Collecting Vintage Swiss Army Watches

Vintage can be a relative term in watch collecting circles, but it is rarely used to describe watches made in the 1990s and 2000s. What should I call early watches from a company like Victorinox that only started making timepieces in 1989? Would a better term be early or retro or something else? These are things that I often think about, and there is no good answer. But, for the sake of coining a phrase, I am going to refer to Swiss Army watches made in the early years of Victorinox’s foray into watchmaking as Vintage Swiss Army. There, I said it and I can’t take it back, even though “Vintage Victorinox” might sound better.

Karl Elsener

If you are a little confused by hearing that Victorinox Swiss Army has only been making watches for less than 30 years (as of 2018), don’t feel so bad. There is a lot of confusion surrounding Victorinox’s early years as a watchmaker. Many other Swiss watch companies have older histories going back hundreds of years, but that is not the situation with Victorinox. Victorinox is the same company that makes the little red Swiss Army knives that practically everyone knows with multiple blades and gadgets. Victorinox has been around since 1884 when it was founded by Karl Elsener. He named the company in honor of his mother, Victoria, which he combined with “inox,” which is “steel” in French. This company literally made knives, cutlery, and bayonets for the Swiss army, eventually buying out its main competitor, Wenger. In later years, they expanded their products to other things such as luggage and fragrances, but I’m not going to discuss that.

I guess you could say that I have been a serious collector of Victorinox Swiss Army watches, even building this Watch Hunter website to support that interest. That passion is not only for the later, more expensive and complex mechanical watches, but it includes the diverse collection of quartz watches that the company has made. If you are looking for something fun to collect, you could easily keep yourself busy learning about and buying Vintage Swiss Army watches.

My vintage Swiss Army watches as a subset of my larger collection

Part of the fun of collecting older Victorinox Swiss Army watches is learning about them. Many of the more collectible watches appeared before or during the early years of the internet so it can be difficult to find detailed information about them. It’s hard to remember a time when magazine ads or going to an actual store were the main ways of learning about a watch. We are all accustomed to Googling anything to instantly find the answer including videos, forum posts or blog articles. If any of this information existed online, it is quickly disappearing as old websites from the era disappear or get updated. Heck, modern Victorinox barely acknowledges these old models. When I was creating the Victorinox Swiss Army Watch Identifier, I referred to many of these old sales sites, but I would bet that many are offline today.

A vintage Swiss Army logo that is rarely seen on watch dials

Because Victorinox Swiss Army has made hundreds of different models, it would be helpful to identify what constitutes a Vintage Swiss Army watch. This is not easy to do because Victorinox’s watch manufacturing timeline is comparatively short. Perhaps quartz watches from the first sixteen years of their watchmaking would be a good arbitrary line in the sand. That would include watches from 1989 to about 2005 give or take. You can learn how to determine the age of your Victorinox Swiss Army watch here.

A distinguishing identifier for Vintage Swiss Army watches is the pure Swiss Army logo on the dials without Victorinox. I have heard that the company was required to add “Victorinox” to the logo because another American company was already selling watches under the Swiss Army name (not affiliated with Victorinox). Aesthetically speaking, the Swiss Army logo is smaller, more simple and better looking than the modern day logo that has Victorinox in it. The logo is a small part of a watch design, but it will make Vintage Swiss Army watches easier to spot.

Vintage Swiss Army logo on an Odyssey Extreme Chrono

I could “wax poeticly” for days about these Vintaage Swiss Army Watches, but I’ll simplify my thoughts by saying that these early examples of Victorinox Swiss Army watches is as collectible and any other brands, such as Seiko, from the 1990s and early 2000s. There is a richness of character and charm inherent in these early designs. They represent another time when retail sales were done in places called “Shopping Malls” and many of the now defunct department stores were still in business. These watches represent great design at affordable prices.

They represent a time when the average watch was still well under 43 mm and comforttable to wear. They represent a time when watch design was a little more playful and perhaps fun. The best thing for modern collectors of Vintage Swiss Army watches, is that you can still pick up pristine NOS (new old stock) versions anywhere from $50 to under $200. If that sounds like something you might be interested in, start by exploring my collection of Vintaage Swiss Army Watches articles below and browse the Victorinox Swiss Army Watch Identifier to find those hidden gems.