*sigh* Watching Antiques Roadshow...

[TheMightyFavog]

They had a Rolex watch on made around the year I was born. It was described as an Antique.

I'm only 33. I'm nowhere near old enough to be an "antique!"

[Paulie]

1. Runner!!! WE FOUND ONE!!!

At 30 you were supposed to go to Carousel

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. How much did they say it was worth? I'm wearing a Rolex almost that old.

Edited to add, I thought 100 years + constituted antique with the exception of Republican pola.

[TheMightyFavog]

3. Because it had everything original on the watch

$12-14k

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. Was it solid gold?

Jesus, I paid $2,500 for mine back in the day. I hate getting old! My first house was $74,000 and my first Porsche 911 was $12,250 out the door.

[TheMightyFavog]

5. Not sure.

The value had something to do with it having all original parts or something.

[LeftofObama]

6. I watched it last night too.

The guy said his dad bought it for him as a graduation present when he graduated in 1984 for around $2000-$2500. The appraiser said that the watch was made around 1980, but because it had all of the original parts it was worth $12-$14,000. It had the dials that glow in the dark so when you are spelunking you could still see the watch. That's all I remember about it.

[Major Nikon]

7. The one I have is about the same age

I have two of them if you count the matching one my wife has. Mine has the original dial, but it no longer glows in the dark. After about 10 years or so the tritium starts to decline and by about 20 years it will no longer glow in the dark. They stopped making tritium dials around 10 years ago at least on the new watches, so anyone that has a tritium dial is probably noticing it's in decline if it hasn't already stopped glowing entirely. You can go with cheaper aftermarket dials, but most didn't use tritium and since the substance is mostly banned, if not completely banned, for watches, it's hard if not impossible to come by new replacements. The newer Role and I suspect OEM replacement dials) have a different substance and I'm not sure how well it works in comparison. However, anyone who buys an "antique" Rolex and places more value on it because it still has a tritium dial is a sucker because eventually it's going to stop glowing and that day is probably not far away.

Most Rolex are either stainless steel, gold, or a combination of the two. A complete gold Rolex of that vintage would probably fetch that much if it has all Rolex parts. Which model it is also affects value along with any options like jewels on the bezel.

[LeftofObama]

9. Here's the website with the info about the watch.

I couldn't get the video to play, but the dialogue about the appraisal is posted.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/201202A42.html

[Major Nikon]

10. Seems pretty steep for a stainless Explorer

[Paulie]

11. That's the first explorer II

The first with a 24 hour hand but a fixed bezel. Very collectible because it wasnt popular and considered a holy grail watch to collectors.

http://doubleredseadweller.com/oh_e2.htm

[Major Nikon]

14. That explains it

Otherwise it just looked like a pretty worn Rolex. It's not something I'd want and certainly not at that price.

[a la izquierda]

8. 33 is antique?

Yikes. I'm 35

[Gorp]

12. The technical definition USED to be "25 years or older". I don't know if that still applies.

Still, just because it is "antique" doesn't mean it's valuable. Sometimes "antique" translates into "junk".

[bluedigger]

13. That is for cars only.

"Classics" are older than twenty years and antiques over 25 years, mostly for registration and insurance purposes really. In other objects, antiques are usually considered to be over 100 years old, probably deriving from the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which defined antiques as being from 1830 or older.

[Gorp]

16. Ah. Got it. Good grief. That means one of our cars is already a "classic".

[Earth_First]

15. As a 33 year old, I sometimes feel like an antique...