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3 Vintage Watches You Can Buy for Less Than $500

You don’t have to drop tons of money to snag your first cool vintage watch — or your 100th.

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By Oren Hartov

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The vintage watch world can be intimidating for numerous reasons: the shear number of different models available, the potential costs of service, and the passion/vitriol of the watch-obsessed, forum-lurking horological nerds. Thankfully, you don’t need to drop a down-payment-on-a-house-level amount of cash on your first foray into vintage. Below are three cool vintage buys for under — that’s right — $500.

Doxa 1940s Oversized Wristwatch

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What We Like: Finding a 38mm watch from the 1940s is like finding…well, it’s hard. This oversized Doxa features a handwound movement, raised gold Arabic numerals and matching handset, outer 1/5th-seconds track, and that’s it! Just pure unadorned Swiss design and class.

From the Seller: The dial is champagne color and excellent with all original gold hands and sweep seconds. The numbers are all original gold raised Arabic surrounded by a black 60 seconds dial.

Buy Now: ~$375

Wittnauer ref. 6500

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What We Like: With a silver sunburst dial featuring dauphine hands, applied hour indices and logo, a sub-seconds counter and a a great date window, this midcentury Wittnauer is simply a wildly good value. Add in a signed crown, manually wound movement and included Horween shell cordovan strap, and you’ve got yourself a super first vintage watch.

From the Seller: In overall excellent condition. The case has no major scratches of any kind & no signs of polishing. Dial is great with no blemishes or discoloring. The manual winding movement runs very well keeping accurate time.

Buy Now: ~$490

1960s Baylor Alarm

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What We Like: Here’s something you rarely see at this price — a vintage mechanical alarm watch. Use the second crown to set the alarm and voila — it’ll ring loudly at the predetermined hour. With a steel case, funky alarm hand and decidedly midcentury hour indices, this 35mm Baylor is a conversation starter and a great foray into vintage.

From the Seller: Original silver colored dial looks fantastic. Large applied markers. All steel case. Alarm function works well. Sharp looking vintage alarm.

Buy Now: ~$495

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