Four Underrated Affordable Vintage Dress Watches

You liked this format for our vintage chronograph feature, so we’re bringing it back as a series! This time with some classic dress watches.

This Omega Cosmic triple calendar with moonphase didn’t make it into this article — stay tuned for an article about it!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t dress up much these days. I might put a blazer on for a few more formal meetings, but I haven’t touched a tie or dress shoes in over nine months. Maybe this makes me lucky, but there’s no denying that dressing well activates a sort of confidence in you and makes you feel just a tiny bit better — even when you’re stuck at home in a dystopian nightmare hellscape. So, what’s the easiest way to work some class and confidence into your outfit? A dressy watch.

Vintage dress watches variously still sit in a sweet spot in terms of price and style. Today’s featured pieces have to meet three criteria. 1: They have to be dressier than they are sporty. 2: They have to be truly underrated — no Cartier Tanks, no Omega Seamasters! Those are lovely watches, but these have got to be deeper cuts. And 3: They have to cost less than $1,500. We’re not going to talk about precious metal watches in this article (maybe later!). Let’s get into it!

Universal Geneve with original bracelet

Universal Geneve is a good place to start looking for underrated vintage dress pieces. We all know the Universal Geneve Polerouter, famous and gorgeous as it is, but the Polerouter hype leaves room for amazing pieces like this Roman numeral cushion case to slip through the cracks.

Sure, this one is a bit sportier than my other picks with its original bracelet, but this UG makes up for it with its slim time-only class. This watch has the feel and heft of a prized dress watch for a snappy gentleman, and it has the added bonus of being a watch you’ll never find on someone else’s wrist.

Movado triple calendar

Sometimes a good dress watch can be complicated — and a triple calendar with the month, day and date is particularly useful as a daily watch for folks like me who forget what day it is. Part of the allure of a complicated dress watch, at least for me, is the satisfaction of having this complete calendar in such a small, unassuming and fully mechanical package on your wrist. 

Movado did triple calendars extremely well, especially in the 50s, when the Movado name carried so much more power than it does today — powerful enough to be worn by multiple U.S. Presidents and even be sold and stamped by legendary jeweller Tiffany & Co.

Girard Perregaux Gyromatic

Girard Perregaux is often missed on the radar of vintage collectors, as they produced fewer watches than maisons like Omega, Universal Geneve and even Rolex. When vintage GP models do crop up, they are always impressively robust and reliable pieces.

This GP Gyromatic exemplifies the robustness the brand was known for with its beefy case and thick yellow gold indices. As a purist time-only watch, something as simple as gold dauphine hands and markers on a warmly patinated dial gives pieces like this so much character. Add this to the satisfyingly art deco typefaces on the dial and you have a watch that’s so easy to look at for a long time.

Omega non-Seamaster

I did say in the intro that there’d be no Omega Seamasters here, and I wasn’t technically lying — but Omega has to be mentioned in the affordable vintage dress category, so I landed on a 1950s non-Seamaster dress piece, actually an unsigned model. 

The exclusion of a signature, even if this watch may have a similar case shape and the same caliber movement as more desirable Omega models, make this a bargain with an uncommon and understated elegance to it. It’s simple, time-only, automatic and wrapped in a toasty patina that looks natural and elegant on the wrist. It’s an expression of vintage gentlemanly style with a modern consideration for aesthetics and minimalism, and it makes for a perfect dressy companion to an otherwise informal life.

You can find all of these watches and more like them in the shop. If you like this type of content, follow Danny’s Vintage Watches on Instagram and let us know! We’d love to hear from you.