Thread: What types of watches do you like?

If you take it to your local dealer they will send it out to the Rolex Repair Station and will tack on a healthy charge for handling the watch for you. Send it to Rolex via registered mail and it will arrive safely and insured.

Originally Posted by Otto

Nice one ChrisL. I'm not surprised a bit. Rolex made and still makes good solid dive watches. My two cents: Take it to your local authorized Rolex dealer, in person.
Talk to them and tell them you are thinking about maintenance. It was your dads watch, and it has a great history. Don't worry to much about the strap. It was and still is fairly common among the SF and Airborne to change it to something with less bling. Anyway, don't sell it - if you don't need the money to save someones life. Your grandchildren or grand nephews will thank you.

No, do not do this! You will lose a considerable amount of value due to the originality of the watch. Patina in old Rolexes is very sought after and increases the value of the watch by thousands of dollars. Rolex service centers do not care about that at all.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

If you take it to your local dealer they will send it out to the Rolex Repair Station and will tack on a healthy charge for handling the watch for you. Send it to Rolex via registered mail and it will arrive safely and insured.

This watch should NOT go to a service center. They will relume, re dial, and re hand it, destroying it's vintage value.

I,m not so sure it ruins value on a watch of that caliber. They all need service at some time in their life, not to mention a well working model will bring more than one that is falling apart and don't work, you know what a watch is that don't work? It's a paper weight. So send it in get it working again, back to its glory days. Nelson knows quite a bit about watches, I don't believe he would steer you wrong.

By the way Andrew nice job getting your Seiko serviced, I like that one myself, see we do think alike, I wear a Seiko 90% of the time. Tc

I have a Seiko but hardly wear it. I carry a cell phone and use it for time now days. Now days sense most folks carry a cell phone a watch is mostly decoration.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

I,m not so sure it ruins value on a watch of that caliber. They all need service at some time in their life, not to mention a well working model will bring more than one that is falling apart and don't work, you know what a watch is that don't work? It's a paper weight. So send it in get it working again, back to its glory days. Nelson knows quite a bit about watches, I don't believe he would steer you wrong.

By the way Andrew nice job getting your Seiko serviced, I like that one myself, see we do think alike, I wear a Seiko 90% of the time. Tc

My two cents on this. I am a watch collector and had sold collections to big auction houses, so I have a little bitty experience on this. Believe it or not, a watch like this is worth more in its current condition. I sold a big collection of Bubblebacks and half of them didn't work, most of the were from the forties and fifties and they fetched more than the ones actually working.

So it comes down to what one wants to do with it. If you want to keep it and wear it, by all means, send it to NYC and let them do their thing. If it has sentimental value keep it as it is until it actually needs service. I love vintage watches and still own a rather large collection, so I'm biased about restorations unless is extremely necessary to save the watch movement.

I currently sport a Hublot Bing Bang King. I don't use my vintage watches, those are sitting pretty at a bank.

I feel naked if I manage to leave the house without a watch on! I only wear analog watches and rotate between three depending on what I am wearing. None are expensive, but all do their job
PS- all of my current watches are simple Quartz since my expensive mechanical watch got stolen out of my car a while back!

Like I've said many time using a cell phone as a watch is a 21st century equivalent of a pocket watch. The reason wrist watches became popular over a pocket watch is convenience and using a cell phone is just a step backwards.

To me a beat up watch is just that. The exceptions are a watch that has sentimental value and you want it to remain in the condition in which you receive it and a watch that has collectible value.

So you need to decide what is important to you. Do you want to sell it and want the money? If that is the case you need to get it appraised and then make your decision. Maybe you want to keep it but have it cleaned up and serviced. Of course it will look different and reduce collectible value. maybe you want to just get the mvmt serviced and keep the rest in it's present condition and wear it or maybe you just want to keep it as a keepsake.

Very few old watches increase in value over time. Rolex is an exception. There appears to be a contingent out there willing to pay big bucks for vintage pieces.

So depending on what you want out of the watch will guide your action.

I agree 100%. I have to be honest, I only use a watch as an accessory, my cellphone is readily accessible for time reading.

Call me old fashion - I never look at my phone for the time and when I am working around the house or in my shop I leave the phone on the kitchen counter for a good part of the weekend. So my watch is it if I need to know the time.