I am grateful but still clueless

Japan has the reputation of being one of the best places to shop for vintage watches.

*psss* Guys... come on!

"Nope, you are right OP - Japan is definitely not the place to buy vintage watches. Nor ebay. Chrono24 is the best option! Best of luck to you!"

I'm kidding of course - welcome to the forum, we won't try and keep all the good ones to ourselves. Thank you for trying to educate yourself first, - that's rare with new members, and it's appreciated.

The last part was true though - best of luck to you in your searches 😀

Thank everyone for setting me straight, I've been paying attention to the ebay watches from Japan.

Having said that, this watch from @Toishome is exactly what has been catching my eye. Unfortunately it will be the end of Jan before I can pull the trigger. If you haven't sold it around that time, I'll be contacting you.

I appreciate all the input from this thread!

Mark

I'm so glad you're asking questions as you develop a new collection. I'll share my own story which includes a fair number of eBay purchases. The few important things to keep in mind are (a) do your research, (b) ask questions of sellers and on forums like OF, and (c) trust your instincts. You're clearly well on your way with a and b, with research. On eBay ALWAYS ask questions and ask for pictures if anything seems awry. If the picture doesn't capture what you're seeking, ask again - if you lose out on something else will come along.

My education is in art history and I'm a graphic designer so that will help explain my perspective. I always ask questions about provenance. I thirst for the story associated with a piece. Usually, it's nothing but at the very least you can find out how the seller acquired the watch which is a small piece of the puzzle (of course less reputable sellers claim "it came from the estate of an old watchmaker..."). Sure it did. Maybe (maybe) was serviced by an old watchmaker in the 1980s but that's it! Always trust your instincts. If something doesn't feel right or if a piece really doesn't measure up to your standards let it go.

You might consider developing a focus for a collection and watch it evolve. When I started collecting, my focus was on developing a collection of mainly dress watches that shared a specific design aesthetic: CONCENTRIC CIRCLES. My first Omega grail watch was a Suveran (look up the history on the OF or Google, interesting story) and I also discovered Polerouters so then the focus also started to include watches designed for airlines in the great age of Jet travel (50's and 60's) such as the Polerouter (countless iterations) and Marvin Flying Dutchman, Pan Am's, etc... I developed the small grouping and got bored and with regard to UG Polerouters realized a collection would be too focused for me and not how I wanted to spend my money. But of course, I did start corresponding with Adam Hambly (Polerouter expert extraordinaire).

That's the real prize for collecting, our community.

To bring this a little further, over the past 5 years I've accumulated roughly 50 watches, and then over the past 2 years, I got serious. I decided a few $2-4k watches were not out of reach. So I decided to develop a personal collection that reflects me and to set two conditions: Only add examples that measure up to a suitable standard and develop a collection of 14 watches (2weeks) total and for every new acquisition, a Sophie's choice must occur. I still look at for sale watches all over the place to educate myself about movements, aesthetics, people.... My current passion is are watches of the 1960s with a very recent odd subcategory (alarm watches) and a few very special grail watches will stay - my first Polerouter, "Roger" - the Tudor Tuxedo worn by Roger Sterling on MadMen, an 18k Gold elegant UG from the 1940s, a highly unusual Bulova Oceanographer 200 (a shameless Rolex Submariner look-alike sold for two years), and of course Dad's Seamaster obviously a few others but I'm getting to be boorish.

Shop all around, Chronos24 and Reddit often have splendid pieces as does OF. For me, I have at least 40+ watches to sell and that may involve an eBay garage sale - I want other new collectors to finds some easter eggs. Two last pieces of advice: if you want to look at eBay the OF maintains a good discussion board for eBay best values where people "vet" good deal items. https://omegaforums.net/threads/rec...y-other-auctions.113139/page-170#post-1667644 and buy with PASSION - let passion rule your wrist.

To everyone, sorry for the length of this post but this is as much in appreciation for everyone as it is advice. Stay safe

@glennberger

My stepson just started at SCAD in Savannah, he is going into architectural renovation but loves art history.

Thank you for the advice and your journey through watch collecting. I enjoyed reading reply and have a feeling I'll be on this forum a lot!

I eventually want to get a solid gold 1960's, for some reason I keep going to 1967 watches even though they all look the same to me.

SCAD = Sensational College of Art & Design. Savannah, for architectural restoration I cannot think of a better place to study. For architectural historians (my passion in Art History is/was architecture) it is the promised land. Your stepson made a wise choice. Chicago is of course heaven, but either IIT or School of AIC are too large. Undergrads get lost. SCAD has great faculty and a warm community - none of the snobbishness of say RISD. I used to teach at MassArt so I've had my fill of RISD acolytes. Ii hope he has a great time in Savannah. Where are you from? I'm in Boston.

Well starting is pretty hard especially in the vintage watch collecting world I have read dozens of articles and many times I still fall into traps thats why this forum is so helpful with all its experienced members!!