Just wondering if a visit to the vintage Omega shop at the Burlington Arcade is worth the timer? Not from a buying perspective, just browsing.....

Also, if anyone has suggestions for vintage watch browsing in central London I would be happy to hear.
Thanks!

 

The whole arcade is worth a browse.

 

Hi, I work around the corner from the BA and pop in from time to time and they have some great and often rare watches in the Omega vintage shop. Definitely worth a browse. There are a couple of other decent shops selling vintage in Burlington Arcade (in my humble opinion the best one is David Duggan). There's also Armour Winston and the Vintage Watch Company (beware!). Watchfinder is down there also (first floor) but you need to make an appointment to view watches so check online first. There's a few other vintage watch shops in Grays Antique Market on the ground floor and in the basement (there's two entrances, use the one nearest Bond St tube). There are others nearer to the BA, Watch Club for example and Piccadilly Vaults. Otherwise there's Dominic Hackett over in Hatton Garden who has a good reputation and is friendly. Chronext also in Piccadilly. Have a great time! ...no pun intended.

 

Check out the Harrison chronometers at the Greenwich Observatory, if that sort of thing interests you.

 

Tnx for the info.

 

Was there last Sepember. 2998-6 priced at 34,500 GBP. Might be 50,000 Now

 

Also the British Watch and Clock Makers Guild Museum. But don't expect to be able to buy anything much.

http://www.bwcmg.org/

 

Great place to browse but watches are priced in the hope that an extremely wealthy person will walk past and make an impulse purchase.

 

There's a young Italian guy downstairs, who's great to talk to, and often has nice stuff.

The guys on the top floor... I wouldn't waste your breath, the prices are high, the watches are crap, and when I had the audacity to ask if the flight master they had for £5k (taking the piss) was a 145.036 or 145.026, they told me to "fuck off to Somlo if you're going to be a dickhead".

I'd recommend a trip to the Science Museum in South Kensington - they have a really cool watches exhibition featuring a lot of stuff from George Daniels, and they also have an Apollo and a Soyuz Capsule

 

Antique clock room at British Museum is very nice. Most if not all are still running. Goes back as far as 600yrs I believe. Also, free to go.

 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I'll only be in town for a couple of days so will have to chose wisely!

 

Maybe they'll take a 145.012 as a partial trade-in. I'll offer it at the bargain price of 20,000 GBP.....