Vintage-Looking Watch Without the Vintage Watch Worries - Part 1

I received this interesting e-mail from Dr Nazrin yesterday and I thought that it would be nice to share it with fellow readers, some of whom could be in a similar quandary. I would leave out some pleasantries in the e-mail and just quote the necessary bits as per the following :

"... always interested to get a vintage watch but I am not keen on the costs involved for its maintenance, servicing and possible rebuilding necessary. Can you suggest an inexpensive shortcut towards scratching this vintage itch? FYI, my collection already has a couple of luxury Swiss brands so I am opened to Japanese brands too, although it would be a bonus if I could still get a Swiss but at a Japanese price. A tall order, but I would appreciate any comments or recommendations."

I have always have a soft spot for vintage pieces so this was a question that was closed to my heart. Dealing with vintage pieces could be a heart-warming, or heart-breaking, affair- depending on whether you have procured a genuine, good piece or otherwise. Indeed, I have heard many tales amongst fellow collectors how they have unwittingly gotten Frankenstein (genuine vintage watch with some non-genuine or non-vintage parts) pieces, or worse still, replicas.

Yes, replicas were getting better these days and some have been unwittingly fooled.

Since the good Dr was not interested in rebuilding the watch but wanted a vintage look, there are 2 good watches that come to my mind- both of which I am eyeing for myself actually.

1) Tudor Heritage Black Bay, with its Snowflake hands and dial drawing heritage from its archives in the form of Tudor Submariner 7016/0 procured by Marine Nationale (French Navy). With the Black Bay, you have the lovely Snowflake hands ran by a modern ETA 2824-2 top grade encased in the more acceptable 42mm case of today. All the heritage minus the worries of vintage pieces, at just circa RM10k. A real bargain, if you asked me; although there were some whom would balked at an ETA movement rather than an in-house caliber like Rolex's movements. But to me, ETA has always been a dependable and reliable workhorse, and could be easily serviced by any competent watch smiths; so that's a plus point actually.

Picture from Hodinkee.

Picture from Hodinkee.

And the modern Black Bay from Baselworld 2014.

To be continued in Part 2.