Chuck
There is a practical reason to owning something "brand new" vs a 60 year old item. Old mechanical things break often, and require lots of service. New ones can be much more reliable, especially in watches.
I think there is a snob appeal, a "i've been cool longer than you" factor in owning an original, a pleasure I'm damn guilty of!
grant mclean toronto, canada where 70's road bikes aren't growing on trees...
I'm always mystified why someone wants a reissue/reproduction. The original is almost always less than the reissue. Makes no sense to me. If you're talking about watches, the analogy is not fake Rolexs, but the very common practice of many watch companies today to reissue their own watch designs from the 1930s through 1960s. The reissue is _always_ more money than the original watch on the collector market. Crazy! Chuck Schmidt