Guest Post: A Contemporary Watch Collector Goes Vintage

To my longtime friends in the watch hobby, and perhaps to regular readers here as well, the mention of my name may conjure up a number of connotations: patron of the independents, fan of A. Lange & Söhne, admirer of Patek Philippe grand complications, and longtime customer of Jaeger-LeCoultre, among other characterizations more or less favorable.

But these likely never included vintage maven!

While I own a number of older watches – some quite old, indeed – the great majority of those were passed down by my ancestors (see My Grandfather, The Watch Collector) rather than purchased by me.

Over the years, however, I have bought a few vintage pieces, and as I’ve had the opportunity to see and handle a number of top-notch older watches at the Geneva auctions (see Year-End Auctions 2016: I Came, I Saw, I Learned, I Bought and You Are There: Attending The Only Watch Auction 2015 With Patek Philippe) my appreciation for, and interest in, the vintage scene has increased substantially.

At least for the time being, the culmination of that interest was the purchase of a lovely Patek Philippe Reference 1526 at the November 2016 Phillips auction. But before we talk about that, let’s turn back the clock and check out my other vintage purchases and see what I’ve learned so far.