Photo Report: Inside A Big-Time Vintage Watch Meetup
Sights, sounds, and insights from one of the U.S.'s longest-running vintage get-togethers.
When a group of collectors get together, most of whom have been buying watches for a decade or three, conversations tend to take a zoomed-out view.
Last weekend, I drove from Chicago to Indianapolis to join about 30ish vintage collectors for the 10th edition of NAABS. “NAABS” is an in-joke acronym that doesn’t stand for much, except for a vintage get-together that’s in a different city every February (usually organized by Steve). Technically, it’s the “North American Advisory Board Summit,” a play on those overly corporate conferences that typically clog up hotel conference rooms.
The first installment happened in Houston a decade ago, with seven collectors talking watches over a few steak dinners. This year, about one-quarter of the attendees were first-timers, including me.
NAABS is a collector-focused meetup, though some enthusiasts-turned-dealers also attend. I saw a few watches trade hands (Submariners, Royal Oaks, Calatravas), but that wasn’t the primary purpose. There was a keen sense to leave the buying and selling outside the planned itinerary to respect the non-commercial meetup.
Looking at the hundreds of watches, mostly in personal collections, it would’ve been hard to pinpoint what’s trending, what’s not, or even what year this meetup was happening.
It was heavy on vintage Rolex: a few Paul Newman Daytonas (okay!), a lot of gilt Submariners and GMT-Masters. Throw in some Speedmasters, golden-age chronographs, Fifty Fathoms, and dress watches that run the gamut and you’ve got a decent idea of the spread.
Here are a few more insights from NAABS 10, in photos and words.
Like the Miami Antique Show, a simple three-hander from the mid-20th century stole the show for me: A steel Patek Philippe ref. 2508 from the ‘50s. The dial design, with those applied, geometric markers, might be the best there’s ever been. Only a couple dozen 2508 examples are known in steel—this is one of the best in terms of condition. The case is sharp, the enamel signature strong, and the dial has a faint warmth. Paired with a period-appropriate Gay Freres bracelet, it’s hard to think of anything better.
Vintage watches can be expensive, but they’re not luxury watches. Collectors came from Buffalo, Philadelphia, rural Texas, and everywhere in between. These guys have done well in life and appreciate well-made things, but it’s not really a champagne-and-caviar crowd. It’s a reminder that hardcore vintage collectors couldn’t be further from the cashmere-clad halls of corporate “luxury.”
A perfect vintage gilt dial can’t be beat. A common narrative is that the market for gilt Rolex is “soft.” Even so, a great example will sell almost immediately at the right price. It’s more of a supply problem. Many collectors with great gilt dials just aren’t selling. And if you love that gilt Sub, why would you right now? Diamond hands! There were more than a few great gilt watches at NAABS, but these have been accumulated over years or decades. I can only think of a few really great gilt dials I saw at auction last year.
Tropical dials make for great photos and Instagram fodder, but there’s nothing like a deep black, rich, and perfectly uniform gilt dial.
Modern indies seen among this vintage crowd: Naoya Hida, Berneron, neo-vintage Urban Jurgensen, Lange (not independent but you get it).
There’s not a true “wholesale” market for many vintage watches (beyond whether or not you service a watch). Every dealer is taking a calculated risk that they might be able to sell something for more than whoever they’re buying it from.
Popular: Submariner, Daytona, GMT-Master. Less popular: Explorer, Explorer II, Milgauss. I don’t think I saw a single vintage Milgauss. It’s a bit circular: The Milgauss is rare, and often overlooked by collectors, so a deep market never develops.
The Patek 5960A annual calendar chrono is a modern sleeper for some—the once-forgotten sports watch after the Nautilus and Aquanaut.
Originality is great, but hard to find and even harder to prove. In lieu of originality, “period correct” is what matters.
On Saturday, John Field moderated a panel with Adam Golden (Menta) and Geoff Hess (Sotheby’s). A few insights from the discussion:
The last few years have seen the most significant pullback in prices since at least 2007-08. On average, prices have fallen 30-35 percent. It doesn’t feel like there will be a “V-shaped” or U-shaped” recovery. It was a true market reset, and any recovery will be gradual.
This is the new normal, especially for watches like a modern Royal Oak.
Sotheby’s is focusing on stories and provenance, not big-money results. Of course, the best way to get record-breaking results (like the $800k Day-Date from December), is to elevate watches to historical objects. But that’s a small subset of these stories. Most are more mundane but still worth telling, especially when they illustrate a watch’s originality. It’s also a more accessible way to think about collecting that’s not limited to crypto-sometimes-millionaires and royal family members.
Most watches from the ‘60s and even ‘70s have probably been found. But plenty of watches from the ‘80s–‘90s are waiting to be discovered by the next generation of collectors. To take one example from an article I’m working on: Only about 20 of the 100 first-series Patek 3970s (produced from 1986-88) have yet to appear on the market.
A logical follow-on effect of this could be an increased emphasis on provenance. Much like art, perhaps a watch’s previous ownership will be listed in an auction catalog, not just covertly identified as “property of a prominent Liechtenstein collector.” Once you know the collectors and collections that hold some of the best watches, wouldn’t you want a watch from them? See also Clymer’s watches selling at Phillips last year.
Demand for high-quality watches is strong. Sourcing is the hard part. Sotheby’s had 1,400 bidders for its most recent live sale. Last year, Phillips told me it saw 70 percent growth in registered paddles from 2019-2023. While interest peaked in 2022, the demand for vintage and collectible watches has merely reverted to the pre-Covid trend, which means slow but healthy growth.
The fun thing about today’s market compared to 10 years ago is that you can sell anything, not just vintage Rolex.
“I used to be able to tell you which watches would sell immediately, which would take a week, and which would sit for a while,” Adam said. Now, it’s totally unpredictable, so the best a dealer can do is stock a diverse selection of watches.
Adam said that at the recent Miami Beach Antique Show, about 1/3 of his sales were Rolex, 1/3 were more traditional watches from Omega, Vacheron, etc., and 1/3 were “funky sh*t,” from Piaget and others.
Still, there’s a sense that time is ticking on the current trend towards small and shapes. Most of these collectors have been around for the last couple of trend cycles (vintage Rolex and Panerai, respectively), and the pattern is always the same.
It’s wrong and taboo to talk about watches as investments, but it’s more acceptable to think of them as a store of value. If you’re focused on condition, provenance, and other key attributes, the money you’ve parked in watches can be relatively safe, though not always liquid.
Getting Together
It’s important to try to meet with a group of enthusiasts at least once a year. A large event or a regular local meetup. Vintage-focused or microbrands. It doesn’t matter. I don’t mean an AD’s wine-and-cheese night, but a real, collector-first get-together. These meetups restore my faith in watches as a worthwhile hobby. A bunch of folks get together over a shared interest and usually, discover others they have in common.
I was one of the younger attendees, and there’s also a sense of wanting to pass on passion, knowledge, and the watches themselves. Current communication and media can make that tricky. In the past two decades, we’ve gone from forums to blogs to social media, and a lot has been lost along the way. The same thing that ate forums from the inside—the loudest voices drowning out the most knowledgeable—is eating social media, causing enthusiasts to retreat into smaller, private groups.
That’s good and bad.
So How Do I Attend NAABS (or Something Like It)?
Watch meetups can look exclusionary and cult-like from the outside. They are, kind of. This insider-outsider dynamic is fascinating, similar to our discussion around snagging an indie allocation. There’s an element of patronage and trust, ensuring that those invited in care about preserving watch collecting and aren’t tourists. It’s motivated by an awareness that watch collecting is always a generation from extinction (see pocket watches).
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