Raving about Rolex
17 SEPTEMBER 2020
The enduring appeal of the wristwatch.
James Clark
James Clark continues to write about his passions despite having left his first career as a national newspaper journalist, latterly concentrating on defence and conflict reporting for The Sunday Times, and moving into communications in the automotive industry. He owns too many old watches and cars, some of which occasionally work.
An early 1969 Rolex “Red” Submariner with original version IV dial in superb condition.
It is, I’m told, among automotive journalists, an inevitable and tedious part of a party – some vague friend sidles up and asks the dreaded question, ‘what’s the best car then?’.
Normal people don’t tend to talk about timepieces at social functions, so the threat as a ‘watchie’ is less real but that’s not to say it never happens. When it does, my answer is always the same: get yourself a Casio F-91W. In fact, get two.
A quick dash to Google tells me you can have one delivered for less than £9 on Amazon at the moment. It’s almost indestructible. It’s waterproof, and it’s more accurate than a £185,000 Patek Philippe. So accurate actually, that back in the day the Taliban used to advise their bomb-makers to use them as timing devices. They would never have settled for anything made in Switzerland or Glashutte.
I make this point in pursuit of a wider truth, and it’s this: none of us who love vintage mechanical watches buy them because they’re the best things you can strap to your wrist to tell the time. Technology has moved on. Quartz watches are more accurate, digital watches more functional, and now smart watches do even more, including nagging you about your exercise routine, sleep patterns and calorie intake.
In the final reckoning the technology in a luxury mechanical watch isn’t vastly different from that inside a pocket watch made 400 years ago. Movement designs have improved, new materials have moved things on, but fundamentally the beautiful little machines we love are, at heart, just as they were when ships were made from oak and had sails.
The technological advances mean nothing to the passionate enthusiast. This is a question of emotion not clinical accuracy or efficiency. It’s about soul. When I lay down to sleep, wherever I am in the world, the sight of one of my old watches ticking away by the bed is a comfort, a little piece of home beside me, a reminder I’m not entirely cut adrift. How much is that worth? Given I’m not alone in this, the answer is “increasingly large amounts”.
Vintage watch prices remain very strong and, bought well, a vintage piece represents a great way to own something lovely that’s also a sound investment. Rolex remains a banker, which is pleasing because whilst you can certainly buy them covered in diamonds and made from some incredibly precious metal, the ones which are really worth the money were designed as simple steel “tool watches”; ways of telling the time reliably whether you were diving in Mexico or leading safaris in the African bush. Submariners remain a very solid investment but in Rolex, as in everything at the moment, it is the chronograph complication which has gone stratospheric.
Patek Philippe “Serpico y Laino”, dated 1947, 18 k rose gold case, rare original dial in hard enamel.
Whatever the brand, if it’s from the 1960s or 1970s and has a sub-dial or two (or three) it’s presently hotter than hell. In Rolex-world that mostly means Daytonas, but if you don’t have a budget running to hundreds of thousands (or $18 million in one incredible case recently!) there are wonderful things to be had from, amongst others, Omega (always a safe investment), Longines (really coming up at the moment) and of course Heuer (from pre-TAG days). Military watches also continue to do well, be that top end issue items from IWC or Tutima, or lesser known pieces like Seiko’s RAF issue quartz chronos. Seiko, by the way, goes from strength to strength price-wise (always a watchie’s favourite, if not a status symbol; but for many of us that’s the point).
The Open Art Fair exhibitor Paul Pfanner, of Timewise Vintage Watches, feels there are two reasons why the vintage mechanical remains so in vogue. “Firstly it’s about quality,” he says. “Things which are exclusive and hand-made with real craftsmanship really appeal now. Also, many successful people walk into a boardroom and everyone’s wearing the same modern Rolex; they want something not everyone else has. Perhaps something has been lost in the era of mass-production.”
Paul adds: “Secondly it’s about investment. Watches have been steadily rising for 30 years and for some investors the tax advantages are also a factor - there’s no Capital Gains Tax to pay on a vintage watch.”
Paul also has some great advice for those entering the market. “People think they are saving money buying from auctions, but those days have passed. I see so many horror stories from people who have bought things unseen, with no guarantee, but without saving anything on buying from a reliable dealer who can attend to any issues and with whom they can build a long-term relationship.”
So the obvious question for us to end on, then, is where’s the value to be found next? In a sense the ship has left the quay but it’s only just reached the harbour wall. There are still watches out there that are on the up, for example pieces from Tissot, a long under-rated Swiss house with a wonderful design back catalogue, are currently going up in value faster than Tesla shares. A good T-12 was £300 two years ago. Today £1,000 isn’t unusual, and for the right 1970s Tissot Chronos three times that can be achieved. Don’t say I never do anything for you. Happy watch hunting.
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