After a decade of vintage reissues watch brands are taking risks
Firstly, let’s set the record straight. I love a vintage reissue as much as the next watch journalist. There are so many amazing examples from the last two decades. Longines has been knocking this particular ball out of the park since it launched the Legend Diver back in 2007.
Then there’s Zenith, whose fabled attic seems to be a Narnian wardrobe of vintage surprises; Breguet bringing back its iconic Type XX; and, as far back as 2017, Omega’s 1957 trio of faithful re-editions of its Speedmaster, Seamaster 300, and Railmaster.
It’s just recently it’s felt like everyone’s been taking a trip down memory lane. The reasoning is solid – we haven’t been having the best time of things recently so vintage reissues are both a comfort blanket – a “remembrance of times past” to quote a certain madeleine-obsessed French author – and a sure bet in sales terms (the WWII pilot’s watch aesthetic these watches tend to all share is catnip to buyers).
However, it does render the horological landscape somewhat homogenous. Until the last couple of years, that is, when brands started to shake things up a bit.
You could argue Vacheron Constantin started it when it unveiled its revived 222 at Watches and Wonders in 2022. Designed by an unknown young designer called Jorg Hysek, and launched in 1977 (yes, I know technically that makes this a vintage reissue), it was Vacheron Constantin’s bid to have some of that integrated bracelet sports watch pie that the likes of Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe were enjoying. Unlike those other two integrated icons, the 222 failed thanks to the soaring value of the Swiss franc and the market subsequently being flooded with cheaper quartz models.
In 2022 Vacheron finally made the decision to bring it back. Solid yellow gold, and definitely not subdued satorially, it was bold, beautiful and a success. There must have been something in the water – like when couture collections all coalesce around the same themes, silhouettes or colours – because it seemed as though “going big or going home” was Switzerland’s new motto.
A year later, the talk of Watches and Wonders were two Rolexes. One was an Oyster Perpetual on whose dial were coloured lacquered ballons, the other was a DayDate but instead of the day in the aperture at 12 o’clock and the date at three, it had inspirational words like “love” and “hope” in the former and 31 different emojis in the latter.
Then there was TAG Heuer growing massive lab-grown diamonds and sticking them all over its Carrera – a watch named after a gruelling pan-American road race.
This year looks set to be no different. Piaget has unveiled its 1970s icon the original Polo (pictured), all 200 gold grams of it, while Zenith has taken one of its sportiest watches, the Chronomaster, made it all rose gold and set its bezel with precious stones.
This month Watches and Wonders opens its doors again. Due to embargoes, we don’t know what to expect. Accept the unexpected.