5 vintage watch terms you should know that might save you a lot of headache

Zach Blass

The double-edged sword of rising popularity within a commercial segment is that the more of interest something is, the more vendors with malintent that will try to take advantage of buyers. Vintage watches have never been more coveted, and as a result, it has never been more of a minefield to navigate. You will hear people in the watch community say that you must “buy the seller”, but more often than not, these days people are buying watches online, and to best evaluate a seller and a vintage watch in consideration, you have to be able to read between the lines of a description. Below are five key vintage watch terms you should know.

NOS (new old stock)

When it comes to a vintage watch, seeing the term NOS in a description is a huge green flag. NOS denotes “new old stock”, which means that the watch is effectively untouched with all or most of its original packaging. Buying a new old stock vintage watch is the closest thing to hopping into a time machine and visiting a boutique decades in the past. If a watch is truly new old stock, this means you have a watch that has not been worn and is in original condition. You would be its first and only owner.

Original owner, from the original family

Speaking of lineage, auction houses or vendors will tout the vintage watch term “original owner” or “from the original family”, but this term is a bit loaded. What it insinuates is that because the watch has been possessed by a single owner or kept in the family, that its ownership history and the life of the watch can be better-traced. The less a watch has exchanged hands, the more controlled the environment of the watch has been. That being said, if the original owner did not properly take care of their watch, then what value does it really add?

Service history

This is where the vintage watch term, though not a term limited to vintage watches, comes into play. The reason service history is especially key for vintage watches is two-fold. Firstly, a vintage watch that has not been serviced could mean you will be hit with a massive service bill in the wake of your purchase. With each passing year, the availability of proper service parts for vintage watches decreases and therefore the cost of service increases.

Secondly, and potentially even more costly, is if a watch has been serviced poorly. And poorly does not just mean being serviced by a watchmaker who does not know what they are doing. Poorly also means a watch has been serviced without consideration for what ultimately maximises the value of your vintage watch: originality. With a clear service history, you can have a clear sense of how a vintage watch has been maintained over the years.

Refinished, relumed, re… anything

Re-anything spells red flag – refinished, relumed, replaced, etc. Refinishing or retouching refers to watch components that have been polished, cleaned, or restored to mimic the original look. But if too much metal is removed or the lines of a case’s profile are softened, it’s a huge no-no. Reluming refers to the replacement of luminous material, whether re-applied or replaced. Replaced parts, or service parts, refers to components that replace a removed component entirely. Unless these tasks have been performed by proper and talented hands, or parts have been replaced with period-correct parts, such undertakings can spell disaster for your vintage watch – at least in terms of its value.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with buying a vintage watch that has been refinished or relumed, but there is something very wrong if such servicing is not transparently disclosed. The brand this is most prevalent with is Rolex. As mentioned before, originality is paramount in terms of owning a collector-grade and value-maximised vintage watch. But Rolex emphasises restoration at the factory, and will notoriously replace and refinish components in the name of bringing the watch back to its original spec.

Ironically, while great for having a watch returned in more pristine and high-functioning condition, it’s a watch collector’s worst nightmare. This mindset was not kept back in the day, and watch owners then preferred such aggressive restoration. Today, damage isn’t bad if it’s the right kind of damage, and is perceived to be coveted patination. So, as an example, Rolex would receive tritium-dial era watches that no longer glow, and replace the hands and dial with service parts that would. As a result, you’re left with a Rolex that now functions as intended – glowing in the dark – but has potentially more than halved in value because the degraded and drool-worthy patinated dial is gone.

Patina

Patina refers to the natural ageing of the components of a watch – in particular the hands and dial. As watch manufacturing evolved, brands have perfected their manufacturing techniques and the durability of parts. This is not a bad thing, but it does mean that modern watches do not patinate like vintage watches do. In particular, the transition to SuperLuminova and other modern luminous materials means that the hue of the luminous filling will not transition over time.

Part of the allure of vintage watches is their use of tritium, and to an extent, radium, which due to their radioactivity, will age over time. This ageing is so desired that the various hues that occur with natural ageing have been assigned nicknames – sage for lighter colours, cookie for medium ones, and pumpkin for heavy patination where luminous fillings turn orange. There are also examples of lume turning green, but such ageing is generally not desired.

Patination also extends to the dial itself, and even external parts like a bezel insert. For example, tropical dials fade into a brown thanks to sun exposure and humid climates, and are very desirable. Collectors also like ghost bezels, where aluminium inserts fade over time. But, if a tropical dial were repainted or retouched to return it to its original colour, it would be less desirable. This is all ultimately damage, but desired damage.

Hopefully the above vintage watch terms guide serves as a good starting point, but for the most part, remembering the old adage of “if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true” is the best advice we can give.