By Alan Wood
Discover the best storage options for vintage and luxury watches, including the pros and cons for each, from vintage watch expert Alan Wood.
How to Store a Vintage or Luxury Watch
Discover the best options for how to store a vintage or luxury watch, including the pros and cons for each, from the experts at Vintage Gold Watches.
Purchasing a vintage or luxury watch can be a significant financial and emotional investment. So it’s essential to know how to store your watch properly to ensure your investment remains safe and secure and in its best possible condition.
The Importance of Correct Storage
Watches never designed to be submerged in water or diving watches that have not been serviced can let moisture into the case through the crown, case back, or crystal seals. While not as disastrous as total immersion, this moisture causes corrosion to the movement parts and stains the dial over a long period.
Light can cause dials to fade, creating patina. In rare cases, patina may create an attractive appearance that can make a watch more valuable (such as the Rolex Submariner tropical dials), but usually, the fading is uneven and highly undesirable.
Vintage watches have different storage requirements from their modern counterparts. Generally, they’re less robust and their cases seal less tightly. Well-maintained vintage sports watches may have their original water resistance, but all others need protection from light, humidity, and dust.
Dust that finds its way into a watch can settle into the oiled bearings, creating something between a glue and a grinding paste, neither of which is good for a watch’s health. Good watch storage should protect against impact or scratches, whether vintage or modern.
Understand Your Storage Needs
How you store your watch depends on the watches you have and how often you wear them.
To find the proper storage solution, you should consider the following:
- How many watches do you have to store?
- Do you need access to them frequently?
- Are you planning on travelling with them?
- Do they need to be kept wound when not being worn? (if hand-wound)
- Do you wish to have them on display while being stored?
- How important is security to you?
Watch Storage Solutions
Here are several options for storing a vintage or luxury watch. We offer pros and cons for each so you can decide what works best for you.
The Original Box
When new, all watches come with a box, so why not use that for storage? The box is an integral part of the original purchase package, along with the instructions and warranty document.
Pros: Original boxes are often lost at some stage of the watch’s life. Well-preserved, original boxes, along with documents, can significantly increase a watch’s value if they are sold together. Storing a watch in its original box is a good idea if you have lots of secure space and do not wear it regularly. Keeping everything together prevents the box and papers from going astray.
Cons: The original box will not protect the watch from humidity as they’re often made from cardboard or leather-covered wood. Indeed, some original boxes need protection themselves as they can disintegrate if exposed to damp conditions.
Unless using a secure storage facility, it’s a good idea to store watches separately from their boxes and papers so that you have more proof of ownership in the event of a theft.
Display Boxes
These solidly constructed boxes, usually made from wood or leather, can store anything from one to thirty watches at a time. The inside of the box is covered in a soft fabric that doesn’t collect dust, such as synthetic leather, felt, or velvet.
Each watch sits on a soft cushion in its own compartment to prevent damage from watches rubbing or knocking against each other. The top of the box may be solid or transparent to act as a display case for the collection.
Pros: These boxes protect watches well due to their robust construction. They allow easy access to watches worn regularly and accommodate an extensive collection. While they’re not sealed against humidity, the use of silica gel packets under each cushion should protect against all but the most tropical atmospheric conditions.
Cons: Display boxes are often ill-suited for travelling due to their heavy size and weight. Having all your watches in one place is excellent for display purposes, but the box size would make it difficult to fit into any but the largest safe should you desire additional security.
Watch Rolls
A watch roll is a more flexible storage solution than a display box. It consists of a long strip of either canvas or leather fitted with individual pockets to hold up to ten watches. The case is then rolled up and secured with a strap to prevent the watches from moving or touching each other.
Pros: These rolls protect watches well. Even the largest are relatively portable should you need to travel with your collection. They are lightweight and can be fitted into a safe if necessary.
Cons: While they protect watches from dust, they provide no protection against humidity. Being made from fabric, they can be crushed, potentially leading to damage to the watches inside. They can be unsuitable for watches with semi-stiff bracelets or straps or those using a deployment clasp as they do not like lying flat. This isn’t a good option if you like to display your watches.
Travel Cases
As the name suggests, these are the perfect solution for travelling with a vintage watch. These zippered travel cases are more sturdy than a watch roll, although you must limit your travel choices to only one or two watches. Constructed in leather with a soft internal lining, these have recesses for two watches, separated by a folding panel.
Pros: Being small and light, these cases are ideal for travelling with one or two watches. Their deep recesses and rugged construction protect watches from knocks or being crushed. They will easily fit into a small safe at home or at your travel destination.
Cons: Travel cases are not designed for long-term storage. They provide no protection against humidity, and the lack of visibility means that storing an extensive collection in these cases can become confusing. Similarly to watch rolls, they are only suitable for watches that lie flat.
Soft Pouches
These are the simplest forms of storage. Our soft pouches are made from suede, but you can also find them in leather or fabric. They’re stitched rectangular bags accommodating a single watch. Closed with a press stud, it is vital to check that the press stud is covered inside to prevent scuffs to your watch’s case. These will protect your vintage watch from marks and scratches but little else, so it is essential to use them with another storage item, such as a drawer, cabinet, or safe.
Pros: Small and lightweight, these keep your watches separated and scratch-free and are suitable for travel.
Cons: Lack of transparency can make large collections confusing. They provide little protection against crushing or humidity.
Watch Winders
An automatic watch winder is a specialist form of storage for self-winding watches. The watch is kept running because it’s placed on a rotating platform programmed to turn a set number of times per day in each direction according to the specification of the watch’s movement.
Read our expert’s opinion here for an in-depth discussion of watch winders. From a storage perspective, winders are similar to display boxes in construction and the protection they offer, such as this fine example available at Vintage Gold Watches.
Pros: Their enclosed design keeps the watch free from both moisture and dust. A large safe can accommodate small single winders, but a bespoke winding safe may be suitable for multiple automatic watches. If you live in a high-humidity area, adding a silica pack gel inside the box will provide suitable protection.
Cons: Although portable winding boxes are available for travel, they are still somewhat bulky. A better solution for a short trip is to allow the movement inherent with travel to keep the watch running.
Safes and Vaults
Throughout this guide, we’ve mentioned whether a box or case will fit into a safe. This is because protection is not just from accidental damage or moisture and dust. Protection is also the prevention of theft.
Above a specific value, insurers may insist that watches are kept in a safe if not being worn. Several options listed above will happily fit into a safe and ensure that the watches remain scratch-free. A safe also provides additional protection against light, dust, and moisture – be sure to add silica gel packs to your safe.
Your collection’s value, security needs, and insurance requirements will dictate whether you can have watches on display or whether they need to be locked away. For the highest-value items, it may be necessary to use a safety deposit vault for storage. In this case, the smaller portable options suggested here will be most appropriate to fit inside.
Finding the right storage solution depends on your circumstances and how you choose to wear your collection. The only hard and fast rules are that your watches should be away from daylight and in a dry, dust-free environment. If you live in an area with high humidity and have a vintage watch, add silica gel packs to your storage solutions.
Take a look at the range of storage options available at Vintage Gold Watches, and if you still need help, you can call or email the team for their expert advice. To learn more about the world of vintage watches, sign up for our regular newsletter here.