Welcome back to Taking Time! I'm Jonathan, and this is Richard. Today,
we're going to be doing something a little cool. Right. We're going to be comparing
vintage and why it matters in comparison to modern pieces. Stick around!
So today we're going to be talking about a little bit of vintage pieces compared
to modern pieces. So what makes a vintage piece vintage? Well, I think it's the year.
I think it's being old. I think that's part of it.
You know, just to give you guys, me and Jonathan were talking a little
bit about this and obviously in this case it's any watch over 25 years old or so,
or something like that. And I had this, I posed this question and Jonathan said,
does a vintage piece have to be something that's loved and does it, you know,
something that's kind of fallen from time? Do we still consider that watch to be vintage? And
Jonathan gave me this really cool response and I kind of wanted him to talk about it. Well, my take
on it is not necessarily like, it needs to be something that's loved. But it kinda is at the
same time, it's something that's more about being appreciated and understanding what that
is and that you can say that's love. But anyways so I came up with this whole romance concept that
it's essentially like modern pieces are like Honda Civics. And my, my personal opinion,
this is my take on it. Right. Right. The entire layout of the monitorization of watches are kind
of like Honda Civics. They're everywhere. Right. You know, they're easily made well
in certain aspects you know, they're quickly made and they're mass produced, right. Vintage pieces.
Well going back to modern is like modern pieces, you know,
there'll be the bartender has a Rolex Submariner, right. The waiter has, you know, a Breitling,
you know it's it's every, your girlfriend wears a Cartier, or your wife, whatever spouse.
Vintage watches, especially something like this, you know, Rolex 1680 Red line is...
We apologize in advance by the way, because we know there's going to be a lot of people mad
that we're not going to talk about this piece, but we can do six videos just about this Rolex,
the Rolex, they starting from kind of like the initial data or anything like that. So
we apologize to all the truths that are going to hate us for this, but we're just using this
as an example, because it's a phenomenal piece. But anyway, sorry. I mean, yeah.
Vintage is something different and I relate this a lot to cars. Right.
Basically vintage
is, instead of being a Honda Civic, it's kind of like being a 1950s Ferrari. Right. Okay. You know,
the guy that's driving a Honda Civic usually is probably not going to know what a 1950s
steel bodied Ferrari, that's like a heavy car. It makes a lot of noise, you know, goes fast on
the open road. Like, you know, in comparison, right. 20 miles an hour back then was quick.
What I'm getting that is like the guy that bought that car and is driving that car,
he knows, he knows, and he's done the due diligence.
He's learned to appreciate the car for what it is. And that's what I view vintage pieces as
today. Right. You know, that's kinda the person that's gonna wear a vintage piece. Yeah.
It's funny cause you, you mentioned cars. And so I, I was on the, on the hunt for something cool
back in the day. Now this is long and breathy, but I was back in the day, I was looking for a
Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4 spider, anybody who knows this car knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Old drive one, the four wheel drive, all wheel steering. And it was the first PTO, the first
convertible top that initiated by PTO system. So super, super technological advancements, basically
pistons basically press a button and it goes back. So it was really cool car. And, you know,
it took forever to find that there's only 412 of them in the world back then. So the hunt was hard.
It was my, it was my dream car. And the cool thing was like, there was so much character to,
you know, I, I believe that you bond over things that you struggle for, or you struggle with.
I think the best friendships are the ones where, you know, you've been through, pardon the French
hell and back together, you've got, you know, you build camaraderie kind of fighting the good
fight. And likewise, when you're looking for one of these vintage pieces, there's so much
that goes into it and there's so much character. Each one of them has that 3000 D GT had, you know,
specific ticks that had sounds that leaked from the daggum roof. And, you know, then I had to
fix that and I had to fix all this other stuff. Likewise, you go through so much effort in turmoil
and a lot of times stress and pain and frustration looking for this washes. Cause it's hard to get,
you got to make sure you're getting the right one. You got to do all that research you're
talking about. And so there's an intimate process for looking for these vintage pieces versus, Hey,
I want a 2021, Submariner, and I'm going to go buy one right now. You know, it's a, it's a different
thing. You know, it's just a different monster, different character. And we, you know, we really,
in case you haven't figured out, we really liked the vintage things.
We really liked the vintage stuff. Yeah.
But yeah, one thing that I figured out is that all watch guys are car guys,
but not all car guys are watch guys. Right.
Right. And yet give them, let them get to about 40, 30, 40 years old. Yeah. Yeah.
Let's go into like, kind of like the evolution of, you know, modern pieces and what they are today.
Okay. Okay. So, you know, so I mean, you know, we're, we've got this example of the 1680,
which is the Rolex, you know, back in the day and now this one you know, we're not, again, we're not
going to get too much into the nitty-gritty of the watches, but you know, this watch was the
first Submariner that featured a date. And so that was a technology thing that was very polarizing
back then, and then sort of like the evolution of different technologies, different materials and
all sorts of other things, they kind of built into these watches. You know, you've got, you've got
movements that are keeping more accurate time. You, you know, you got to watch the, instead
of just being cut timekeepers now certified to keep time specifically. Well and then you start
adding all these different features and different complications and things like that. And so, you
know, back in the day it was a very simple watch. The materials were not quite. They didn't have the
capabilities they do now. The, the manufacturing didn't have the capabilities that they do now.
I have a lot more access to a lot more things. Yeah. And, you know, so we've seen the development
of materials, you know, with general steel back in the day and then Rolex kind of developing the 904
L steel and then different other brands coming up with their different composites of titanium.
I think you were saying something about the Tudor titanium too. I mean,
I was just going into whenever we were trying to figure out this video
and everything, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring up Tudor and,
you know, that's kind of a realization of another aspect of modern, modern watches. Rolex is very
conventional. They stick to a set, you know, idea evolved the pieces that we've got tutor branched
out, especially when it really came back to the US market blew up and was just like, Hey, we're going
to come out with a full titanium watch, which we've never done before and completely engineer a
whole new class. That is fun. That's a cool clasp. That's a cool class. And then, you know, I think
A lot of people are kind of following suit with that. When we, when we've talked about new
technological advances, we're talking about, you know, the ability to micro adjust your, the watch
on your wrist, you don't have to take it into a jeweler or someone else. I was talking to lady the
other day. She wanted us to size the watch 4% out because she didn't have anyone within, you know,
a couple hundred miles of her. And, you know, if she had a watch that had us a bracelet that could
be sized and at home, you know, that, that gives, it gives more access to people, you know, it gives
it gives a little bit more access to people that don't necessarily have access to this sort of
thing. And then you, you know, then you've got the mass production of things like you were talking
about, theoretically speaking, you know, we're producing more and more people every year. So if
we want to put a watch on every risk, we gotta be able to produce watches faster. So we've got into,
we've built in mechanization to the watch building process. And there are some brands that are still
very traditional. Patek. JLC, JLC. I mean, you got, you got Breguet still does all their hand
carving by hand by train artisan that. I'll do that. You know, it's very, very cool, but
I mean like stamping out watches, you know, like to get them out there is, you know,
very like modern because it's, you know, very quick, very, you know, I need it now. I need,
you know, because we've got access with everything now with the internet and everything
that, you know, allows us to essentially make newer stuff
more readily available at a faster rate, with better materials, right.
More reliable. I mean, we've gotten, you know, this being an example of the 60 90 now,
like a 48 hour power reserve. And now we've got the submariners going up to 72 hours,
70, 72 hours, hairspring, you know, free the free sprung movement as it kinda grew. And the
the anti-gay housing you know, you can't magnetize the wash and all that stuff is just built in to be
by and large a watch that will outlive its predecessors. And I think that's at least
the assumption because it's built better, stronger, better technology. And I think,
you know, those, those washes will pass down for a couple, maybe,
maybe a couple more generations than these vintage pieces. So there is some benefits
to it. Obviously we don't think there's anything wrong with modern watches. We, we love them. Yeah.
Which is, in comparison to vintage pieces. You know, it's, well, I'll go into
the advertising aspect. The marketing aspect is another thing. Modern watches
in today's world, I've used a little cold. Right. Okay. Vintage pieces are, they were
marketed with kind of a story behind the watch, an intention, you know, as being the piece is
cool. It's not cool to own the piece. It's the piece is cool. Right. Philosophy there, you know
Jacques Cousteau did whatever with whatever watch and there there's a story behind that versus now
Rolex advertising is literally, you know, a wrist, or you know,
celebrities wearing watch. Just wearing it, you know, wearing it out and then that's it.
Yeah. You're right. We did, by the way, if you guys want to check it out, we did just do a video
an argument and a video last time last week. So if you haven't checked that out,
we did one on the MoonWatch, again, speaking of a story that,
that watch had a ridiculous story. You, the things that, that thing has, you know, the, the
heritage that that watch has and adding to American culture or world culture
is amazing. So you can, I'm hoping the tech team can put it on video right here
Somewhere, somewhere over there. And I think
we did this some videos on substitute back in the day. So that was a few,
that was a few videos again. And you can probably find that, put it right here,
But, but, or, or if not above his head or something like that,
please don't cover this cover, cover up the main.
So I mean, we, you know, we really do love the vintage styles. We love, we love watching. We love
the character that vintage gives us. We love being able to have a piece that's, you know,
this watch is still intended to be worn every day. You could probably, you know, you could easily put
this watch on as long as you're careful. You're not trying to do anything crazy about it. You
can wear this watch for the indefinite future and pass that on. And, you know, that's, that's just a
cool story because then you get, you have so many generations that have owned this watch and you,
it's not hard to kind of the way the kind of lifespan that this watch has had throughout his
lifetime in the same thing with this, you know, the, the newer styles, the more modern pieces
and things like that. You know, you're typically not the first owner all the time, and, but you've
owned it. You had, you had some stories that go on into it. And each, each year that passes
A new watch or a modern watch becomes vintage. It keeps getting closer and closer to that. And
so the modern pieces are still they're on their way. And they're building the character,
they're building that story. And you know, they don't, the modern ones don't have the
same stories that the old ones had because they've just stopped doing that level of marketing. But,
you know, there are personal ones, you know, you can kind of I like imagining what this person did,
how they lived their life. They were a family man. Or if it might've been a lady that,
Like, modern watches today are just designed with the intention of never aging. These pieces
have aged because of the imperfections of the materials used and stuff like that. This watch,
and a hundred years, the dial is still going to look the same, bezels going to look the same.
Because if not, it's just like, I don't know. It's just, there's something cold.
Right? Nice philosophy.
There is like the idea that if something never ages, can it be valuable? Like the idea if
we were to live forever is life important anymore? Like if you, you know, likewise,
I was just talking about watches. I stay up all night thinking about this stuff. No,
I'm kidding. But you know, there is a sentiment to that though. The idea that a piece does age
and it shows it, you know, we got pumpkin dial a vintage watches. We have other dials where, you
know, w w with the growing of technology and the patina that we get from those materials used back
in the day. So we see different elements of that character coming out as things age. So Lord knows.
We love the vintage pieces. We love the modern stuff too. We love the vintage though. Yeah. So,
Jonathan, I, you know, we got to end with the same question. What's your favorite watch?
I can't disagree this time. I got to say, I got to go with it. So hope you guys enjoyed the video,
you know, like, comment, subscribe. I know you guys hear that from every user out in the world,
but honestly, if we don't tell you, you probably forget. I know I watch them all the time and I
don't, I don't, I'm like, man, that was a cool video and I don't press the like button. So you
can do that. Do us a favor. Give us some comments. If you, if you guys want us to do a piece on this
on the 1680, or you guys got something, you want us to talk about, put that down in the comments.
And of course, always "Penny". Put down "Penny" in the comments because we're going to get her
out. And she keeps in her head. She doesn't know we're going to get her out here one of these days.
So, yeah, like subscribe, comment,
all the good stuff. Let us know. Catch you next time on Taking Time.