Photo Report: Vintage Watches at the Miami Beach Antique Show
Insights on what's selling—and what's not—from the biggest annual show in the U.S.
There are two types of people at the Original Miami Beach Antique Show: Those who try on watches and those who don’t. This year, there were more of the second type than the first.
If you're trying on watches, you're a customer or collector—asking to see a watch, snapping photos, and seeing how it fits. If you're a dealer, there's no need. You've likely handled that reference countless times, and even if not, it doesn't matter. You might love watches, but you're there to Do Deals too.
I saw a lot of Deals at the Antique Show this year—certainly more than last year—but many were between dealers. Sure, private collectors bought watches: A Rolex Submariner 5512, the first Audemars Piguet tourbillon, a coin watch, a Jaeger-LeCoultre Duoplan, and everything in between.
But it was mostly dealers looking for any edge they could find. At least a few times, a dealer showed me a watch—their latest catch—that another dealer had shown me just a few hours earlier. While the Antique Show is open to the public, it felt more like a trade show—different from the consumer-friendly 2022 show at the market’s peak, when everyone (including me!) seemed to walk away with a new watch. A recalibration after heady highs.
This year, every asking price felt at least 10 percent too high. Dealers would quote a number, then quickly backpedal with "but for you, I’ll do..." or "that's just the starting price"—all part of the negotiation.
The Miami Beach Antique Show is the best annual gathering for vintage watch collectors in the U.S., largely thanks to Adam Golden (Menta Watches), along with the Davidoff Brothers and Kiril Yuzh (Lunar Oyster). They exhibit for five day and host an evening event that brings in dealers and collectors from the U.S. and Europe. When I joined Hodinkee in 2022, one of my first pitches was to cover this show again, remembering photo reports from Ben Clymer and Eric Wind years before.
For the second time, I moderated a panel, this time with John Reardon (Collectability), Brynn Wallner (Dimepiece), and Max Traber (Bonham’s). We discussed small watches, shapes, and 2025 trends—Andrew even recorded it here. The audience questions were also telling: watch servicing, theft prevention, and retail availability dominated the discussion, echoing concerns from last week's Q&A.
Fred Savage was scheduled to join the panel but had to cancel because of the Los Angeles fires, which hung over the entire weekend. The Antique Show fills the Miami Beach Convention Center with 15 football fields worth of stuff—expensive, even historically or culturally important, but ultimately just stuff—kept in perspective by the fires some 3,000 miles away.
Here are a few more scenes and observations from the show, in pictures and words.
For the second year in a row, I can’t get a simple Vacheron (&) Constantin out of my head. This is a steel Vacheron ref. 4301 with rose markers owned by a collector. It’s about 35mm, has a raised hard enamel signature, gold markers, a screw-down caseback, and manual Jaeger-LeCoultre movement—it’s every bit of any Patek Calatrava from the era. I’ve seen a few 4301s, but the dials aren’t usually this striking.
This is the fourth year I’ve gone to the Antique Show, and I’m struck by how many watches I recognize. Watches that sit in the same case with the same dealer every year. For example, I remember trying on that rose gold Oyster Perpetual Date in the above-left photo two years ago at the same booth. The asking price in 2023: $10,000. Now: $9,800. More and more, I understand the appeal of truly “fresh-to-market” watches that haven’t been passed around like a bong in a college dorm.
It felt like there was more variety on display. The past two years, dealers went heavy into neo-vintage anything and vintage Cartier. There was still a lot of that, but also vintage Rolex, Patek, and so many small watches.
Everyone’s become more discerning about Cartier. Not just any 1970s Cartier watch will do anymore.
Two scenes: One dealer with a pile of stone-dial Piagets in his booth swore he’d never buy another one. Another dealer made a sweep of the show on day one and bought up every Piaget Polo he could find.
Everyone is more familiar with “melt value” again. Dealers are pitching a gold watch’s scrap value as a safety net—if (when) you don’t want that geezer watch anymore, at least you can melt it for the gold.1
Walking around with a rep from Jaeger-LeCoultre, we remarked that there were a lot of tiny Duoplan and caliber 101 watches signed JLC, Cartier, or Hermes. But there weren’t many of the brand’s sports watches. I’m not sure I saw a decent Memovox, Deep Sea, or Futurematic. It’s illustrative of the entire market. Dealers are selling small, but how much (and for how long) are collectors buying?
There’s real juice behind smaller Patek Calatravas. But man, so many are so chewed up. Of a dozen Calatrava ref. 96s I saw this weekend, probably one was in really good condition.
You can learn about the market not just by looking at what’s in dealers’ cases, but by (1) what enthusiasts are actually wearing and (2) what’s not at the show. Like last year, you just didn’t see much good sports Rolex laying around, but you see people wearing them.
“Value” is a buzzword, with people looking for it in unique places. Take this 1960s Girard-Perregaux "Circle Dial"—$4k at Menta, it has hand-painted crescents creating a 3D effect. The slightly imperfect hour markers are part of its appeal. While these dials come in various colors, this grey/black Circle Dial is a favorite.
Another segment where enthusiasts see value: Pocket watches.
Stone dials are perhaps the most classic trend cycle we’ve seen in the last 24 months. First, they picked up in vintage Rolex, then Piaget and others.2 Then, modern brands jumped in, turning it into a race to the bottom—Timex now offers stone dials for $200. More people understand that you can find suppliers who readily provide binders of stone options, like choosing a kitchen backsplash. There are still cool stone dials, but it takes more to stand out than even a year ago.
While there’s nothing like a physical show, social media’s impact is felt. Reardon of Collectability expressed bemusement that he’d brought a fresh-to-market 1518 perpetual calendar chronograph, but all anyone wanted to see was his singing rhino. One makes for a fun video, the other doesn’t. Especially when there are at least a few 1518s or 2499s floating around the show, those can be a hard story to tell. There was only one rhino.
Walking around the Antique Show is also a reminder of why there’s such an emphasis on condition. You can find almost any watch–1970s Cartier, sports Rolex, etc.—but it’s not easy to find one in good condition, with a clean dial and sharp case. After all, when you can walk a few aisles over from vintage-focused dealers and see Rolex dials and bracelets of questionable authenticity stacked high, it reminds you that none of these watches are that rare:
At trade shows, it’s easy to get caught up with trends, markets, what’s selling and what’s not. But beyond that, there are still gems big and small waiting to be discovered. That’s the real charm not just of the Antique Show, but of collecting vintage watches.
See you Friday,
Tony
P.S. Sadly, I’ve been told the Miami Beach Antique Show is moving to March next year, which will likely conflict with Watches & Wonders.
It makes a difference when gold sits at ~$2,700/ounce.
Your comment about pocket watches was interesting - I still think they are a hard sell to most “watch” people but there does seem to be an increasing (but still small) number of hardcore #watchnerds who are more interested in horology than hype.
This reminds me of 47th. Watches lose their luster when they’re piled high like a fish monger. I thought Eric Winds commentary was interesting too.