Three ways to spend £1,200 on a vintage watch

The guys and girls at Byron Hamburger make a mighty fine hamburger; that much we’ve known for a while. What we didn’t know until recently was that someone on their team is also a bit of a watch fan. A couple of weeks ago, they sent us the following seemingly innocuous question over Twitter: “If you had £1,200 to spend on a vintage watch, what would be your top three?”

Now, 140 characters doesn’t leave you much scope for details. So, we have no idea what they were looking for or what their watch preferences tend towards.

On the other hand he did say “If you..” So, let’s first lay down the Prodigal rules of watch-buying. Whenever we spend our own money on a timepiece – vintage or otherwise – it has to be:

• Timeless: We look for design that doesn’t age. A watch should look as relevant today as it did 50 years ago and as it will 50 years in the future.
• Historic: We look for watches that are important, that have influenced other models in the range or indeed competing brands, watches that are genuine classics.
• Great looking: It’s the number one rule of watch-buying: buy what you like. The first two criteria we mentioned are of no importance unless the watch looks good to us. You should never buy a watch just because you think it’s a good investment.

So, with £1,200 as our limit, those three criteria as our guide, and the vastness of the interwebs as our shopping mall, here’s what we came up with:

1. IWC Mark X pilot’s watch: Fitted with the revered calibre C 83 this classic pilots watch was superceded just after the war by the even more famous IWC Mark XI. Although the Mark X is much rarer, collectors have only recently started to appreciate this fact and prices have started to move up considerably during the last few years.What’s that you say, you’d never find one for £1,200? Well, the nice people at Bonham’s were exhibiting at SalonQP last week and we can tell you that they have a beautiful example coming up in their 2 December sale. Estimate is £1,200 – 1,500. With a little luck…
2. Breitling Navitimer 806: The Navitimer is by far the most important and best-looking watch Breitling have ever produced and indeed it survives to this day – albeit in a less handsome guise – in their portfolio. The classic 806 models are the most desirable. Most watch fans know all about the Navitimer, but if you need a quick refresher, there are few better places on the web than Navitimer.net. These old 806s are getting harder to find, especially at reasonable prices. Again though, we’d refer you to Bonham’s. They’ve got a very nice looking one in their upcoming sale. So, if you miss out on the IWC Mark X, make this the next thing you bid on.
3. Rolex Oyster Perpetual: So, no points for originality with our third suggestion but, like it or not, the Rolex Perpetual is simply an all time classic. No serious watch fan should be without one in his or her collection. Vintage models are fairly easy to come by and you should be able to find one within budget. There’s a very nice example available right now at the Swiss Watch Centre, for instance.

There you have it: three ways to spend £1,200 on a vintage watch. Of course there are many, many more but these three would be top of our list if we were shopping today.

@ByronHamburger, we wish you good luck in your search. Be sure to let us know what you end up with. But, please, don’t let the allure of vintage timepieces distract you from making the best damn burgers in London.