Click to view advice from other TimeZoners
1 - Spend one year surfing, reading and listening before you even consider your first purchase. Timezone is the place to do all four.
2 - When you buy, remember you're paying for pleasure. Don't expect to make a profit. Watches are rarely investments, even those by the best makers.
3 - Find a good watch repairer. Vintage watches need servicing.
4 - Prepare to be cheated. At least one of your buys will be a fake of one form or another.
5 - Buy to wear. Wearing a vintage piece is, eventually, what it's all about.
6 - Find good strap sellers. Vintage watches need good leather.
7 - Learn to accept some damage. Vintage = time = inevitable damage, even if only a little.
8 - Forget materials. Gold, steel, gold-filled ... they don't matter.
9 - Buy for quality, not name. Remember that the Swiss watch industry collapsed in 1983. Before then, there were hundreds of names we've never known.
10 - Be realistic. A 60-year-old 'new old stock' (n.o.s.) watch is 60 years old! Don't expect perfection.
11 - Remember the old jeweller's saying. No matter how good the movement or the case, 'the dial sells the watch'. So, buy only watches with good dials and never with re-dials.
12 - Buy, but don't sell. Give your vintage watches to your children/grandchildren. They'll appreciate them.
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