Good day all, hope that you are all well and feeling suitably festive for this time of year.
I really do use this website to its upmost potential in terms of soaking up knowledge about Breitling as a brand and about watches/watchmaking in general, but there is one sub forum that up until yesterday i had not ventured in to. That was the vintage section, and it started me thinking, so much so that i thought i would share the below points with you and hopefully start a worthwhile discussion.
Now there are undoubtedly some beautiful watches in there, that of course i had never seen before, some in better condition than others as one would expect. My opinion is that the vast majority of designs have certainly stood the test of time very very well indeed. I feel that Breitlings current portfolio may not be quite as successful in doing this, for example - whilst i love the super avenger at the moment and have considered purchasing one for some time now, i cant help but think that it wont look as good in 40 years time as say a Breitling top time, or original transocean does now (hence the re-issue i suppose).
Also coming to the forefront of my mind was how most of the watches LOOK old, not just in terms of design but in terms of the dial condition, the crystal, the case etc etc. Even when looking at pictures of an example that has had a full refurb, it still has that old quality about it. Now i am aware that they look old because they ARE old, but the point i'm trying to make here is will the watches we buy today fare any better in the long run, in 40 / 50 years will the dials LOOK as old, will the crystal LOOk as old as the current vintage models do now. I wonder if changes in manufacturing and advances in materials have meant that we wont get that "warm ,lived in" look with our new watches in the future.
Apologies for my ramblings, in summary i suppose i'm asking, which watches d'you think will be future classics, maybe set for a limited reissue in 2055, and how do you think your latest purchase will fare in the long term, versus the current selection of vintage watches we have.
Cheers all
Jim
