About Vintage Chronicle

My fixation with watches began in the 1970s when I put my beloved Seiko (which from distant memory looked a little like the one above) on top of my mum’s car while I played football in the garden.  I was always careful with that watch. I didn’t realise that she had driven off to go shopping. I looked for it for days but never found it.

I love watches dating from the 1940s up to the late 1990s (where they are generally classed as ‘neo-vintage’). My humble collection, and those for sale in the ‘shop’, is my own time portal to when I think watches, design, and certainly the music really were more interesting. 

I try to date each watch and find out what was happening around the world when it was brand new and enjoying its tiny mechanical life on someone's wrist for the first time.

So what's so special about vintage watches?  Most of them aren't very accurate; you can't get them wet; they are intrinsically fragile and they've got bumps, scrapes, cracks and that thing they call patina. Most need some attention from a watchmaker to keep them on the straight and narrow. 

But hey....'They Just Don't Make Them like that Any More' and that's what makes the search and hunt for them so rewarding. I'll seek out watches that I would be happy to have in my own collection - that seems a good place to start. I'm fascinated by movements that pushed the boundaries of what was possible; dials and cases that have aged into something no modern watch can replicate.I love new watches too, but there is a unique appeal to wearing a vintage watch - and why buy new anyway? It's not really a sustainable choice anymore.  So I hope you enjoy going down the proverbial rabbit hole and hope you find something you’d like to own or just want to read about.

Vintage Chronicle — London.