Vintage VS modern watches

The vintage watch market

The vintage watch market has grown exponentially, more and more people seem to look back and appreciate the quality and designs from the past. if you compare watches from the past versus the watches from now, there isn’t only a design difference. From the war and on watches served also a function as a tool, a piece of equipment. Chronographs which served as a stopwatch on the wrist to time your laps on the track, or dive watches with rotatable bezels to time decompression stops, where your trusted companions on the wrist. Because you need to rely on these tools while diving or pushing your car to the limit, they where made of outstanding quality. Omega, Rolex, Tissot, Zenith, Longines and other high-quality brands made magnificent watches that are still, when taken good care of, reliable and beautiful.

Difference in pricing

Nowadays a lot more companies are pushed to the edge to keep innovating and respond to trends and a moving fast consumer society. Of course, that can be a good thing, however many companies change their quality and replace it by quantity.

The evolution of the pricing is an interesting aspect of the vintage watches compared to the modern watches and here is why:

The supply of vintage watches isn’t growing anymore because many models and brands are out of production. The price of a vintage watch therefor created by supply and demand. When for example vintage chronographs from Eberhard are increasing in popularity, the prices rise because the supply can’t grow. The price is a result of what the consumers like.

Modern watches are priced in a different way. The companies need to cover up there marketing and other operating costs to make a profit, which results in an integral price that is created by company costs instead of a marketing value that is created by supply and demand. The price is partly determined by the costs of the companies.