Antique Wristwatches
Mechanical wrist watches, mostly Swiss and mostly men's, made to be worn daily from the years when the wrist replaced the waistcoat pocket.
Antique Wristwatches
The wristwatch took over from the pocket watch early in the twentieth century, when soldiers found a watch strapped to the wrist quicker to read than one on a chain. Self-winding movements and screw-back water-resistant cases spread from the 1930s to the 1950s, and that is the stretch nearly all of these listings sit in.
The commonest thing on Sellingantiques is a gents' mid-century Swiss watch in stainless steel with an automatic movement. Omega runs through a third of the titles, and within Omega the Seamaster is the name you'll meet most, followed by Geneve, De Ville and Constellation. Titles are built from year, maker, case metal and model, so date, brand and metal are most of what you read.
Around that core sit four smaller seams. Art Deco dress watches of the 1930s and 40s, often chrome, rolled gold or gold filled, with tank and cushion cases. Military and service-issue pieces, including ATP and WWW markings, RAF 6B/159 and the Dirty Dozen. British-made and British-retailed watches, Smiths among them. And a run of ladies' dress and cocktail watches, the diamond-set platinum and white gold ones sitting at the top of the range.
The decade field is a rough bucket rather than a date. Watches naming 1972, 1973 or 1979 in their titles are filed under the 1960s, a couple of twentieth-century watches are labelled "19th Century", and only a handful carry the "Later Than 1960" tag. Where a title gives a year, that year is the better guide. Sizes are quoted only now and then and stay modest by modern taste, from 26mm up to a 37.5mm Longines described as oversized.
Where The Range Splits
Case metal does the most work. Solid 9ct, 14ct and 18ct cases sit well above the chrome, rolled gold and gold-filled Art Deco pieces, with stainless steel spread across the middle. Gold appears in roughly a fifth of the titles, so it's a real division rather than an occasional premium.
After metal comes the name on the dial and whether the watch carries a model reference. Seamaster, Constellation, Conquest, Oyster, Speedmaster, Navitimer and Carrera titles cluster far above the plain "Gents 1950s wristwatch" listings, and the bottom of the market is small Swiss and Japanese brands nobody advertises. Complications pull the same way: chronographs, triple-date, full-calendar and moonphase watches sit above time-only.
Two other things lift a watch. Documented military issue, with ATP, WWW or squadron markings, reads higher than the civilian equivalent. So does a complete or untouched watch, and titles saying boxed, box and papers, full set, or old stock never worn turn up repeatedly among the higher-priced pieces.
Antique Wristwatches Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for wristwatches, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
One to pass through the archive: a ladies' watch signed Wilsdorf & Davis, made before the Rolex name existed.
Omega·Longines·Smiths·Bulova·Tudor·Rolex·Record·Vertex·Timor·Zenith·Movado·Jaeger-LeCoultre·Elgin·J W Benson·Cyma·Buren
The Antique Wristwatches Glossary
- Automatic
- Self-winding, driven by the motion of the wearer's wrist. Roughly one title in seven says so, which makes it the commonest movement type named.
- Manual wind
- Hand-wound, with no rotor. Stated outright in a smaller number of titles, and the default for most pre-war watches.
- Tank
- Rectangular case with bars flanking the dial, named in around twenty-five titles and often paired with Art Deco.
- Gold filled / rolled gold
- A gold layer bonded to a base metal core, not solid gold. Frequent in the American-cased Art Deco listings, and quoted separately from 9ct, 14k and 18k.
- Bumper
- An early automatic whose weight swings between springs instead of rotating a full circle. Appears in a small run of titles.
- Dirty Dozen
- Collectors' name for the twelve makers who supplied WWW watches to the British MoD, spread here across Record, Vertex, Timor, Buren, Longines and Omega.
- Pie pan
- A dial with a stepped, sloping outer edge, named in Constellation and IWC listings.
Antique Wristwatches: Frequently Asked Questions
Which maker turns up most often?
Omega, by a wide margin. The name is in over a third of the titles in this category, and the Seamaster accounts for a large slice of those.
Geneve, De Ville, Constellation, Dynamic, Chronostop and Speedmaster titles fill out the rest. Longines, Smiths, Bulova, Tudor and Rolex follow, then a long tail of smaller Swiss names.
What period do these mostly come from?
The 1950s and 1960s together account for most of the dated listings, with the 1940s and 1930s behind them.
Earlier pieces thin out fast. The 1920s and 1910s appear only in small numbers, and the earliest dated things in the archive include a 1905 silver trench watch, a 1910 Wilsdorf & Davis ladies' watch made before the Rolex name existed, and a 1916 Omega in a cushion case.
Why is a 1970s watch filed under the 1960s?
The decade field is a bucket, not a date. Titles naming 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978 and 1979 all sit in the 1960s bucket, and only six listings carry the "Later Than 1960" label.
Two watches are filed as "19th Century" and one as "Victorian" despite being twentieth-century pieces. Where a title states a year, that's the more reliable figure.
Are military wristwatches a big part of this?
A small seam, but a distinct one. Around forty-eight titles say military and about twenty say British military.
The Dirty Dozen WWW watches appear sixteen times, and other issue types include ATP, RAF 6B/159, Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine pieces, US ORD DEPT markings and a Vixa Type 20 French Air Force chronograph.
How large are the cases?
Modest by modern habits. Where a size is quoted it tends to fall between 26mm and 36mm.
The largest measured piece in the archive is a Longines described as oversized at 37.5mm. Many listings give no measurement at all.
Do ladies' watches appear in this category?
Yes, though in far smaller numbers than gents' watches. Dress and cocktail watches make up a small minority of listings.
The diamond-set platinum and white gold cocktail watches sit at the top of the range, alongside Rolex sports models and Heuer and Breitling chronographs.