“Passion” pervades Maastricht’s exclusive vintage Rolex gathering
By Straight-Six, published on 9 August 2011
It took our acquaintence less than a minute to show us what he was packing. An elegant shirt cuff was pulled back as we craned closer to check out the goods: a vintage Rolex 6538 with the coveted big crown and an immaculate case sporting perfectly chamfered lugs. We oohed. He slid up his other shirt cuff to flash a Rolex Military Submariner 5513-5517 with sword hands. We aahed. He beamed back at us, his smile filled with pride, satisfaction and unbridled passion. Glasses were raised, congratulations exchanged and mouthfuls of white wine savoured.
Here’s the thing: each of the timepieces we’d just been flashed with are well into five figures and almost every other chap in the downstairs of Maastricht (the Netherlands) theatre La Bonbonniere is sporting a highly collectable watch on each wrist, usually Rolex. The glass shelves within the display cabinets are over-flowing with vintage pieces that together are worth millions.
And yet, the mood is relaxed and jovial as folk fondle and inspect a truly astounding gathering of horological delights that they appear to care more about than the very brand that produced them. Welcome to Rolex “Passion”, an annual vintage watch event that is as exclusive as it is unique and heartfelt.
“The Passion events are a great way to meet others who share the very same madness about vintage pieces,” explains Mark, a Dutch vintage watch enthusiast who’s brandishing a very rare Rolex 6236 Fuerza Aerea Del Peru that has eight Rolex collectibles at home to keep it company. “We talk for hours, completely losing ourselves in details, admiring stunning time-warp pieces, learning new stuff and sharing it all with old…and new friends.”
It all started three years ago with invitations to a group of hand-picked online vintage watch collectors, most of whom had never met before outside watch forums. They gathered in a secret location in Maastricht and, well, shared, examined and talked watches from morning to midnight, adequately fueled by fine drink and food.
“From the beginning it was a great success,” explains Philipp Stahl, co-founder of the event, along with Bernhard Bulang, and owner of vintage watch mecca Steiner in Maastricht. “The watches do the talking so you don’t have to say anything about who you are, or what you do.” Nonetheless, the event is limited to 30-40 people and it’s not because you’re invited to attend one year that you’ll be invited back the next. “We want to be sure that all the characters match and, more importantly, the egos stay home,” chuckles Stahl.
The discretion, exclusivity and much-needed security are entirely understandable when you consider that some collectors arrive with multiple suitcases filled with their, erm, passion. But by bringing in big vintage watch collectors from all over the globe, Passion is actually developing into a tight-knit community that looks out for one another, offering assistance when trouble or doubt rear their heads. “We’re more than just friends: we have the same disease,” adds Stahl.
And what about the newly infected, then? What is that draws them to Rolex’s illustrious past? What do they look for and need to look out for?
“Rolex has a very impressive history and an equally large impact on the horological industry,” says Mark, “and there’s so much variety with vintage Rolex that other brands simply don’t offer: Submariners, Sea-Dwellers, GMT, Daytona, Explorer.” But it’s the subtle variations in dials, bezel inserts, bracelets and special editions; the imperfections; the transitional models and retailer co-branding exercises (Serpico y Laino and Tiffany to name but two) that really get the collector’s blood pumping, providing almost endless variety. And to think they all look the same to the neophyte!
For Stahl, only two brands are of interest in the vintage watch market (Paneristi will be sharpening their harpoons right about now): Rolex and Patek. “It’s their stories, heritage, technical achievements…and the reality that the total number of sports watches from Rolex were quite small.” Rolex made its money from the larger volumes of Datejust, Day-Dates and gold models. “The sports (Rolex) watches were too expensive for most people…and they’re mythical because they were made in a period when no-one wanted them.” It may also be as simple as a vintage watch being rarer than its modern equivalent, gleaming and glinting from the display case of your high street retailer.
Buy the seller. Buy what you love. Buy quality and originality. That pretty much sums up the advice of the the cognescenti. “Visit and lurk on the various vintage rolex forums (like vintagerolexforum.com) and try to gather as much as information as possible,” says Mark. “Lurk and slurp.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves, being unapologetic watch porn addicts.
“Guys who sell vintage sell their passion and need to explain why a buyer is paying more for an old watch than a new one,” explains Stahl. “Most newcomers study, read up and come back to buy more. Once you start it’s difficult to stop, the only limit is your wallet. Guys can buy entire collections in a year.”
And what do they buy?
Typically, gents in the 30-40-year range want a watch from their birth year with the Submariner in the lead and the GMT not far behind. Meanwhile, older buyers have a penchant for Daytonas. “People who couldn’t afford (it) in the past now want something special,” adds Stahl. Mark too supports buying
from well-known dealer despite the higher prices: “every new collector goes through the process of buying and selling pieces in order to fine-tune their collection to their wishes. And it’s good to know you did not buy a piece of crap for a top price!”
But Passion, and vintage Rolex communities like it across the globe, small or large, are something else too: a repository of knowledge about a past Rolex has turned its back on for decades now. A past that would be forgotten completely were it not for the passion and devotion of these enthusiasts. Little wonder then that auction houses often consult with Passion aficionados and the experts that man the clunky vintage watch forums late into the night.
Rolex has a past so rich and varied, filled with arcana and intrigue, that it may come as no surprise that the brand effectively locked it away in its quest for expansion and the unwavering sameness of modern manufacturing techniques and processes. Ageism, it appears, rules the Geneva crown.
Looking forward, many wonder whether anything in the current Rolex line-up will become a collectible. Mark points to the Submariner LV (called the Kermit due to its green bezel) which had several dial and bezel variations as a potential future collectible. But it also has to be said that the watch will never really age with time, never flaunt a patina or feel the way vintage Rolexes do. If you’ve ever run your thumb over the warm, domed acrylic crystal of, say, a 6536-1 Submariner before doing the same with the cool, flat sapphire crystal of its modern-day descendent you’ll get what we mean.
Nonetheless, Stahl remains optimistic, pointing to the new Explorer II, the Cerachrome bezel on the latest Daytona variant, the news that Rolex UK now officially services vintage pieces and even the language Rolex is using in its latest press releases; daring words like “heritage” and “passion”. He sees this as a sign that things may yet change within Rolex. We might speculate this could see Rolex create an equivalent to Ferrari’s recently established Classiche department, with the means, the knowledge and the will to finally welcome their heritage timepieces and those who cherish them back in from the cold.
Time will tell.
As originally published in QP Magazine Issue 49
“Passion” pervades Maastricht’s exclusive vintage Rolex gathering
Passion runs deep amongst vintage Rolex collectors. We found out just how deep at an exclusive event held in Maastricht in late March where most participants wore one watch on each wrist. Only the hard-core, folks…
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4 Responses to ““Passion” pervades Maastricht’s exclusive vintage Rolex gathering”
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Thanks, Jack. We’re hoping for a second coming…
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Pete
10 August 2011
Great Post.
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Much appreciated, Pete. Thanks for dropping by.
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Jack
10 August 2011
Amen…