Rolex Vintage Collection

[LeOnfromtheblock]

No doubt there is a market for modern ceramic sports models that are coming out of Rolex but what about lovers of a more vintage style of watch?

I'll take you back to approximately the early 80's Japan where there was a huge interest/boom in vintage denim, Levis in particular (Levi's were the first to patent the hidden rivet blue jean). Levi's had years prior, stopped using the more costly selvage denim, spun on ancient shuttle looms and changed to a faster production time, more cost effective denim spun on newer technology. The result was that the quality suffered which forced denim purists to start collecting and trading the already established higher quality vintage models. Some time after, a few Japanese tailors decided to buy the old shuttle looms Levis stopped using many years earlier and start producing their own denim. They began to recreate historical Levi's models based on deadstock/new oldstock they had collected. The jeans that started coming out of Japan were extremely accurate to the original Levi's models which they were paying homage to and these jeans began gaining massive popularity. People were getting vintage denim and models with the added bonus of wearing them as new.

Levis naturally came in and sued everyone and many reproduction companies were forced to make changes. However what Levi's noticed was that there was definitely a market for this type of denim and so they went back into their documented history and came out with LVC (Levi's Vintage Clothing). Models started coming out based on the early 1870's cuts right through to the 1970's. And these models were being constructed with the same materials and same machinery according to how they were originally produced decades and even a century earlier.

LVC was/is a success and their success has got me thinking why cant Rolex do something along these lines? There are so many Vintage collectors out there and so many like me wishing they could have a 6538 or 1665 DRSD but just cant afford the ever rising price tags. How good would it be if Rolex still had all their old molds and what not and started bring out their own vintage homages of their early history. Having not only the chance to wear one of their earliest subs at an affordable price but to own it as new. See the thing at the moment is I cant see Rolex making any money out of the vintage pie. It's all the dealers and collectors.

The other thing to note is that LVC has not decreased the value of any original vintage Levi's jeans at all. I think the oldest known pair is in Levi's vault and values at rough $170K. I would imagine it would be the same for the original Rolex subs and whatnot.

[Puffy]

Good post mate

We're already seeing a bit of 1970s homeage with the new 216570 coming out but agree it'd be sensational if Rolex really brought out some more vintage meets modern. Rolex would be able to snap up some of the riduculous cash that goes towards vintage as I'm sure many out there would rather have a new vintage than an old vintage..

I so can't wait to try on the new Exp II...

Also think we can be sure that Rolex has a lot of unworn refs in the safes - a guy I know at a magazine that Rolex advertises in has been to their premises in Switzerland and mentioned "they have a lot of display cases with old and new watches..". This guy isn't a WIS so the old is probably vintage... unworn, most probably

[landroverking]

I think they are slowly moving that way. The new ExpII(I do wish it had the old style dial), the Tudor Heritage. I would love to se.e a true PN dial on the Daytona.

[smallcandle]

Fantastic post. Although I'm not holding my breath that Rolex will bring back a true-to-form Red 1680 or DRSD it is nice to think about. And in the event they actually did such a thing I would certainly be in line to get one...

[Bob Gott]

Love the reds.

[Mikel212]

If you want to spend alot of money for some NOS from the 80's, buy a DELOREAN. DMC probably has a brand new 30 yr old car in the showroom.

[KarlFr]

I think Rolex are doing the right thing now, doing upgraded homages like the exp2 but not making clones of their old models

[speedo]

Originally Posted by KarlFr

I think Rolex are doing the right thing now, doing upgraded homages like the exp2 but not making clones of their old models

agree. making exact copies of old models is not the way to go. they are desirable because they are not on the market any more.
love tribute models though.

[rad87gn]

Not sure what you all said but I now have the urge to go buy vintage Levi jeans.