Why Buy Vintage Watches? Answered - Omega, Vacheron, LeCoultre, IWC & Doxa - New York Minute

Morning. All right, so I'm going to visit Adam right now, and then we're gonna go out. I think I see my car. All right, having to take a detour. Would have got there a little bit quicker. The cops are in the way, am I right? Yes, thank you so much. Checking myself, making sure I have everything. I think I do. That was like a 40-minute detour. Like a solid 40-minute detour because of the fact. I so hate being late to things. Yeah guys, you get to see my rig today, kind of. This is the camera. Okay, this is my Panasonic G85 with a Rode mic. We're using a Rode mic from here on out for videos, so you guys at home don't hear an echo on your footage. Hey man. Good evening, sir. Yes, thank you for welcoming me. You're welcome. You're so gracious of you. You're welcome. Aw, look at that. That's really cute, man. Is this you here? Supposed to be me. Nobody's in the house because it's a ******* mess of ----. Oh yeah? Okay guys, so I'm going to shut off this camera. Adam and I are going to get ready to head over to more races and I'll explain what we're doing today. Guys, we are so far behind on today. All right, so Adam and I had a chance to discuss what's happening today because of my little detour. We kind of got set back. That's all right. We're going to discuss the new segment we're adding. So we're adding a segment on the show called New York Minute. Obviously, guys, we have that sit-down segment where we discuss reviews, comparisons, and just general talk about watches, but we want to provide you an opportunity to visit some local New York dealers, either boutiques, private sellers, pawn shops that have interesting jewelry collection, anything in the local area that you wouldn't immediately have availability of, that we can go to in an instance. So hence the name, New York Minute. Yeah guys, so we're pretty blessed living here in New York. We have the ability to see all these cool little vintage dealers and even boutiques all along Madison Ave and 5th Ave that you guys might not have in your hometown. So we figured it'd be a cool little segment to show you guys what it's like to be exposed to all the watches that we're able to see in New York. Correct, sort of like the experience of living in New York. And I didn't feel like there's a more appropriate style to shoot this in than a vlog and or at least entertaining, I'm hoping for you guys. So again, if you want to see a certain location in New York, let us know and we'll call the dealer in advance to see if we can get time to speak with the management there. But today, we're going to be visiting a gentleman named Maurice. He runs a small watch booth and a flea market. He actually has two locations today, which is Sunday. He's going to be on the West End. It's actually a stone's throw away from where you live, which is really cool. Two blocks away. When did you discover Maurice? I guess one of the first weekends that I moved here, like sometime last year. I just went to the flea market and saw a guy with a bunch of vintage watches and I was like, oh, this guy's cool. Yeah. So we're going to be visiting him. We're going to pick up some food first before we do that. Time right now is, let me see. And guys, further announcement. I have a new mic and audio setup. There shouldn't be any more echoing. If there is echoing, let me know and we'll fix it. But your cries have been heard. No worries. Let's do it. They've been seeing my Omega chronograph this whole time, but I kind of want to show off your latest watch. Can we get a wrist watch check really quick? Yeah, man. Rocking my early nineties Speedmaster. Probably easily my favorite watch that I have right now. Definitely a keeper. So slick. Absolutely gorgeous. Kind of cool in the light too. You can see all the scratched Hesselite and everything like that. And the patina good sunlight today. So there you go. Okay. Bagel time. All right, guys. So I don't want to surprise the old boy. We're going to go ahead and talk with Maurice first before we go in to check out his wares. No surprises. Hey, what's up, guys? So just spoke to the vendor and he actually wishes to remain anonymous for some personal reasons that I discussed with him. But we're still going to go in and show all the watches and talk to him about his watches and kind of his own personal history with watchmaking and dealing. So you guys are still going to get all the great content, just not going to see his face on the on the camera. So get to know his name. Yeah. But that's okay. Not a big deal. However, later on, we can disclose like the marketplace to see goes for sure. So if you guys were in the area and you didn't want to see him to see some of his wares, I think that's okay. Yeah, absolutely. As I say, it's an affectation. Yes. You never know when you're going to need it. It's pretty, though, as an object. So why is this one special? It's not. It's a silver one. Okay. Okay. They're usually gold. There's not nice condition. Normally, when you find these, these are all bent. You know where they've left them open. Why would you is this just like a resolution box? No, if they were there, actually, that was the size of the envelope. So the standard that size did you get that picture? I love it. It looks great. And it's like, look at the facing. About 1880. Oh, really? I did not get that. That's so cool. This is the day when they use a what's called a bird, a steel bird to put those initials on them. Well, originally, I was a camera technician. Okay, yeah. And I graduated if you look in some of the earlier cameras, they had what's called slow speed trains, you know, they had, they had irises. And then they graduated to focal plane, which was a shutter going right across from left to right. And they were quite complicated. Now that's all been finished with with the digital cameras, you know, sorry about that. So it wasn't so much that it was just going on then I had, I was just come out of the army then, you know, so basically, you know, watches with regards to movement starts off with a power source, which is obviously the mainspring, you know, and I'm always telling people when you're repairing a watch and everything or overhauling a watch, you know, it's important to take the spring out, but rarely people do that. Because when you've got old oil, which breaks down, it does take away some of the power there. Well, what they do is they take the movement out and put the whole movement in something called quick dip, which is sacrilege, you know, and then they don't, they don't lubricate it afterwards. And to really overhaul a watch properly, you should take all the drive wheels, everything out, you know, and also clean the, not only the mainspring, but you know, the hairspring. Most of the things that happen on a watch really, it's very rare you get things actually broken on a watch. People overwind it, they press it, but they forget that the minute you get pressure on the crown, which is on top of the stem, winding up the actual mainspring, they don't realise and they think it's stuck, so they push it harder. Now, there are some, some of the better watches have stopped, so you can't do it anymore. Right, exactly. Yeah, exactly. You can only, you can only wind it so far. Right. Like that. I actually remember I overhauled my Grand Seiko when you overhauled it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's still, it's keeping time within like a second. Right, right, right. It's been done properly, you know. But, you know, most of the watches up to, from the 30s on, they developed a system to stop something that happened on a lot of watches. When you dropped it, the bottom pivot, you know, at the balance wheel would snap off. Right. Okay, and then somebody came up with a brilliant idea of making the actual insert into the jewel just slightly bigger, so it had some movement and that cut out all the, all the breaking, you know. Very, very good. Watches, well, I like Omega's. Omega is the most advertised watch on earth. Tastes have changed. I mean, when I was an 18-year-old, the main watch was, I mean, I'm talking about for the wealthy, was a Vacheron Constantin. Absolutely, you know, it was the Rolls-Royce of watches then. Now it's been overtaken by Patek Philippe. Well, you know, I think Patek now is more of a name thing. I mean, if you said, what is the difference in quality between a Patek and a Vacheron, I would say it's minuscule, especially the very, very late ones. I mean, they're all incredible, you know, but I mean, if you take things like IWC, International Watch Corporation Schaffhausen, years ago when you bought one of those, something went wrong the first year, they'd send it back to the man that assembled it in the factory and he had to fix it. Really? The person who put it together? Yeah. So there was a level, wow, that's so intimate. And if you get two IWCs of the same year, same everything, you can't interchange the parts. Something will be slightly different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, again, I go back to Omega with regards to internationally known. I mean, every Chinese knows what an Omega is, but they don't know what Vacheron Constantin is. I mean, Omega is advertised in most major cities in China, believe it or not, certainly internationally. Is that a testament to their quality? Very, very good quality. Well, also good advertising. But Patek's boom came, I think, within the last 25 years. Don't get me wrong when I say a boom, they were always very popular. But what happened was, it's very difficult for me to explain this, but suddenly a lot of Patek's came onto the market and the prices sort of shot up at auction. Well, Rolex, again, is for an automatic watch and toughness. Rolex, you can go mountain climbing in it, you can go deep sea diving in it, all kinds of things. It's a tough, tough watch. But again, Rolex, the English love Rolex. It's more of what I call a prestige, you know, I got a Rolls. It's like my father many, many years ago. My father had a Bentley and the difference between a new Bentley and a new Rolls Royce in 1955 was 100 pounds. And they said, Christian, why don't you buy a Rolls? You know what he said? He said, gentlemen drive Bentleys, butchers drive Rolls Royce. That's exactly what he said. I drive a Rolls Royce. Well, but today, well, I mean, not even owned by Rolls Royce now. You know, it's all finished now. Very, very good watch. You know, there's a watch that's hardly known over here. And the Europeans know it very well. And there's one here. Take a look at it. You'll see it. I think it's one of these. Just read out the name. It's a small one. Let's see. There's Doxa. Doxa. Yeah. You can't believe how accurate the Doxa is. Really? It's a wonderful watch. You know, I've had three in two years and every time I sell one to somebody, they are jumping up and down to her. What a lovely timekeeper it is. Yeah. Yeah. This particular watch is a Doxa. Okay. A Swiss watch. Very, very well made. Incredible timekeeper. Not very well known in the United States. Well known in Europe, though. Very good. Very, very good watch indeed. This, of course, is internationally well known as for not only the watches, but the jewelry. LaColtra. And of course, the partners eventually was Jaeger LaColtra. Okay. And this one is actually has got almost the same movement as the Omega bumper. And if you go like that, you can feel the reciprocal weight going backwards and forwards. Oh, interesting. Yeah. It winds up like that. Fully automatic. This was, this is an automatic Vacheron Constantin with the date. And at the time it was the thinnest automatic made. Yeah. With the original crown, which is important on a watch. 18 karat gold. Very, very, very fine watch. And this one, one of my favorites is IWC, which stands for Universal International Watch Corporation of Schaffhausen. Very, very well made. Again, original crown, original dial. Very, very good timekeeper. And of course, gold. That's 18, 14, 14, 14. Actually, this is called, this is not all gold. This is a mixed metal, although it's very heavily plated, which is unusual, but represents very, very good value for money because if it was a solid 18 karat gold, it'd be near a 3000 than the price being asked for now, which is, let's have a look here. 750. Terrific buy for somebody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah. That was all, that was all 18 karat gold. Nice. So we just wrapped up. Very, very fun discussion. There's a lot more that happens off camera as well, but we just wanted to highlight some of his items. He's a really, really lovely individual. One of the nicest vendors I've ever met that markets in antiques. Really nice guy. So easy to work with and very, very reasonable prices. One of those things that's a real gem for us in any neighborhood. Yeah. Agreed. And as you guys will see in the footage, I mean, or the footage you've already seen, he's got some really, really cool, unique pieces. We're talking about Holy Trinity pieces like Vacheron all the way down to Omega. So it's kind of cool to pick his brain and talk to him about his thoughts on vintage and kind of the best brands out there and best value for money. So. Oh yeah. I mean, this is advice from a gentleman who's been working in the industry for a very, very long time. So he definitely knows what he's talking about. Plus, jokingly, you know, he's as vintage as the pieces he's talking about. So if you're going to take anyone's opinion, I think his was valuable. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he's seen the watch industry change so much too. So, you know, experience goes a long way. You might not even have to know that much, but experiencing it tells a story of its own. So guys, that's episode one of New York Minute. I hope you enjoyed it. It's going to be fun cutting this one together. We are going to eat. We didn't get a chance to eat because the place we want to go to is way, way, way too busy earlier, but we're going to try to go there now. And anyway, guys, stay tuned for regular episodes. If you enjoyed this, feel free to hit that like button. If you disliked it, that's okay too. I encourage you to hit the subscribe button. If you want to see more content like this, let us know about stores you'd like us to visit. They could be big or small hidden gems like the one we just went to or larger groups like Omega. There's flagship stores. There's Omega stores littered throughout New York. If you guys want to see their modern catalog in person, yeah. There's two Omega boutiques alone. We're not talking just ADs like normal ADs like Torno and stuff, but two Omega boutiques in Manhattan. So hopefully we can go to some of these cool places. Hopefully we can get you guys to the Seiko boutique in the next few months. And then maybe a couple other vintage jeweler places. But it's New York, so not everyone's going to be as nice as Maurice. So we'll see what we can do for you guys. But yeah. Yeah. Everything's doable so long as we have time to make it happen. Still a small production, but I think most of these groups love free publicity. So easy. Easy. We can do that. Anyway, guys, thank you for joining us and I'll see you on the next one. Take care, guys.