My apologies if this has been asked before in another post. As I read other posts on vintage watches and as we approach 2020, my question is what everyone here would define as a vintage watch. To me, being close to the 50 year old mark define a vintage as pre-1970. However, the younger members may and probably do have a different view of vintage. Hell, maybe anything prior to 1980 or even 1990. I know for a car to be considered a classic it needs to be at least 20 years old. For me the sweet spot for vintage is the 50's. Love the style not just on Omega, but other 50's Swiss watches have a very clean classic appeal to them.
Good question. I have a Rolex I bought new in '83 that I never thought it was vintage until I thought how old it was. I just bought an Omega that was 25 years old. I would say older than 25 years is vintage.
To me anything that's Tritium dial or older is considered vintage (or "Neo-vintage" is it's a 90's piece).
The term vintage for me is on a sliding scale..... If it is older than me, it is vintage... If it is my age it is "New, Young, Vital, and Modern !!!!!"
I usually say 30 years but I have been rethinking that. The 70's and quartz are when the wheels came off the watch industry for a while so, maybe anything before 1970.
When the watch starts to gain more value because of being old. (lots of watches just get old and become garbage, not vintage)
Initially 30 years came to mind, but I think about 20 or more years is about right. That’s around when T-dials and lug holes started to disappear.
my omega SMP 2531.80 is 18 years old, and I would not consider it vintage. its hard to define. I guess vintage is something which has a style perhaps ww2 or before. styles and tastes were very different than to today.
Antique = 100+ years. Lots of my local antique shops might disagree with you as most sell stuff from the 50's and 60's if not modern Chinese or Indian made fakes.
When I'm looking at watches, I split them between pre- and post-SuperLuminova - if it's from the early 90s or before a watch can least have that aged character and individuality you'd expect from vintage.
I consider that a vintage watch should have tritium on the dial and an acrylic crystal. Otherwise, if they aren't modern they are just old!
I’m noob when it comes to vintage watches, but this definition seems quite accurate Per Cambridge Dictionary: „of high quality and lasting value, or showing the best and most typical characteristics of a particular type of thing, especially from the past” For me, "vintage" is often "patinated", let it be 100 or 20 years old.
Just gave a 32 year old work colleague of mine a NOS Benrus 50th Anniversary D-day watch as a wedding gift ( I have had one for years and he always coveted it so I picked up another on the bay). He was blown away that I gave him a NOS "vintage" watch....and I thought for a minute....hey, 1995 isn't that long ago, what a couple years? Ummmm....24 years to be precise....ugh! I guess it can be relative. In the world of antiquities it used to be 50 years to be considered "antique"...but many fudge that. Classic cars it's 25 as a general rule to be considered for Historic plates.
For me, anything older than me is vintage, so pre 1980. But 1969 is probably the sweet spot. Anything from pre-1950s is antique in my book Love to wear them anyway.