When is a watch vintage?

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Ωemptymywallet

·May 25, 2020

Hello all!

My other posts have mainly been on watches I have been considering. But while I continue my search this question continued to pop up in my head and I'm curious what the rest of you have to think.

This forum itself has separate pages for modern and vintage Omegas. But from what I've seen from the pinned threads on both, neither define when a watch fits into either category. So when does a watch become a vintage watch? As someone in my early years of collecting, I'd like to hear the rationale behind your individual opinions.

 

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base615

·May 25, 2020

IMO a generation so circa 20-30 years.

 

K

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killer67

·May 25, 2020

IMO pre 1998

 

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kov

·May 25, 2020

In Omega, I think it’s getting safe to call modern everything with superluminova / call vintage everything tritium and radium on hands and dial.

 

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Ωemptymywallet

·May 25, 2020

base615

IMO a generation so circa 20-30 years.

I tend to land on that period of time as well. But it's also strange to me to think of something like a bond seamaster as a vintage piece.

 

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dan7800

·May 25, 2020

When are people vintage?

 

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OmeGez

·May 25, 2020

I think there’s a fine line between a few years of ‘classic’ before entering ‘vintage’

My Explorer II is 20 years old and I class that as a ‘classic’ and maybe in 5-10 years I’ll class it as vintage.

My 2254 is 15 years old now. That’s entering the ‘classic’ phase...another 10 and I’ll probably class that as vintage then?

you can’t define them by super luminova > etc as in 50 years, you can’t call a 50 year old watch modern IMO.

 

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STANDY

·May 25, 2020

1980 works for me.

Most of my Vintage are 50s 60s with one or two early 70s
Most of my Moderns are 2006 to now

As many, actually heaps of threads and posts have ended up discovering it is personal and myself being almost 50 would have a different opinion to a 25 year old.

This Subject does come up every 3 or so months 😗

https://omegaforums.net/threads/from-what-year-vintage.27938/#post-311657

https://omegaforums.net/threads/vintage-vs-modern.87407/#post-1130416

 

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Spruce

·May 25, 2020·Sunburst dial fan

My vote is for pre-1980 but I’m happy to switch to pre-1970 if outvoted.

 

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chichi

·May 25, 2020

I always used 25 years

 

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DaveK

·May 25, 2020

dan7800

When are people vintage?

 

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rincondeltiempo

·May 25, 2020

The way I see it, vintage for me is:
- Anything with tritium/radium on the dial, in essence anything without (super)luminova.
- In case of a non-luminous dial, I would have to agree with @killer67, anything previous to 1998.

 

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Donn Chambers

·May 25, 2020

To me, vintage is any date before I was born, because I’m not vintage yet! 😉

 

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STANDY

·May 25, 2020

chichi

I always used 25 years

rincondeltiempo

anything previous to 1998.

Well that makes the first Apple Watch vintage.

1995

 

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Dan S

·May 25, 2020

For me it's a combination of age and certain features. Pre-1980 is safely vintage. However, there are some models from the early 1980s that are clear continuations of 70s models (e.g. acrylic crystal Rolex models) that I also consider vintage. While I realize that 25 years is a nice round number, I'm having trouble feeling that a 1995 tritium Speedmaster is vintage.

 

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Taddyangle

·May 25, 2020

I consider vintage up to end of tritium. That seems to work okay for now. I'm not sure if that will work in 20+ years from now.

Vintage

Modern

 

P

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pongster

·May 25, 2020

STANDY

Well that makes the first Apple Watch vintage.

1995

Looks like this french watch of mine.

To the question, vintage for me is more than 20 years old. More than 100 years old and i call it antique.

 

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dan7800

·May 25, 2020

Taddyangle

I consider vintage up to end of tritium. That seems to work okay for now. I'm not sure if that will work in 20+ years from now.

+1

 

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rincondeltiempo

·May 25, 2020

STANDY

Well that makes the first Apple Watch vintage.

The term vintage doesn't always imply good!

 

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Gyges

·May 25, 2020

I was born in 1980; anything older than that is vintage. I suppose in 20 years I'll still draw the line there, though I reckon that someone born in 2000 will draw it elsewhere.