The Hunt.

For some of us collectors and indeed sellers, ‘The Hunt’ is the most involved, rewarding and possibly the most important part of acquiring a watch.

Very early on when starting the journey of a collector, this part of the process probably doesn’t feature very high up. In my particular journey I didn’t always collect vintage and the modern pieces I wanted simply did not require hunting! There are for the most part many modern watches available and they basically all look the same. Hunting only really comes into play once once you have chosen to collect vintage and once you have gone slightly deeper down that rabbit hole.

Now that we’re collecting vintage pieces, it’s a totally different ball game and there are just so many more things to consider. Do you want to try and find something which is fresh to the market or much simpler, something that has already been discovered by someone else. Is it to own or is it to sell on? Furthermore, there is the condition, patina, the variant, the year, running order, and the provenance to consider. This list goes on. At this point you may not even know what exactly you are looking for.

One thing is for sure though. The ultimate scenario is somehow stumbling across a what is referred to as a ‘barn find’. A dirty, dusty, seemingly unappealing watch. Something which has been neglected for years and years but which has huge potential. This is what every serious collector dreams of.

I have been fortunate enough to acquire several pieces like this in the last few years, since solely collecting vintage, and the thought of finding further pieces just becomes more and more addictive. However, with vintage watches no longer in production as such, as time goes on, the chance of finding something just gets slimmer and slimmer.

All pretty obvious stuff really, but if you haven’t yet experienced the addictive nature of ‘The Hunt’, be warned, you just wait until you have!!

And good luck!