GUEST: I turned 35. And I had these moments in my life where you start to recalibrate, and you're trying to figure out how to create meaning in milestone ages. And so when 35 came, I said, "I need a 35-year-old hobby."
HOST: Jason Reynolds's milestone accessory? Vintage watches. And Paul Winicki has some helpful information for the new watch collector about his old timepieces.
GUEST: I mean, look, I'm, I'm no different than anybody else. I grew up, either you know Swatch...
APPRAISER: (chuckles)
GUEST: You know, you know Casio, or you know Rolex.
APPRAISER (chuckling): Very true.
GUEST: Right? That's Batman, Superman, Spiderman, right? It's, like, these are the, the sort of the ubiquitous brands.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And, and so I under... I always understood Rolex as, like, a luxury brand, or as, like, this was sort of what you graduated to. Like, if you got a
Rolex, it meant something.
APPRAISER: Very true.
GUEST: And so I started with what was familiar. And I started with, with Rolex. I'm a fan of smaller watches, smaller dials, like, less watch on the wrist. I had a GMT that looked like it was supposed to look.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And every time I put it on, it almost felt like it looked too nice. I typically am a sneakers and T-shirt kind of guy. You know, jeans. And I like things to look... I mean, even my home, right? I like things to feel lived in and feel worn. I do enjoy that.
APPRAISER: The Rolex GMT was made in 1966. To get that kind of coloring and spiderwebbing, it had moisture in it. 25, 30 years ago, we would have said, "Can we help you change, get that dial changed? It's bad." Most of them do not have original dials.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: What did you pay for the watch?
GUEST: I paid about 30 grand.
APPRAISER: Okay. So you could see something like this from a dealer somewhere, in a retail store that wasn't high up on the market, marking this $20,000, $22,000, $23,000. You could have somebody who was hoping to get $35,000 to $45,000.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: You're in it in the right range. Um, it's a solid watch. They're, they're super-rare. So you've got a lot going for it. It's a cool watch.
GUEST: Perfect.
APPRAISER: Great. So the silver Rolex. Tell me about that and why'd you get that one?
GUEST: I was in London. You know, it's one of those things where, first, I thought it was fake.
APPRAISER: Uh-huh.
GUEST: And I was, like, "I don't know, is this real?" And then I did some research, and honestly, I just think it's beautiful.
APPRAISER: How much did you pay for it in London?
GUEST: About 5,000 pounds, I believe.
APPRAISER: It's called an officer's trench watch. Originally, the dial probably would have had radium on the numbers. So that dial more than likely had been scraped. But it's a porcelain dial. So there were painted dials and porcelain dials. A porcelain dial is a more expensive dial produce and, and a nicer dial. You see these out there at a variety of price points. You'll see them priced anywhere from in the $1,500 to $2,500 range, and you see them on up to $7,000, $8,000, $9,000, $10,000. Sure. But, for whatever reason, they're out of fashion today. You've got a good eye. You did very well. You got very safe pieces. Hopefully you'll continue watch collecting for forever.
GUEST: We'll see.
APPRAISER: We need to keep the hobby going strong in your generation.
GUEST: For sure. For sure.
