Let’s face it, the vintage watch market is flooded by overhyped and overpriced watches, but what about the ones that offer a lot of watch for fairly little money?

Let’s have a look at some of them.

If your reaction is like “Whaat? Speedmaster below Wostok?”, you need not worry. This list is not a ranking. Just a list of suggestions.

There’s something for everyone on it.

1. Bulova and Elgin
2. Poljot De Luxe
3. Wostok Amfibia
4. Roamer and Medana
5. Avia
6. Rotary
7. Omega Speedmaster Mark II
8. Anything with a Landeron 48 (or a derivative of it)
9. Anything Seiko
10. 1940s-1950s Eterna hand-winders

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Recently, the so-called microbrands are getting quite a lot of attention. Why are there so many of them? What makes them so popular? What are the pros and cons?

Let’s try to answer these questions one by one.

It’s only for the last few years, that microbrands gained the attention of watch collectors and the media. The phenomenon can be most easily traced to the rise of platforms such as Kickstarter (founded in 2009), which have consistently gained popularity since the early 2010s.

Generally, crowdfunding seems to be the remedy for the basic problem of every new watch entrepreneur- the budget. Even when you’re starting the watch company in a garage or a shed, as so many manufacturers and inventors of all sorts did (think of Apple, Rolls-Royce…), there is a problem.

Not only do you need that shed, but also the tools and materials.

Preferably, also some employees, unless you firmly believe, that you can handle producing enough watches yourself in order to avoid the down payment blues, and at the same time not work yourself to death.

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Spending a lot of time in the forums, I see a lot of people ask the question “what model is it?” in reference to their watch.

Reactions to the answer “it doesn’t have one” tend to vary. Some ask “what does it mean?” to which there is but one answer: it means just that. It doesn’t have one.

It generally wasn’t popular until the 1960s to really give a name to a watch, or a model line (collection). Among Swiss brands, Rolex did give names to a lot of watches… but still, most of their watches are known by their reference numbers rather than names (that period, when reference numbers were 5 digits long – tops).

American brands are a different story. Find me a pre-1970 Bulova or Hamilton wristwatch, which doesn’t have a name. Banker, Clipper, President, Senator, and so on…

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