Wow! A very, very informative thread. I learn another lesson on Rolex from all the sifus/bro.s here.
To summarizes -
Vintage watch can be 20 years and earlier. That means watches before 1980s are deemed vintage.
Advices to someone who is looking to enter the pre-owned/vintage Rolex market -
From Bro Hobbit(Ivan) : Arm oneself by reading on the subject matter (from books, internet etc) and ask oneself if he/she is a purist or not.
From Bro Godzillaz(Tyler) : Stick to few basic sports model like GMT, Subs, Sea Dweller, E, E2 & Daytona. Reasons have a few plus point like easier to find reference and seller, not losing much in terms of value and easier to offload because it's popular.
Pitfalls to consider - as Rolex is so famous since many, many years ago, there are also many, many fakes. Another one is "franken" watch (I think from the term "frankenstein" meaning a "rojak" watch made from various parts not belonging to that model.
For me who is on a shoestring budget, I was informed to look for a manual winding Rolex.
Looking particularly at the 6694. But I am at lost since there are too many decent and nice looking dials around.