maxbliss888
456
Collection
Apr 04, 2012,09:00 AM
Thanks for your kind words. I am from Singapore and I have stated to collect vintage watches since 1988. During the early days, vintage watches are not expensive as many collectors focus on painting, porcelain and other real antiques. As such, I was able to find many of these pieces are very affordable prices. I often attend garage sales, old pawn shops and flea markets to search for these treasures. During the early years where there is no Internet and eBay, prices of watches are highly dependence on one's negotiation skills.
With ebay and internets, the prices have become transparent and it is getting harder to get real bargain. I was fortunate to meet an experience collector Mr. Lee from Hong kong who has taught me to focus. As such, my collection is mainly Rolex owing to its high second hand resale values. My focus were mainly with te Rolex Prince and bubblebacks and the sports collection was truly unintentional as nobody wants these 1960-70s watches during he 1980s are these were not vintage enough.
Very often, when I buy the Bubbleback and Prince from the "runners" (the one who hunt from overseas), I will have to entertain the runners by taking some sports models( example Rolex Explorer 1, (1016) and Explorer 2 ref 1655 costing US$800-1000 each. These sports watches were not old enough (as normally it has to be over 30 years in order to be classified as vintage, then). Thus, by entertaining the runners, is a blessing in disguise as these sports series become more collectable then the bubbleback now, owing to the growing interest in larger watches.
Ultimately, one should collect watches because you like them and wear them. If the watch prices appreciates over time, it's a bonus.. Cheers