The Original Cool Guy: Why Vintage Watches?
Sean Connery starring as James Bond in 1962. A real Original Cool Guy.
I often get the question. Why vintage watches? Collecting vintage timepieces isn’t just checking of watches from a list. It’s a mindset, a philosophic journey.
Within collecting I can find multiple reasons but one market dominating reason is; The Original Cool Guy.
The main influence for making the ,functional build watch in steel, a new collectible wristwatch segment.
The Big Shift
A steel wrist watch in the 1900’s has always been a tool like a new smart phone that is always more relevant then its predecessor. With the introduction of the cheap battery operated movements in the 1970’s this “tool” began to vanish. Turning watchmaking irrelevant and pushing big manufacturers in focusing solely on the luxury market.
A big market shift came in the 2000’s. Wrist watches at this time grew to big, flashy and unsophisticated luxury items. Just like pop-culture. The television dominated by MTV Cribs and Pimp my Ride. The UGG boots became a trend and just as annoying, you could not get around Paris Hilton.
Nostalgic senses
This path we took didn’t evolve in something new. Pop-culture and fashion was about to hit a dead end.
With decades or flourishing wealth we started to look back to the times that started this after the war. Who played a big part in this era? From fictional characters like James Bond to the actual cool guys like Sean Connery.
This nostalgic sense started the rise of the old-timer market, interior design and off course wristwatches. These wrist accessories gave us a small time capsule to remind us why people needed this watch. Collectors didn’t care if the watch was gold, finished to perfection or a movement with extreme precision. No, they wanted something steel, functional and live saving. The reason why the Orginal Cool Guy bought it in the first place.
The Original Cool Guys
The definition of the Original Cool Guys wearing steel sport watches from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.
Sean Connery
The biggest influence in turning steel watches collectible. An epic actor in an epic role.
Sean Connery debuted in 1962 as James Bond in Dr. No. At one point the camera shows him wearing a Rolex Submariner. A watch made for diving and definitely a perfect choice for a man not avoiding any action. At this time this wasn’t a luxury watch, it was made to function as a tool, the best of the best available.
Steve McQueen
A man known for acting and adventurous lifestyle. A real cool guy. Seen wearing multiple watches throughout movies and his private life. With a preference for Rolex but the most known wrist watch linked to Steve must be the Heuer Monaco.
A watch made by the brand Heuer that dominated with presence in the late 60’s to early 70’s at the race track with it’s outspoken chronographs. For the movie Le Mans (1971) it was McQueen in the lead wearing a squared chronograph.
The watch worn by Steve in the movie Le Mans was auctioned in 2020 by Phillips for a hammer price of $2,208,000. Discover more at Phillips.
Jim Clark
Definitely the most charming racing legend of the 1960’s. Jim Clark won his first F1 title in 1963, a remarkable driver known for his fluent driving style. Sadly this also ended his life in 1968. The watch that was represented in his career the most was the Enicar Sherpa chronograph with a grey dial.
Discover more about Enicar and Jim Clark at Enicar 101.
Ed White
The astronaut known for doing the first spacewalk in the Gemini 4 crew in 1965. The Omega Speedmaster was a chronograph developed for racing in 1957, but with the upcoming space race NASA was looking for a suitable watch to wear on space missions. The Omega Speedmaster was eventually the preferred choice and was used for decades by astronauts. Ed White was wearing the reference 105.003-65 now also nicknamed the 'Ed White'.
Learn more about the two Speedmasters Ed White was wearing during his spacewalk at Fratello.
Raquel Welch
In the 1967 film Fathom we see an Original Cool Girl wearing a chronograph during her skydiving stunts. The watch chosen by Raquel Welch was the Breitling chronograph reference 765. Breitling was well known for making watches for pilots and aeronautic markets.
