Watch collecting has experienced a pretty drastic evolution, over a relatively short period of time. Only decades ago, wristwatches were not seen as collectable items, in stark contrast to art or classic cars. Indeed, until fairly recently, it was only pocket watches that were considered as being of any significance, and even then, it was only amongst small, dedicated groups of enthusiasts.

Then, towards the end of the 20th century, things began to change. Wristwatches gradually began to pick-up momentum, and the market as a whole started to develop. In its infancy, a Rolex Submariner was simply a Rolex Submariner, with no distinction between models. As for the mythical Patek Philippe 1518, the brand’s first perpetual calendar chronograph, there was a time when yellow gold and steel examples changed hands for around the same price.

From where we stand today, it seems hard to imagine how different things were just a few decades ago. Since then, a vast number of new collectors have entered the fray, valuable information has been discovered and many different corners of the market have arisen. Considering little is usually shared about this period in time, we thought we’d speak to those who were there in the early days of wristwatch collecting, in the hope of gaining an insight into what it was really like.

For a long period of time, pocket watches were considered the purest form of horological expression. After all, they had been around for much longer than their wrist-worn peers and housed a range of compelling complications, from tourbillons to retrograde perpetual calendars. They were also often of a higher quality, having been assembled and finished by hand, whereas many wristwatches from the 20th century often relied on a higher degree of mechanisation, or at least that was the perception. As such, even when wristwatches were widely adopted across society, it was only pocket watches which were seen as having any substantial, long term, collectable value.

In the 1970s and early ‘80s, watch auctions primarily focused on pocket and historical watches from the 17th and 18th century. If you were to open a Sotheby’s catalogue for the Watches and Clocks sale from 29th April 1968, you wouldn’t find a single wristwatch. Rather, the pages are filled with pocket watches, carriage clocks, marine chronometers and similar instruments, by watchmakers such as Abraham-Louis Breguet, Thomas Tompion or George Graham. Much of this collecting was focused on precision and complication. Th