Ask a room of business owners where they put spare money and you will hear the usual answers: index funds, a second property, maybe some crypto they half regret. What comes up more and more, quietly, is watches. Not a new Rolex bought at retail to show off, but vintage pieces bought with the same care you would give any other asset on your balance sheet.
It sounds like a hobby dressed up as an investment. For some people it is. But there is a real case here for founders, and it is worth understanding before you either dismiss it or spend a lot of money badly.
Why watches keep coming up
Three things make vintage watches interesting to people who run businesses.
The first is that they hold value in a way very little else you can wear does. A well-chosen vintage Rolex or Omega has, over most long stretches, held its price and often climbed. That is not a guarantee and anyone who tells you it is one is selling something. But unlike a car or a laptop, a good watch is not designed to be worth a fraction of its price in five years.
The second is that it is a physical asset you can use. Most of what sits on a founder’s balance sheet is a number on a screen. A watch is a store of value you can put on your wrist for a client dinner. For people who spend their lives in the abstract, that tangibility matters more than they expect.
The third is quieter and more personal. A lot of founders buy a watch to mark something: the first profitable year, the exit, the moment the business finally stopped being a daily fight for survival. It becomes a marker of a hard thing you did. That is not an investment thesis, but it is honest, and it is why the emotional pull is real.
The part people get wrong
Here is where most first-time buyers lose money.
They treat a vintage watch like a new one and assume the brand on the dial is the whole story. It is not. With vintage, condition is everything, and condition is not obvious to an untrained eye. Two watches that look identical in a photo can be thousands apart in value because one has its original dial and the other has been refinished, or because one has the correct movement and the other has been quietly rebuilt with later parts.
The trade has a word for this: originality. A collector will pay a premium for a piece that is honest, which means the dial, hands, case and movement are the ones that left the factory together. The moment parts have been swapped or a dial has been touched up, the value drops, even if it looks cleaner. This is the single biggest thing separating a smart purchase from an expensive mistake, and it is almost impossible to judge from a listing alone.
So the real skill in buying vintage is not spotting a nice watch. It is buying from someone who can prove what they are selling.
How to buy one well
If you decide a vintage watch is something you want, a few rules keep you out of trouble.
Buy the seller before you buy the watch. A reputable dealer with real specialists on staff, watchmakers, gemologists, registered valuers, is worth far more than a marginally lower price from someone you cannot vet. The specialist is what protects you from the originality problem above.
Get the paperwork. Service history, valuation, any original box and papers. These are not a nice extra. They are the difference between an asset you can resell with confidence and a watch you will struggle to move.
Insist on servicing you can trust. A vintage watch is a machine that needs maintaining. A dealer with an in-house workshop, ideally one authorised by the brands they sell, means the piece has been looked after and will keep running.
Buy something you would wear. The pieces that hold value best are the ones people really want on the wrist, not obscure references you bought purely as a bet. If you like it, so will the next buyer.
If you are buying in Australia, this is where working with an established specialist really pays off. Kalmar Antiques, based at the top of the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, is a good example of what to look for: a family business with an on-site watchmaker, gemologists and valuers on the team, carrying Rolex, Omega, Cartier and Patek Philippe among others. For anyone weighing up the best vintage watches for sale in Australia, starting with a dealer who can stand behind the originality and servicing of each piece is the sensible first move.
Is it right for you?
Be honest about what this is. A vintage watch is not a liquid asset. You cannot sell it in an afternoon at a known price the way you can a stock. Spreads between what you pay and what you can sell for are real, and if you need the money back fast you will feel them.
So it is not somewhere to park cash you might need for the business. Treat it as a small, long-hold slice of what you own, the sort of thing that sits quietly for years, not something you trade. Bought that way, by someone who did the homework and used a dealer they could trust, it is a reasonable place to hold a bit of value and get something you enjoy in return.
That last part is the bit spreadsheets miss. Most assets ask you to wait and feel nothing while you do. This one you get to wear.
Bottom line: Founders are buying vintage watches for the same reason they diversify anywhere else: scarcity holds value better than cash sitting idle. A well-chosen piece from a respected maker can appreciate while you wear it, but only if you buy for quality and provenance rather than hype.
Frequently asked questions
Are vintage watches really a good investment?
Select references from brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Omega have shown strong long-term value growth, but not every watch appreciates. Condition, originality, and demand for that specific model matter far more than the brand name alone.
What should a first-time buyer check before purchasing?
Confirm the watch has its original parts, matching serial numbers, and a documented service history. Buying from an established dealer or auction house with authentication reduces the risk of paying for a piece with replaced components or a fake movement.
How much should a founder budget for a first vintage watch?
There is no fixed rule, but many advisors suggest starting with a well-known reference in the low five figures rather than chasing rare pieces early on. This gives you room to learn the market before committing larger sums.
Does wearing the watch reduce its value?
Reasonable wear with proper care rarely hurts value in a meaningful way, and some collectors argue a watch with honest history can be more appealing than one kept untouched in a safe. Poor servicing or unauthorized repairs cause far more damage than normal use.
