You hear it everywhere: Buy what you love. Not the current hottest thing. What you actually like. Yet what does that even mean? Especially if you’re new to vintage watches? How do you find your own taste, your style, your brand allegiances?
It makes sense to start with what you know. For many, a “vintage watch” will mean a Rolex. And fair enough, Rolex has history, aura, and a pedigree. But a tuned-in collector might soon find a brand that speaks closer to their own pulse.
What’s on your wrist is a quiet signal. It tells people who you are, or at least who you want to be. Choosing the right one comes down to your lifestyle, your influences, and your aspirations.
Lifestyle.
Who are you and how does a watch fit the life you already live? Think geography. Daily rhythm. Are you walking the streets of downtown Los Angeles every morning? Swimming in a rooftop pool every afternoon? A good watch should disappear into your day, not drag behind it. The work-from-home enthusiast might choose something slim and comfortable. An everyday driver without a bracelet that could get scratched on a laptop keyboard. A hustler taking meetings across town might reach for something bold and strong enough to take knocks on a pool table without shouting for attention. If your nights are elegant dinners and cigar lounges, you might want a slender piece that catches the light like a fine glass of good scotch. Something foreign and mysterious that rolls off the tongue like Audemars Piguet or Vacheron. That says everything you need to so you don’t have to.
Direct influences.
Sometimes your taste comes from the people around you. Maybe your father or an uncle wore a Tudor and you have a special affinity for the brand. Or a mentor kept a Patek on his wrist. He was soft-spoken, deliberate, wise. Or a pilot who frequents the neighborhood bar, between flights, his Omega catching the neon. People we spend time with shape us. And they shape what we wear on our wrists, too.
Indirect influences.
Sometimes they come from the screen or the page. Anthony Bourdain, with his Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date—simple, honest, reliable. Daniel Craig’s Omega Seamaster 300, sharp and ready for anything. Connery’s Submariner. Or, if you lean toward the theatrical, the Omega La Magique on Tony Montana’s wrist in Scarface.
Aspirations.
A vintage watch can also be a stake in the ground. A sign of where you’re going. Of a level that once reached, you won’t be descending from. Maybe you land the promotion and leave your Timex behind for an IWC Portugieser. Maybe it’s an ultra-thin Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, the pure lines and timeless design defining your destiny.
Finding the perfect timepiece that fits your lifestyle, is inline with your background and influences, and that also pushes you toward a brighter version of yourself is a lot to ask from a watch. One watch could theoretically encapsulate all three. Or perhaps you’ll find a different timepiece for each aspect of your personality. Each ideal self. But a vintage timepiece comes with its own story which also becomes part of yours. A meshing of shared histories takes place. You become its shepherd.
Whatever you choose to wear, let it be more than an accessory. With patient investigation and rejection of the hype, the swirling of gears and compression of springs can do much more than tell you that you’re late for your sidecar at Musso & Frank Grill. Let it be a part of your life. Buy what you love and wear it like it belongs to you.
MP Knowlton is deputy editor of GAUTHIER’S Vintage Watches & Culture.