I've been looking for a nice, steel, vintage, mechanical watch for Mrs D, and am surprised at the seeming lack of interest in ladies' watches. From the dearth of sale entries on WatchRecon to being somewhat overlooked by other useful archival sources (like http://www.old-omegas.com/, where most catalogs were scanned without the ladies' watches at all) it seems that there's little love amongst collectors for ladies watches, or am I just looking in the wrong places? Maybe Omega (and other vendors') histories are that ladies watches were predominantly small, gold, jewel-like things, rather than exuding the kinds of qualities that collectors get excited about. So, I'm wondering what to do. I'm looking at the likes of the 566.026 - eg https://www.austinkaye.co.uk/vintage-omega-ladies-seamaster-steel-automatic or https://www.fellows.co.uk/1728-lot-...h_type=&sort_by=&style=&view=lot_detail&year= Since there's almost no private watch sale market for ladies watches, should I wait for an auction to show up with the right watch, or pay a premium to get one off a retailer?
Those are very expensive prices for very small watches. About 5 times overpriced, if not more. One thing that a lot of people get caught up in is the idea that a ladies watch is extremely small. Generally speaking, for older models, this is the case. These days plenty of women will happily wear massive quartz watches for fashion purposes. A decent sized mechanical is more practial these days - I was browsing through earlier and saw that @efauser had kindly presented his daughter with a vintage 'mens-sized' Omega Seamaster...and she wore it with class at her wedding! Now if you're looking for the small watches, they do invariably pop up on the sales forums here (which are great!) eBay will have plenty; however quality and price are hit and miss. Or you can buy slightly bigger sizes (old mid-size of 31mm and up) and have a far wider range to choose from, and it will be easier to pick forum sales!
I would echo Boomerangs comment/observation. In the Newport Beach, Laguna Beach area of Orange County Ca. women commonly wear men's watches. I was at the pool the other day and this cute gal had on a mans S.S. Rolex Oyster. She wore it loose like a bracelet. Most men's vintage Omegas from the The sixties are considered a bit small for today's taste, but should be great for a lady. P.S. look at the Dynamics, lots of color options and you can add a bracelet if it doesn't already come with it.
Well, today the DHL man arrived at my door with a whole bunch of things... Let's do a comparison of Omegas - one mens, one ladies Geneve Dynamic, and a Seamaster cocktail watch - on one wrist For reference I have about a 6.5"-7" wrist (19-21cm.)
Yeah, I'll try to wean her onto smaller mens' watches I have a gold 35mm Seamaster De Ville that's just getting serviced so maybe will try her with that, and perhaps source a steel cased equivalent for her. I bought her a new TAG Heuer Formula 1 a few years ago, and it's 37mm but she finds it too big & chunky. Her daily wearer is a steel & gold quartz Constellation from about 12 years ago.