Eric Wind Teams Up With Tracksmith for an Olympic Inspired Stopwatch Collection

Vintage watch specialist and occasional Worn & Wound podcast guest Eric Wind has unveiled a new project, a collaboration between Tracksmith and his Wind Vintage imprint featuring 11 vintage stopwatches that Wind has personally curated for the sale. You’re likely familiar with Wind Vintage, but unless you’re a runner, you might not be aware of what Tracksmith is doing. Founded in Boston in 2014, Tracksmith is a running and lifestyle brand selling running apparel and accessories, and telling stories about the sport through their website and social media channels, including a series of evocative films. It’s no accident that this capsule collection debuted last week, when track and field events took center stage at the Tokyo Olympic Games. 

The collection consists of watches from a roster of brands that should make any vintage watch nerd quite happy. Heuer is well represented, as you’d expect, with a total of six watches in the collection. You’ll also find watches from the likes of Minerva, Omega, Breitling, and others. The sale exposes what was previously a little known secret of vintage watch collecting, which is that there is a ton of value in vintage stopwatches. Prices here start at $190 and top out at $590, which is mighty appealing when you consider the history behind many of these watches, and the practical use cases they were built for. One Heuer, for example, was made for the New York City Board of Education, and would have been used by gym teachers in public schools. Another Heuer in the sale was ordered by the US Government, and could have potentially been used by the military. Every one of these watches is a reminder that before cell phones and digital electronics, everyday people needed instruments like these to time all kinds of things, for all kinds of reasons.

You can check out the watches in the Tracksmith x Wind Vintage Stopwatch Collection right here. At the time of this writing, all 11 of the watches have sold out, but their detailed descriptions and stories behind them remain, and they are certainly worth a look for the horologically curious. Hopefully we won’t have to wait for the next Olympics to snag stopwatches like these again.