I know I gave you all a vintage guide (read it or don’t, it is what it is), but it wouldn’t be a complete study without some sort of hypothesis, or theorem. This was introduced into another discussion a long time ago on the WatchCrunch platform, but I thought it would be interesting (or arrogant of me – yes, let’s go with arrogant) to present it as an abstract on here.
In terms of vintage, any vintage complication is a b*stard, and there are varying degrees of b*stard. The author developed the following hierarchy (from worst to best) around 15 years ago, and has steadily adopted it as standard practice to their vintage escapades:
Pin-pallet escapement > vintage digital > vintage electric > vintage chronograph/stopwatch/complication > vintage quartz > vintage ”big name” > vintage bumper > vintage automatic pre-rotor bearings > vintage automatic > vintage 15J+ mechanical
scaled through worth, time, cost, parts, prevalence, and reasons why you shouldn’t go vintage. The author hereby submits their hierarchy for peer review.
(clearly this is in jest, although there is a little bit of life experience in there)
Greg did quite rightly point out to me, at the time, that one had simply missed out 7J, 5J, and Hong Kong-cased watches, and he is correct. I think when I formed this hierarchy many years ago I, rightly or wrongly, lumped 5J / 7J into the pin-pallet category, or things my watchmakers just wouldn’t touch. That is probably the main omission, and I personally would put it after complication but before quartz… it’s almost as annoying to get one of these fixed and probably would require a donor if my repairers would even attempt anything.
I think with HK-cased I’m not worrying too much about the housing, my primary focus is in the machinations. I feel this is more of a cosmetic issue as the movements are genuinely ok… I could be wrong though. I appreciate that the switch in mindset to not utilising a Swiss or American case in your “jobber” lasted a little more than a decade from about 1960 until the early 1970’s, but as a collector who will purchase a watch with a poor quality case because he likes the wear, I am a very unreliable judge of character.
With regards to vintage digital and electric, and why vintage quartz can rank so low here, and why they are towards the “to avoid” end of the spectrum, it’s all about parts and people. I speak from experience: I’m pretty lucky that I found a guy in the South of England who specialised in Electric watches, so when I needed the Omega Seamaster f300Hz dealing with it was at a premium. A module swap is annoying but saves the watch – ok, but there is a limited supply of those.
If it is not already apparent, I am biased against pin-pallets, but I would argue that the system is flawed, and the scale of those that are available is why I weighted them heavily to avoid, as it would be one of those that kneecaps anyone’s desire to pursue vintage further.
It’s all a bit of fun.
The Escapement Room 
I agree with your list and can’t think of anything I’d like to swap around. Vintage quartz can be truly hateful at times, as evident by my Tissot PR 516. I’m trying to get a part (motor) imported, but there is a quartz Seastar on auction that runs and is going for cheap. The only issue is that there are no pictures of the movement. The seller can’t add pictures after the listing is put on auction, so buying it would be a gamble. I could end up with a good deal on a watch I would be essentially forced to resell/flip, or I would end up cannibalising a running and not at all destroyed watch to save an abused, but rare Tissot. I’m likely going to buy my first Omega in a few days, so maybe I’ll put this whole ordeal on hold.
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with pin-pallets. Most of mine run decently most of the time and I learnt watchmaking on cheap pin-pallet movements, so I’m somewhat used to the architecture and servicing isn’t usually an issue for me. I just hate that most of them are disposable. Even though they can be fixed by someone whose time is worth less than a Southeast Asian sweatshop worker (me during holidays and some weekends,) doesn’t remove anything from the fact that they were designed to be cheap and their architecture and performance lives up to that.
I don’t think I will ever in my life buy a vintage electric watch. If I hone my skills and somehow learn how a multimeter and fault finder works, I’ll consider it, but for now, they’re far off of my list. Pity… There’s a Kienzle ChronoQuartz LED watch for sale nearby. It’s been teasing me, but I’m not going to hurt myself again, I’m a new man.
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