The new Omega Speedmaster is the latest in the business of making money on Vintage Vogue

It’s inevitable The past casts a long shadow over something as inherently ancient as watchmaking, whose existence today can be considered archaic, and in which many of the most important historical designs have not disappeared. For example, Patek Phillipe’s Nautilus watch, a watch so hot that the steel versions with a retail price of £26,870 ($36,512) are trading at $100,000 more than this, and its design has been virtually unchanged since 1974; The Calatrava dress watch from the same brand dates back to 1932.

On the other hand, there is a thriving antique market, the spread of scholarship and awareness among online communities, and the constant enthusiasm for retro that results in new versions of everything from old-school game consoles and analog synthesizers to recreated classic cars all the way to the latest rivet engine, Creates a richer landscape for archive looting. The following retro models are also attested.

Omega Speedmaster 321 Canopus Gold

Most people know the Speedmaster is the watch that went to the moon with NASA astronauts, but it started life as a motorsport wristwatch in 1957. This version harkens back to the original 1957 model, albeit in a superlative form: the case in Canopus gold (the Omega alloy of especially shiny white gold) instead of steel, and the dial is cut from black onyx.

But in this case, the real classic gameplay is the movement (the mechanical “engine” that powers the watch) inside it. Three years ago, Omega put a hand-made movement last made in 1969, caliber 321, back into (extremely limited) production, keeping a private workshop in its high-tech, old-school manual assembly factory.

Powering the Speedmasters worn by Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and early 1970s (including the moon landing), the caliber 321 holds a special place of affection among enthusiasts and collectors. This is only the third modern watch that has it: retro on the outside, and more on the inside, but at a staggering modern price of $81,000. One glimmer of hope is that if we’re content to bet, we’ll put money on an Omega at some point to release a more affordable steel version of this piece.

original zenith chronomaster

Unlike Omega’s Caliber 321, Zenith’s historic chronograph movement, El Primero, never went out of production: Introduced in 1969, it was the first self-winding chronograph (a watch with stopwatch function), and was the backbone of the Zenith watch industry ever. where. It was also used by Rolex in the 1990s. Today’s El Primero is an entirely modern engine, but the Zenith has been playing up its ancient origins with a series of vintage-inspired models.

Launched in 2021, the Chronomaster Original nicely brings things back to the first 1969 El Primero watch, known as the A386. In particular, the dial and bezels have been nicely recreated, while the historically correct diameter of 38mm plays into another current trend, the trend of smaller watches (Zenith’s modern El Primeros tend to be in the 40-42mm mark). While it is undoubtedly a watch to please purists, the fact that Zenith has already repeated this in a few editions, including a distinctly non-antique, female-facing style with a mother-of-pearl and diamond dial, illustrates the mileage you see in the original design. Sometimes the oldest is really the best.

Swatch Bioceramic 1984 Reloaded

Introduced in 1983, the original Swatch was a thunderbolt out of the blue: cheap, plastic and disposable, but also a piece of strict analog design, the trendy Switzerland retort of Japanese digital watches then flooded the market.