When I talk to typical watch enthusiasts, the most common reason I hear for not getting into vintage watches is fear. Certainly fear of a watch’s fragility and potential lack of water resistance is a concern, but what most people are afraid of is buying a bad watch.

There’s a certain online culture that grew up around the internet, first on forums and now on social media, where people elevate themselves by criticizing others. I think this is an ingrained human trait that is as old as humanity itself. However, the removal of the inhibitions of face to face contact and the addictiveness of social media makes today’s criticism especially harsh, constant, and painful.

I have the same concerns. It feels bad to be incredibly excited about buying a vintage watch and then have an expert like Eric Wind take one look and say “this is a redial” (true story). I appealed to the online crowd at Watchuseek when I was considering my first vintage watch, a small 2 register chrome 1930’s Breitling chronograph for the princely sum of $1,300. Fortunately a guy (who I now know as the official Breitling historian and all around watch mensch) named WatchFred came to my rescue and the rest is history.

Another concern is that the huge boom in vintage watch values over the past decade or so has produced a large financial incentive to put together watches in ways that are unscrupulous. It is well known that even Omega themselves purchased a “put together” Speedmaster 2915-1. It was rumored that their museum staff was involved in unsavory activities around this piece and others. Credit to Perezcope for exposing this and other numerous instances of fraudulent activities around vintage watches at auction houses.

So what makes a watch authentic anyway? It is a bit of a Theseus’s ship problem. If a part is replaced, is the watch still original? Should it matter?

In my mind, I think if the watch stands up to scrutiny then it is all good. Part of the fun of collecting vintage watches is developing a sixth sense for problematic watches. One thing I learned from the watch that I showed Eric Wind is that when I have a watch in my hand, I have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. The angel is whispering “it’s a beautiful watch, buy it buy it.” The devil is whispering “the dial is too clean, you should take out a loupe and look at the printing more closely, it’s probably a redial.” The watch devil sometimes whispers other things like “there’s a weird crunching sound when you wind it, something is broken inside” or “it’s too big to wear comfortably on your bony wrist” or “this dealer is asking way too much for this piece.” Remember, the watch devil is your advocate, listen to his quiet voice in the back of your head.

Once in a while though, I put a watch on my wrist and I hear nothing but the trumpeting of angels. Watch nirvana. It’s a beautiful thing.

Happy hunting.