What This Blog is About

Ever since I started collecting wristwatches back in 1986, I've been bombarded with magazine articles, advertisements, auction catalogs, and (more recently) Internet propaganda suggesting that to take part in this hobby, one must spend thousands (and in some cases tens and even hundreds of thousands) of dollars on each and every watch.

Doesn't matter whether new or vintage (which was my preference at the time and still is). Just trot on over to the auction houses of Christie's or Sotheby's, or hop on your private jet to New York or L.A. and visit some retail gallery such as "Tourneau" and start peeling off the $100 bills (or whip out your Amex Centurion Card), and you'll be on your way to becoming a a member of the vintage watch collecting community!

To that, I say, "Bullsh**." This is not the only way to enjoy this wonderful hobby. I believed it then, and still believe it now! And during my early forays into the world of flea markets and estate sales,  and then joining the NAWCC where I attended local chapter meeting and regional events, I soon discovered a veritable gold mine of affordable wristwatches.

Like many hobbyists starting out, I collected darned near everything with a price tag of $20 or less (or that I could haggle down to that price!): Bulova, Elgin, Gruen, Waltham, Hamilton, to name a few. Or sometimes no brand at all if I simply liked the way a certain watch "looked."(I'm a sucker for Art Deco designed watches, for example.)

Things have certainly changed since then, notably with the advent and now pervasiveness of the Internet. For one thing, there is an exponentially greater amount of information "out there" for the taking (or at reasonable cost). Not all of it is good information, mind you, but much of it is. Certainly prices have increased in general, insofar as the price of everything has increased in the past 28 years. And as for me, my collecting tastes have evolved and become more focused.

But one thing hasn't changed: There are still thousands and thousands of affordable wristwatches "out there" for the buying and trading. A recent visit to an NAWCC regional found dozens upon dozens of nice looking watches in good running order for 50 bucks apiece, complete with bands. And in some cases even less than 50 bucks! Fixer-uppers needing nothing more than a new crystal, or a new stem and crown, and maybe a polishing of the case can be had for $20 (or less). Three watches I found at a local chapter meeting recently are shown below and are typical of what I find:

I bought these three running watches for $100, or $33.33 apiece. Left to right, there's a Buren; a Lord Elgin automatic with funky numeral dial; and a Wittnauer automatic.

Still, though, old myths die hard. The notion that you must spend gobs of money to be a "true" collector still persists. Take the example below for instance. It's from the "auction results" pages of a recent issue of a consumer watch magazine.

I wondered for a long time (and certainly during the worst of the most recent 2007-2009 recession), "Who in the hell is buying these watches?" I'll let you in on a little secret: According to an exposé a couple of years ago in a well respected financial newspaper, it is often the watch companies themselves (Patek Philippe, Rolex, etc.) bidding on their own watches! Let me make this clear: These companies own these watches. They consign them with a major auction house such as Sotheby's or Christie's, and then they bid them up ( and in some cases overbid them by an extreme amount) to assure they will be the "winner" of the watch.

Now why in the world, you may ask, would they do that? The answer is simple: To keep the perceived value of the company's products (both new and vintage) artificially high in the public's mind. Apparently, the auction houses see no problem with this. Hell, they get their commission no matter what. And the consumer magazines, whether they know it or not, are complicit in this not-so-little charade.

But I know better, and I know hundreds and even thousands of collectors know better, too. The goal (for me at least) is to get more of you folks out there with moderate budgets into this wonderful hobby and dispense with the notion that this is a game only for the rich. To that end, I have spent the last 26 years helping people get started collecting affordable watches when I turned "dealer" part-time in 1988, and full-time in 1991 when I quit my "regular" job. I don't know the exact count, but I figure I've easily sold over 5,000 watches between my own website, and selling on eBay. I would say at least half those watches were (and continue to be) under $200, and at least half of those again under $100.

My incurable curiosity, along with a desire to keep my writing skills sharp from my former career as a journalist, led me to research watches of all kinds so that I could learn more about them and make better buying decisions. In September of 1993, I started Vintage Wristwatch Report, a monthly newsletter devoted to affordable wristwatches. I still remember well my inaugural lead article, titled "When is an $85 Bulova a $500 Bulova?" It was basically a rant against sellers asking ridiculous prices for vintage watches, and a warning to collectors not to be suckered into overpaying, but instead to step back and take a more sane approach and enjoy their hobby at a much more affordable level.

So here I am again, 20+ years later, come full circle. Only this time, instead of 130 subscribers to my newsletter, I can potentially reach 1,000 or more of you through the Internet, and all without the expense and waste of paper, printing, and postage! I have a lot of valuable information, photos, images, etc., that I've collected over the years, and continue to collect. I'll be sharing that information with you in subsequent posts. Some of that information will be for free. And, I'll be honest with you right up front, some will be available via downloadable e-books and e-reports at modest cost. I feel this is only fair, since I've spent considerable time, effort, and money obtaining this stuff; not only gathering the raw  information, but processing it and presenting it into a logical and easy-to-understand format. This may offend some people, but, hey, I am not a nonprofit company, and I have bills to pay like everyone else! And besides, I have long believed that anything worth having is worth paying for, and that includes knowledge. Don't think of it as an expense; think of it an an investment, because I certainly do! The books, catalogs, parts and service manuals, ads, old magazine, etc., I have purchased over the years have paid me back many times over in making good buy/trade decisions that have yielded profit. Or, at the very least, have saved my ass on many an occasion by avoiding watches that are restored improperly, pieced together ("Franken-watches") or otherwise molested in some way.

The advice of Roy Ehrhardt Jr., a pioneer in the horological publishing business, and an early mentor of mine, holds as true today as it did nearly 30 years ago when I read it in one of his books: "The only substitute for knowledge is money." Think about that for a minute. If your financial resources are unlimited, you can go out and spend "stupid money" on watches, or anything else for that matter, and it won't really matter. These types of collectors will never learn, and I can say with near 100% certainty that they are not reading this blog! There are literally hundreds of people out there selling vintage watches that will only be too happy to lighten the wallets of the willingly uninformed. I see it, literally, every day. Take the example below from a popular online marketplace:

$359.85 is an absolutely insane price for this watch. There are so many things wrong with this watch (that I can ascertain from the image and the seller's ignorance alone) that I scarcely know where to begin. But for starters, the dial and the gold filled case are both in poor condition. The lugs have been significantly eaten away from a metal band (which you should never put on a gold or gold-filled cased watch, by the way). And the watch is definitely not from the 1930s, as the seller suggests. It's a late 1950s or early '60s watch. At best, it's a $75 watch.

But the seller is obviously trolling for an impulse buyer for whom $359.85 is chump change. Dangle a horse turd on the end of a hook, describe it as "rare" and use catch phrases such as "Art Deco," "Retro Moderne," "cloisonné dial," (all of which most people don't have a clue as to their meaning), and if you wait long enough, chances are someone will bite.

But if you're like most folks (including me), you have a finite amount of discretionary income. Doesn't it make sense to spend a little on education to save a lot, or at least avoid being screwed? So with that in mind, let's begin this little adventure and see where it goes. I'll try my best to make it worth your while. I'll share many of the "secrets" I've learned over the years to make this hobby more enjoyable (and financially rewarding). There will be ample opportunity for you to comment, and I hope you will share some of your "secrets" with me, and also challenge me on those occasions when you think I'm way off base. Above all, have some fun with this. I certainly have!