Leading Watch Brands are Reviving Vintage Watch Models

How Brands are Reviving Vintage Watch Models

Every week, it seems, a watch brand announces a new anniversary model. Many recent launches, however, have been about renewing historic pieces that have reached a significant date.

The revival watch suits a fast-moving modern industry where constant newness feeds social media needs, and clients love the nostalgic design of many inspirational archive models. Matthias Breschan is CEO of Longines, and the brand’s latest revival originated in 1925. He believes revival watches reflect a “desire for craftsmanship and individuality in a world driven by technology and change. For younger people a watch is a symbol rather than a practicality — something durable and authentic that reflects their personal taste.”

The rise of the revival watch has deep roots. Houses with rich design resources have always produced them, in tune with the style zeitgeist. Cartier is a past master, returning now to the oval Baignoire that was designed in 1912 and re-appeared at intervals before flourishing in 1958 in simple gold form. The most recent iteration, in 2019, was truncated by the pandemic; it is now redesigned with a gold or diamond bracelet, true to the mid-century style coveted today.

The Ludo Secret from equally venerated Van Cleef & Arpels dates from 1934, when it was still social death for a woman to scan her watch in company. In this model, a bracelet of highly flexible gold sections had a central motif of precious stones with two tiny doors that sprang open to reveal the dial. The main changes to the timepiece are unseen high-tech materials.

These distinctive models lend themselves more to subtle improvement than structural revamping, but not all brands are so literal. Rolex’s new 1908 is a sleek dress watch, addressing a different market to that of its sporty styles. Elegant and slender, with an innovative, five-patent movement, it looks vintage without referencing a particular piece. Its name refers not to a launch date but to the year that founder Hans Wilsdorf registered the brand’s name. Longines’ new Spirit Flyback doesn’t replicate the design that carried the first flyback movement — to ease the resetting of chronographs for pilots — but is a technologically advanced version that aptly reflects the spirit of the original, rather than the body.

Omega’s anniversary Seamaster range is as wide-ranging as its predecessors over the past 75 years, including dress styles alongside professional dive watches, all highly water resistant. The range is united by a new colour, Summer Blue, which appears on dials, bezels and even rubber straps, varying from pale and sunlit to deepest ink depending on the resistance. There are nods to previous models, but all are clean-lined, modern designs with co-axial chronometer movements and sophisticated refinements, such as the engraving of the Challenger Deep trench on the dial of the Ultra Deep, or a laser-ablated map of the Earth, viewed from above the North Pole, on the Aqua Terra Worldtimer’s titanium surface.

The mid-century era driving current aesthetics and client taste was a fertile time for watch design — the best models are now revived with upgraded movements and finishes, brighter colours and different sizes for global market appeal.

After World War Two, military references predominated. Panerai’s 1940s Radiomir California, revived this year, has distinctive multi-font numerals, a weathered strap and steel case ironically aged by modern technology to look vintage. Breguet’s Type XX — Roman numerals for the civilian version of the Type 20 supplied to French military pilots in the 1950s — is now a sophisticated, subtle sports watch.

Prosperity in the 1950s encouraged a focus on travel, with designs including Breitling’s Navitimer — its complex dial featuring a pilot’s slide rule. The 2023 women’s version is immediately recognisable, with its simplified rule and the original dished dial.

Orient, founded in Japan in 1950, is now available in Britain and offers well-priced styles with in-house automatic movements. Its new Neo Sport, with a block-pattern scale, day-date function and crown-rotated inner bezel, in a cushion case, recalls 24-hour models from its early decades.

The 1960s saw a flourishing of sports styles, including models that are still iconic today. The Tag Heuer Carrera from 1963, designed by motorsport enthusiast Jack Heuer as a driver’s chronograph, has been a brand constant, apart from 12 years during the quartz crisis. The 60th Anniversary edition, with a panda dial and silver sunbrushing, embodies vintage detail down to the punched leather strap.

Zenith’s Defy was a singular design in 1969, with its polished, angular case and 14-sided bezel. The new Defy Revival Shadow is equally dramatic, in matte titanium with a black dial and striped, block indices, inspired by early blacked-out designs made as prototypes.

1970s design shifted to glamorous engraved gold and hardstone jet-set styles such as master goldsmith Piaget’s ultra-plain and slim but generous Black Tie. Andy Warhol’s favourite dress watch, it now comes customised with unique mineral dials. “It’s authenticity rather than nostalgia,” says Piaget’s product director, Cynthia Tabet. “Our educated audience demand it, keeping the spirit alive while updating the model.”

Faultless engraving features at Grand Seiko on the Silver Birch, in ultra-hard platinum with different patterns on the case and dial, inspired by a birch forest in winter and the dial and case of a 1969 model.

Vacheron Constantin’s newest women’s Overseas has multi-layered inspiration. It resembles 1977’s 222, itself reintroduced last year, which also contributed elements to the original 1996 Overseas. “Our contemporary watches link to our heritage — the Overseas is modern yet neo-vintage,” says Christian Selmoni, the brand’s style and heritage director. “There is no questioning the prominent vintage trend.” Possibly the watch world‘s biggest truism, so expect the revivals to keep on coming.