The Aussie Edit - An OG Seiko "Arnie", A Tropical Sub & An Itty-Bitty Polerouter

All good things must come to an end, and very soon the chapter is closing on my favourite place to hunt for vintage watches in Australia.

That stomping ground in question? The Wentworth Park Antique & Collectables Fair in Glebe, Sydney. The market has been running for over 20 years (I’ve been attending it for the best part of a decade), and in that time I’ve not only bought countless vintage watches, cameras, vinyl records, and design objects, but it’s also where I first met my Sydney watch tribe. I heard about the markets after walking into a Sydney camera shop and complimenting the vintage Seiko on the owner's wrist. He invited me to a vintage market happening that weekend, and I agreed to meet him there.

Toddling along on that Sunday morning, the kindly camera shop owner introduced me to vintage watch dealers and watch collectors who have since become lifelong friends. I was instantly hooked, and it’s since become an informal hangout for like-minded enthusiasts where nothing is pre-organised - you just turn up, chat with other collectors and hunt for treasures together before heading off for a coffee nearby, often with a new watch on your wrist. I found my Bulova Accutron Spaceview (featured in the Hodinkee Magazine Vol. 1) at the Wentworth Park Markets, alongside vintage Tudors, Omegas and more Seikos than I can honestly remember.

As part of Sydney’s never-ending development, the Wentworth Park Greyhound Track is being demolished to make way for apartments, and the antique markets will be a collateral casualty. The organisers will be relocating next year, but I’ve heard many of the regular sellers won’t be tagging along. A chapter in Sydney’s vintage watch scene is about to end.

To make the close of a chapter in my collecting journey, the next market day will be a last hurrah, so here’s your invite: come to the Wentworth Park Greyhounds Function Centre in Glebe from 8 AM to 11 AM, and help give the antiques market a proper final send-off. I’ll be there hunting watches, hanging out and paying a little respect to a place myself, and countless other Sydney collectors, owe much of our watch education to.

The markets might be finishing up, but The Aussie Edit isn’t going anywhere, so let’s dig into some of the best vintage watches hitting the Australian and New Zealand market this month.

Summer is just around the corner, and those glistening Sydney beaches deserve to be accessorised properly. At least, that’s the attitude I would take to self-justify a solid gold vintage Submariner.

There’s very little I could tell you about the Rolex Submariner that you don’t already know, but gold Subs are a curious (and oft-unappreciated) corner of Rolex collecting. This is a 1981 Rolex Submariner ref. 1680/8 (/8 corresponding to gold) with a blue dial and bezel, and usually this is a pretty in-your-face watch, but with this example's heavily patinated dial it’s taken on a whole new identity.

The metal blue sunray-finished dial paint has flaked off over the years to reveal the brass dial plate beneath it, and that totally changes the feel of the watch. The case condition is relatively nice with signs of a light polish, though judging by the photos the bracelet appears to have been restored, and the clasp in particular appears to be heavily polished - a shame, but very common with these soft gold bracelets. It’s with Vintage Watch Co for A$48,900.

Find the listing here.

No matter your watch size preference, I think most collectors have a secret soft spot for the Seiko ‘Arnie’, and this 1982 original reference is where it all began. It’s Seiko's first-ever ana-digi watch that combined an analogue handset with a digital readout, positioned at 12 o’clock to give alarm and chronograph readouts.

It was built to dive but took on another unexpected life on the wrist of Arnold Schwarzenegger in a smattering of 80s movies, most notably Predator and Commando (the latter being my favourite action movie ever), turning it into the ultimate action hero watch. Seiko have said “stick around” to their ana-digi diver a few times over the decades, but have never managed to quite capture the essence of the H558-5000 just right. In my eyes, the original still reigns supreme.

Crown Vintage have this example from the first year of production, and while it’s got a couple of scratches to the case, it doesn’t appear to bear any serious battle scars (either from doorknobs or clandestine rescue missions fighting chainmail-vested mercenaries). The dial is very clean, and with a quartz movement inside, servicing is less of a concern than with its mechanical counterparts. 

Despite the 45mm case, a set of pumping-iron forearms isn’t required to pull this watch off, and they actually wear surprisingly well. Priced at A$1,490, this example is fitted to a ribbed rubber Seiko dive strap that can be a little ungainly on larger watches - try it on the Seiko GL-831 rubber strap it would have originally been sold on for maximum bazooka-toting wearability.

Find the listing here.

From one end of the spectrum to the other: the Polerouter Mini. Collectors are increasingly happy to wear vintage watches on the smaller side, and as a result, previously unconsidered models are being viewed in a fresh light.

On paper, the smaller Universal Genève Polerouters are a great candidate for reconsideration as they offer all the capabilities of their big brothers, just in a smaller package. This ref. 825603/05 measures just 26mm in diameter, but it still holds a Universal Genève-made micro-rotor automatic calibre - a defining feature of the Polerouter. 

The slightly C-shaped case and chunky lugs will help to give this smaller watch some good wrist presence, and it presents in rather good condition with some light hairline scratches and little, if any, evidence of a case polish. The dial is also in great shape, retaining its lume plots and appearing otherwise undamaged, while the watch also has its original rather pronounced signed crown - a component that’s often missing on Polerouters.

Overall, it’s a great example offered by Crown Vintage, which also explains the price: A$2,900. That number is probably on the higher end of the market, but when you compare it to the price of a full-size Polerouter, the value proposition of the Mini becomes clear.

Find the listing here.

Early-revival Blancpain doesn’t get enough love, and looking at prices of some of their neo-vintage catalogue, I reckon it’s currently one of the best value propositions in watch collecting right now. This Léman mother-of-pearl-dialled steel Flyback Chronograph with screw-down pushers is a good case in point, made right towards the end of the brand’s Jean-Claude Biver era. Given how much the watchmaker has changed in the last two decades, its watches from the JCB period now look decidedly unique.

This example is a little on the smaller side (even for early 2000s watches) and measures in at 32mm, but with a 38mm lug-to-lug, its proportions aren’t lilliputian, and the smaller size works nicely with the mother-of-pearl dial. Earlier this year, I had the chance to try on a similar Blancpain while working with Classic Time Club (where this example is currently for sale), and the quality from this era is what stayed with me. This example is currently available at ‘price on request’, and while I don’t know how many mother-of-pearl examples exist (I suspect hundreds, not thousands), you’re unlikely to see this exact configuration again, so if you want it, best to swoop in.

Find the listing here.