Collecting Vintage Watches

Welcome to Rare Antiques Collectibles Memorabilia.

One of the achievements of early man is the invention of time. back in the olden days we measured the day through sun's daily motion and and placement of the moon of a certain amount of cycle. That's how we enabled to keep the time.

We decided that the year is composed of 365 days and the day is composed of 24 hours. Since then we were able to keep appointments to be at a given place and at a given time.

Early man used sundial to waterclock and much later years to spring driven clock which eventually led to the miniaturization to the pocket watch then ultimately to the wrist watch.

Now how do we know that a certain vintage watch is valuable? well factor in availabilty, craftmanship, history and desirability. If certain timepieces were made in a batch of millions compared to only 300 pieces made. Then the latter fetch a more hefty price.

Condition is more important than the brand. Check out the movement and the inside of the casing . iIf there's discoloration, dings, scratches, blotches, flecks of rust be wary of all of these signs for it meant abusive wear and tear and watch parts swapping.

If a watch is part of a major turning point in history of mankind then consider the watch prestigious. The Longines hour angle watch worn by Charles Lindbergh when he made his solo flight the first ever over the Atlantic.

The explorer by rolex which is known for its triangle on the 12 on the dial both for roman and arabic numbers worn both by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay when they summited Nt. Everest for the first time in history and of course lastly but certainly not the least the omega speedmaster worn by Neil Armstrong when he first landed on the moon. The slogan still lives on" Omega Speedmaster the first watch on the moon".

Collecting vintage watches while fun can be easily become an obsession. It's easy to be addicted to acquiring these timeless time keeping artifacts. depending on your personal taste and budget you might want to collect pocketwatches, wristwatches-chronographs, led and lcd watches etc.

Back in the early nineties swatch company made collecting watches more affordable with all these psychedelic colorful designs on plastic.

Which by the way i have a sizable colection. now i'm hoping to get my hands on some led watches where in you just push a little button and light would emit displaying what time it is.

I think it's vogue to sport these watches because not too many people are wearing it nowadays. and also it brings back a lot of memories especially the disco dancing, mirrorball, white suit and john travolta of the 70's.

Remember for all your collecting ideas always drop by Rare Antiques Collectibles and Memorabilia.

Collecting Vintage Photographs

ia cameron,


Welcome to Rare Antiques Collectibles Memorabilia.

The majority of us can't afford a picasso that's why collecting vintage photographs is the second choice. Personally, if my pockets were deeper collecting vintage photographs would be my passion.

There are many factors that makes a vintage photographs collectible and valuable.


1. Prints made before the advent of the negative even if just one or two years prior. and especially oversized american photographs like twelve inches by eighteen and up because this also predates the enlarger.


2. The condition of the print whether paper, silver or albumin (paper washed with egg white to fix the chemicals) must be flawless without tear, stains or other flaws. It will surely appreciate in value.


3. Estate print. This is a print made by someone else after the photographer has died. Though this is less expensive than vintage prints.


4. Editioning. Some photographers number their prints and limit how many they make in order to create rarity. If a great photographer does this its called canny marketing, if a lesser known photographer does this its called hubris.

You can go for whatever theme you want to pursue in collecting vintage photographs. one way is to accumulate a whole album of pictures taken in th early years.

Acquiring one old photograph may not mean much but a whole album of old pictures would prove to be more valuable and in the long run profitable. you can also use the "then and now" approach.

If you happen to stumble upon aphotograph of a certain place, just wait for the right time to take another picture of the exact same place, taken at the same angle. You can display it in frames opposite from the other. isn't that interesting?

Next is to find a vintage photograph with lots of people in it , like the one above. then trace the history of each person in the picture, make a complete dossier of all the people in the picture.

Or you could only accumulate photographs thematically like, collecting only sports pictures, fashion pictures, people wearing hats, or pictures that have cigarettes in it.

Photographs taken by great photographers especially in the early years like Juila Cameron, Ansel Adams, Herb Ritts, David Lachapelle, Irving Penn and Robert Frank just to name a few would fetch in five thousand to a hundred grand and even appreciate more in value in years to come.

In this era, digital technology made taking pictures inexpensive but if you want to be the first digital photograph collector go ahead,who knows digital may soon become the thing of the past.

Remember for all your collecting ideas always drop by Rare Antiques Collectibles and Memorabilia.

collecting vintage photographs
vintage photographs
ansel adams
herb ritts
david lachapelle
julia cameron
iriving penn
robert frank