http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/fashion/mens-style/how-to-buy-a-vintage-watch.html 2016-09-06 23:45:58 How to Buy a Vintage Watch (and Not Get Fleeced) A watch expert from Christie’s offers tips on secondhand timepieces, including what’s hot and how to avoid fakes. === These days, vintage watches are hot enough that some aficionados treat their collections like 401(k) accounts: a great way to build for retirement. But with prices spiking, the level of risk is shooting up, too. Even experts can get stuck with bad merchandise if they are not careful. Eric Wind, a vice president and the senior watch specialist at What is driving the vintage watch boom? What is that doing to the market? Is it crazy to buy a vintage watch on eBay? What are the odds you’ll end up with a fake? Is restoration a bad thing? In other words, collectors are willing to pay a premium for a watch that shows its age? A major trend in vintage Rolex collecting has been the explosive growth in demand and value for watches with black dials that have turned brown or “tropical” due to intense exposure to the sun and heat. A vintage Daytona with a tropical dial could be worth as much as five times the normal version. And because of that, there are those who seek to use artificial aging processes, such as intense ultraviolet light exposure. Who can you trust? We know about vintage Rolexes. What else is hot now? What’s the best deal you ever got?