Collections
One collection, cut a few ways. Every list below is the same set of watches under a different lock — pick one and the filters still work on top of it.
The collection
AvailableEach is a single piece from my own collection, serviced while I owned it. Sold and reserved pieces are kept on their own page.Sold & reservedKept here because the collection is only legible whole — what leaves first tells you more about these watches than anything I could write. Sold pieces show no price; reserved ones keep theirs, since a reservation can lapse and bring them back.EverythingThe whole collection in one grid — available, reserved and sold together, in the order I keep them.
By decade
1900sThe pocket watch was still the watch. Cases ran from the mid-20mm to past 50mm, and the wrist-worn version existed only as a curiosity — Cartier had built the Santos for Alberto Santos-Dumont in 1904, but nobody yet thought of it as how a man would tell the time.1910sThe crossover decade. Wristwatches were still made small — rarely past 30mm, because the problem was shrinking a pocket movement rather than enlarging it — and the shapes that would define the century were being drawn: Louis Cartier outlined the Tank in 1917, and the first serial examples, half a dozen of them, followed in 1919.1920sThe decade the wrist won. Harwood revived self-winding in 1924, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Duoplan made small movements reliable in 1925, and Rolex patented the Oyster in 1926. Cartier expanded faster than anyone and still never made a hundred watches a year — the Cintrée in 1921, the Chinoise in 1922, the jump-hour Guichets in 1928.1930sArt Deco shapes, cases under 30mm, and an industry ten years into learning how to keep water out.1940sThe most size-varied decade of the century, and the one that made legibility the point.1950sDress watches at their peak — white dials, dauphine hands, and the arrival of the applied marker.1960sThe decade the dial emptied out, and the one I have bought most heavily in.1970sSqueezed between quartz and the gold price, and the best value on this site because of it.1980sThe flattest decade in watch design — the one dip in a century of otherwise widening variety — and the one where quartz had won outright. By 1990 the case-material choice had narrowed to steel, yellow gold, or the two mixed. Anything mechanical made here was made against the current.1990sMechanical watchmaking coming back from the dead, in an aesthetic people still argue about. The late 1980s and 1990s divide collectors more sharply than any other period, which is precisely why the good pieces from it stayed cheap for so long.2010sNot vintage, and I do not pretend otherwise. Anything listed here is a modern watch that passed through my hands, kept on the site because the collection only reads honestly when it is listed whole.2020sModern watches, listed for completeness rather than as vintage. Worth saying only that the argument over how big a watch should be is still unsettled — the sizes of the last few years have no consensus behind them, just fashion.
By brand
ZodiacEvery Zodiac in the collection — 24 pieces, 1950s to 1970s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.OmegaEvery Omega in the collection — 13 pieces, 1940s to 1990s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.EternaEvery Eterna in the collection — 8 pieces, 1930s to 1960s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.LonginesEvery Longines in the collection — 8 pieces, 1910s to 1970s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.Universal GenèveEvery Universal Genève in the collection — 6 pieces, 1940s to 1970s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.DugenaEvery Dugena in the collection — 4 pieces, 1930s to 1970s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.EnicarEvery Enicar in the collection — 4 pieces, 1970s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.HamiltonEvery Hamilton in the collection — 4 pieces, 1940s to 1970s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.IWCEvery IWC in the collection — 4 pieces, 1940s to 1950s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.RoamerEvery Roamer in the collection — 4 pieces, 1930s to 1970s, each one I owned and serviced before listing it.
By character
Sporty18 pieces I would call sporty, 1920s to 2020s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.Military3 pieces I would call military, 1940s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.Dive5 pieces I would call dive, 1970s to 2020s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.Chronograph9 pieces I would call chronograph, 1920s to 2020s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.Field2 pieces I would call field, 1940s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.Aviation3 pieces I would call aviation, 1950s to 1990s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.Tool6 pieces I would call tool, 1960s to 2020s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.Day-Date12 pieces I would call day-date, 1950s to 2010s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.Alarm2 pieces I would call alarm, 1950s to 1960s. Character is my own reading of a watch, not a specification — I tag what I would tell you if you asked.