we are stateside but it's a pain in the butt to head into the city with the covid crisis. We have one guy in Hartford that is reasonable, and we are using him for simple "tune-ups" for stuff we find that we want to wear once in a while but not get carried away as canuck points out since the watches mostly sit around unworn. Guys like Al (archer) would gasp at the notion and they are correct, but the alternative for most of us on a budget is give up the hobby altogether, or simply display most watches as unused static modern art. If we can get an oldie we find working with an affordable minor cleaning and lubing of key movement components then at least there is some enjoyment left to the ever-increasing cost of this hobby.
 
Vitezi
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chipsotoole chipsotoole
So my question is this, would you or do you buy vintage watches (running or not) that should get a repair or service but know that in your possession they will be unlikely to do so and have been purchased to round off a part of your collection or bought for their relative scarcity and desirability?
Yes, I do exactly this, although I only buy running watches. Even in the pre-COVID days, the few watchmakers who have been willing to accept my business had such a backlog of work that it can take a year for a watch to be serviced. And so my project box of unserviced watches waiting for their turn is always full.
 
Widows Son
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I'm not knowledgable enough to buy non working watches in hopes of them being repairable. With my luck parts would be impossible to source. I only buy running watches, at least then I have a fighting chance of getting them going again.
 
tyrantlizardrex
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Widows Son Widows Son
I'm not knowledgable enough to buy non working watches in hopes of them being repairable. With my luck parts would be impossible to source. I only buy running watches, at least then I have a fighting chance of getting them going again.

He who dares wins. 😉

There were all non-runners - all owe me less than an unserviced running example would have cost...

flightmaster910WM.jpg flightmaster911WM.jpg speedsonicWM.jpg
 
JwRosenthal
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My watchmaker has always been slow to get work back- 4-6 months on average, sometimes longer- and he won’t take more than 4 at a time from me. But he does a good job and is thorough. I send him the valuable stuff or pieces that I know will get frequent wear.

My fun vintage pieces for which I spent very little, I have done by a close friend who is a very skilled “watch tinkerer” and can do a cleaning, oiling, and replacement of obviously faulty parts but doesn’t get into the microscope like my watchmaker does- for these watches, close is good enough for me. Once I have a base-line for a watch I feel more comfortable wearing it whenever I want.
I will still wear an unserviced but “running well” watch that’s in cue but seldomly because it’s always in the back of my head that it’s dry as a bone and cruddy in there.

edit- to the OP’s point, for myself and others who have resources in place to get work done and bring non-runners back to life- it’s easy to look past issues and know they can be resolved. But many don’t have those resources so I’m sure it can be frustrating.
Edited:
 
Spruce
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Vitezi Vitezi
Yes, I do exactly this, although I only buy running watches. Even in the pre-COVID days, the few watchmakers who have been willing to accept my business had such a backlog of work that it can take a year for a watch to be serviced. And so my project box of unserviced watches waiting for their turn is always full.

Like you I only buy watches that are running and that I can give wrist time to, before deciding on a service or any other improvement.

All my watches were 'buy to wear' but inevitably, I go off one and or buy a nicer/better one and my former favourite heads into the watch box.
 
Archer
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janice&fred janice&fred
IWe have one guy in Hartford that is reasonable, and we are using him for simple "tune-ups" for stuff we find that we want to wear once in a while but not get carried away as canuck points out since the watches mostly sit around unworn. Guys like Al (archer) would gasp at the notion and they are correct, but the alternative for most of us on a budget is give up the hobby altogether, or simply display most watches as unused static modern art. If we can get an oldie we find working with an affordable minor cleaning and lubing of key movement components then at least there is some enjoyment left to the ever-increasing cost of this hobby.

Hello Fred,

If I can make a suggestion...before you claim to know my thoughts on this, you should perhaps actually look into the posts I've made on this subject.

This thread covers the subject of servicing vintage pretty well:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/selling-of-watches-that-are-unserviced.79470/page-3

Note my post on that page. In the relevant post there is this statement:

"The key thing I've always said is that there is no single answer that is appropriate for every situation. My answer when someone asks me how often to service a watch is always "it depends.""

And to address your assertion more directly, there's this statement:

"It could be that you only plan to wear this watch once a year on a special occasion - if that's the case then you won't be doing a lot of extra damage, so service may not be needed right away."

And as I say on page 5:

"To be clear, I don't care if people here service their watches, run them into the ground, or smash them with a hammer. But please don't let anyone suggest that not servicing them when you wear them regularly is not doing damage, because it is."

So personally, I could not possibly care less what you do with your own personal possessions.

Cheers, Al
 
DON
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If you see something you like and can afford to buy it. Do it. Store it away and when it's time. Get it restored.

In the early years of Ebay. I bought what I wanted and the watches sat in what I called my junk box.

When my watch maker passed away and my dial refinisher retired. What I had left go sold off

This is what I had sitting at the time

CIMG49091.JPG

Based on current prices. Values will probably only go up

DON
 
JwRosenthal
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DON DON
If you see something you like and can afford to buy it. Do it. Store it away and when it's time. Get it restored.

In the early years of Ebay. I bought what I wanted and the watches sat in what I called my junk box.

When my watch maker passed away and my dial refinisher retired. What I had left go sold off

This is what I had sitting at the time

CIMG49091.JPG

Based on current prices. Values will probably only go up

DON
Some people got very lucky with your case-offs, I see a few there I would have snatched up.
 
lillatroll
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I have four or five watches sitting in the safe unborn since I bought them. It is because of my lifestyle situation that I don't wear them rather I don't want to wear them. I will get them checked over before I put them into regular rotation.
Not sure about my speedytuesday though, It is unworn and has sat in the box since I got it, I don't know if it should be checked over after 3 years of sitting idle in a safe.
 
tyrantlizardrex
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MikeMan2727 MikeMan2727
Happy to take that little sector dial Omega off your hands, Chris 😁😗

That’s a Civil Service (India) watch... and is currently with James Harris at Harris Horology.

Needs a new balance staff. Which he may have to make. ::facepalm1::

It’ll come back working at some point. 😎
 
janice&fred
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Archer Archer
Hello Fred,

If I can make a suggestion...before you claim to know my thoughts on this, you should perhaps actually look into the posts I've made on this subject.

I don't claim...I know! 😁

1097142701-if-people-could-read-my-mind.jpg
 
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