You had been thinking about buying a mechanical watch — but then you started shopping around.
Hundreds of brands. Scores of resale sites. Thousands of models. It is enough to make you swear off wristwatches forever.
To help, The New York Times asked four watch specialists about the finer points of buying and collecting mechanical watches. Their answers have been edited and condensed.
Cameron Barr
Vintage watch dealer and founder and chief executive of Craft & Tailored in Los Angeles
What’s your best advice for anyone new to vintage watches?
Take your time. Work with a dealer who is in a trusted network of dealers; we’re obsessing over the details. And remember that you always get what you pay for. The reason something is cheap is because there’s something wrong with it.
Speaking of pricing, what do people new to collecting need to know?
Exclusivity and taste don’t correlate with price. There are really great watches below $1,000 with fantastic quality and value — like the Seiko Turtle 6309-7040. Those are quickly climbing in price, but it’s an iconic watch that possesses a lot of functionality and wearability. Another brand I’m really into from a vintage perspective is Tudor; it’s basically a little brother to Rolex. There are lots of great Tudors under $5,000.
What should a new collector consider when buying vintage?
Think of versatility when you’re first starting out. An Omega Speedmaster or Rolex Datejust are suitable to all occasions, from the boardroom to the boardwalk. And try to buy a watch on a bracelet, because you could always put it on a strap.
Buy something because you like it — because it speaks to you from a design or historical perspective. And consider the details. Is the dial design what it should be, or has it been changed?
Look at the other elements: the hands, crown and pushers. Are they era-correct? And then look at condition: Does the dial possess a patina that is beautiful, or does it look damaged? Is the case symmetrical or has it been overpolished? Is the bracelet worn out?
What about complications?
In some cases, I talk people out of complications. People think the more complications a watch has, the more desirable that watch would be. But I find myself looking for simplicity, design and beauty.
Which resources do you consider essential?
The internet is a great place. But you have to be careful. There are a lot of what we call “keyboard warriors” who don’t have a lot of experience with a reference but they’re trying to come across as experts. Look at the Rolex Forums or Watchuseek. Also, Reddit has some really interesting communities — a vintage watch exchange or vintage watch collecting. (Though I would take some of that with a grain of salt.)
There’s a great book called the “Tudor Anthology” by Alberto Isnardi. The Watchprint books are very, very accurate. They publish “Moonwatch Only,” a book that discusses the Omega Speedmaster in all 60 years of its production. It’s one of the best books for learning fonts and details.
What are some under-the-radar brands people should know?
We’ve had some incredible Gallet pieces in our shop. Some exclusive models can go into the $8,000 to $10,000 range but most chronographs can go for $2,000 to $3,000. Universal Genève is another brand with a lot of design history. Gerald Genta was responsible for designing the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus and he designed the Polerouter for Universal Genève. Some early models can be found for $800 or $1,000. You can get an 18-karat gold Universal Genève for under $2,000.
Benrus, an American brand, is an up-and-comer. I really like the Type 1 and Type II, issued to elite service members fighting in Vietnam, like Navy SEALs. It’s like the Rolex MilSub, which has a starting price of $100,000, but Benrus starts at $5,000 and in many cases is much rarer — if someone’s looking for a cool tool watch with some history.
Alkis Kotsopoulos
Owner of Swiss Watch Repair in New York City and the only person authorized to service A. Lange & Söhne timepieces in North America
What’s the best way to care for a mechanical watch?
It should be serviced regularly. If it’s a very fine or very thin watch, every three years. Bigger watches can go in every five years. But definitely, every five years a watch should be cleaned, dismantled, have all the grease and oils removed, fresh oils used, and it should be checked for adjustments and wear and tear. Like a car, if you tune it up, the watch will serve you for the rest of your life.
How much does a service cost?
Prices vary tremendously. For a modern, medium-priced mechanical watch, service can range from $400 to $500. For a modern, high-end mechanical watch, the price range can be $850 to $1,100. For medium-priced vintage pieces, it can be anywhere from $600 to $800. But for high-end vintage watches, it can go up to a couple of thousand and much more.
What do most people misunderstand about repairs?
That it takes time — sometimes three to four months because of the backup — and costs money. Also a lot of times, it’s a surprise to people because they buy a watch without doing their homework or they buy from someone they don’t trust. They get hit by a bill, or sometimes the watch is not repairable because it’s been butchered by someone else.
You started repairing watches in the 1970s, when the mechanical industry was on the brink of collapse. What’s changed?
People used to ask me: “What are you doing? Watchmaking is dead.” But I had lots of love for it. Business picked up — a lot. I see a lot of young people getting into watch collecting, buying a mechanical windup watch. It keeps the art going. There was a time when people thought quartz would take over.
Are you worried about competition from smartwatches?
Not at all.
Joseph Obermoser
President of the Americas for the German watch accessory manufacturer Buben & Zörweg, based in Ölbronn-Dürrn, Germany
Does a mechanical watch owner need a watch winder?
Automatic watches have, on average, a power reserve of approximately 36 hours before the movement stops. As with all high-performance mechanisms, motion is the natural state of a movement. Standstill can cause, among other problems, lubricants to solidify, which in turn results in a loss of precision and a need for laborious repair work. It is therefore good practice to store automatic watches not being worn in a watch winder to keep them running.
At Buben & Zörweg’s winders, what does an entry-level winder cost? What about a deluxe version?
The entry version would be the Vantage line in precious Macassar wood or carbon. The Vantage 2, for two watches, has a retail price of $3,480, up to the Grande Private Museum for $234,500, or the Solitaire Vision for $265,700.
What other accessories should new collectors think about?
When they’re traveling and want to take some watches with them, we offer portable protection cases and bags. We also offer luxury safes with the highest security standards. Some of the best-loved lines are the Orion safes, which are handcrafted in Italian nappa leather with stitching and decorative seams, and the X-007 Extreme, with its unique elevating mechanism to reveal the safe interior.
Lots of people store their watches in shoe boxes. Why should someone spend the money to get a watch safe?
Some collectors just don’t know what the possibilities are.
Nicholas Manousos
President of the Horological Society of New York
What’s the society all about?
We got our start in 1866. Back then, if you were a watchmaker in New York, you were working by yourself. The headquarters was a way for independent watchmakers to help each other out, from a technical perspective, as well as from a social aspect. And it stayed that way for a long time, through the postwar periods and all the way through the quartz crisis. A few years ago, we decided to take the organization from a nonprofit focused on the industry to one focused on horological education for the public.
What’s your core offering?
The biggest tradition is our monthly lecture series; we’ve been doing it continuously since 1866. We feature people who are experts in some aspect of watch- or clockmaking or horology. Lectures are held at the General Society Library, a historic, beautiful space in the middle of Manhattan. It’s where people come to learn and ask questions.
The other pillar of the society is our watchmaking classes. We’ve been offering them since the 1950s, when they were considered electives to the New York public school system. Today, the classes are open to anyone. We teach them on weekday evenings in our Midtown classroom and we also travel around the world. We’ve been to Canada, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and we’re going to Australia in March 2020.
How do the off-site classes work?
We’ve condensed a watchmaking classroom into a suitcase we can check on a plane. We have portable watchmaking benches — like a desk, but up high so you don’t have to hunch your back — made of carbon fiber with aluminum feet. We have movements, tweezers, loupes — essentially, a classroom for eight people. All we need is a room with some desks and a projector screen.
What’s the curriculum and the cost?
In New York, we have two-hour-long evening classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights that are $200 each. There are four classes total. 101 focuses on the basics of a watch movement. It’s far and away our most popular class. 102 focuses on the gear train of a watch — inside a watch are lots of gears and this class teaches you what they’re doing and why they’re special. 103 looks at how winding and setting works — what you’re doing when you pull the crown out. And 104 is all about the escapement — it’s what makes the ticktock sound of a watch and keeps it on time.
On the road, we take all four classes and condense them into a $500 half-day class on weekends.
We’re a nonprofit, so classes are free to veterans, full-time students or people who just can’t afford it. We’re trying to teach as many people as possible how watches work.
"Watch" - Google News
November 22, 2019 at 04:35PM
https://ift.tt/37x1xps
You Have (Watch) Questions? We Asked the Experts - The New York Times
"Watch" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2NTB6Cm
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "You Have (Watch) Questions? We Asked the Experts - The New York Times"
Post a Comment