{"id":12625,"date":"2017-06-07T18:02:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T18:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/?p=12625"},"modified":"2021-05-10T09:57:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T13:57:03","slug":"difference-vintage-antique-watches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/difference-vintage-antique-watches\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Difference Between Vintage and Antique Watches?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"TrueFacet<\/a><\/div>

What\u2019s the difference between a vintage and an antique watch?<\/strong>
\nAntique watches are at least 100 years-old. Vintage watches are at least 20 years-old. Any watch under 20 years is likely to be classified as simply \u201cold\u201d\u2014neither modern nor quite yet vintage.<\/p>\n

How do I know how old my antique watch is?<\/strong>
\nTo determine the age of your watch, you will need to open your watch and find the serial number on the watch\u2019s movement. This crucial figure will indicate the manufacture date. (Unfortunately, you cannot rely on the number stamped outside on the watch case which is largely used only for identification purposes.) You can cross reference the movement\u2019s serial number with the manufacturer\u2019s database (most of which are listed online) to determine the year your watch was produced.<\/p>\n

If your watch does not have a serial number, it becomes harder to trace its history\u2014but not impossible! Antique and vintage watches require a highly trained eye to determine its age and authenticity. Therefore, we recommend reaching out to an auction house like Christie’s or Sotheby\u2019s. Their team of experts can generally tell you via e-mail and photos if your watch is of exceptional value and worth bringing in for a more thorough review.<\/p>\n

Which is worth more: a vintage or antique watch?<\/strong>
\nThis is going to be an annoying response but: it depends. There is no hard-and-fast rule to say the older a watch, the more valuable it is.<\/p>\n

Some vintage watches fetch jaw-dropping sums at the auction houses because they\u2019re highly sought after by collectors who covet their prestige, history or unique qualities. To wit, the 1925 Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication pocket watch fetched a whopping $24 million USD at a Sotheby\u2019s auction in 2014.<\/p>\n

However, other vintage timepieces are not considered \u201cexceptional\u201d by market standards and are not worth nearly as much. Ultimately, your watch is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.<\/p>\n

Is my watch worth less if it\u2019s damaged?<\/strong>
\nThe condition of a vintage or antique watch<\/a> can actually increase<\/em> if it\u2019s gently damaged. Watch collectors oftentimes prefer a watch that has a little wear-and-tear, believing it to have more character and imbued with history. Clear signs of age like a black-turned-brown Tropical Dial or a Crazed Dial with cracked lacquer can be a boon to your watch\u2019s resale value; for more on these desirable signs of damage, read our post \u201cHow to Start a Vintage Watch Collection<\/a>\u201d here.<\/p>\n

However, your watch may be worth significantly less if it was damaged and then repaired. Collectors largely shy away from a vintage or antique watch that was restored and far prefer a watch that has all its original parts, even if it\u2019s imperfect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the difference between a vintage and an antique watch? Antique watches are at least 100 years-old. Vintage watches are at least 20 years-old. Any watch under 20 years is likely to be classified as simply \u201cold\u201d\u2014neither modern nor quite yet vintage. How do I know how old my antique watch is? To determine the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[648,517,647,273,649,650],"class_list":["post-12625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-antique-watches","tag-collector","tag-vintage-watches","tag-watch-collecting","tag-watch-collector","tag-watch-history"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12625"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19835,"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12625\/revisions\/19835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truefacet.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}