Worn & Wound
Editorial: My Obsession with German Neo-Vintage Watches Under $5,000
Vintage watches remain ever popular in the watch collector’s journey. There are serious collectors who remain focused on buying only vintage. Since the pandemic, my inbox has been flooded with auction houses and vintage dealers trying to one-up each other by selling the most curated “once in a lifetime” or most expensive vintage piece. I have nothing against the sellers and buyers, especially if they can vouch for the authenticity and pay for the repairs, they deserve my appreciation. Personally, I am apprehensive of owning vintage watches at my current point of collecting. I owned a few vintage watches in my early days as a collector, most of them were bargain finds on eBay that eventually stopped working or I ended up trading, except for one expensive Rolex Datejust that had to be serviced. Ultimately, service on the Datejust was as expensive as the watch, including Rolex replacing the dial to a different color which I hated and ended up selling for a loss. I know it was a rookie mistake, but that was the end of vintage watches for me. After that experience, I stuck to buying either new watches from retailers or pre-owned watches from other collectors. As it happened, my work took me to Germany often, and there I discovered a whole new world of neo-vintage watches. Before I get deeper into what specific “affordable” neo-vintage watches a couple of my collector friends and I recommend, I should briefly define what neo-vintage watches are and why they are easier ...
