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I find it difficult to call anything vintage after the mid '70's.
As far as razors are concerned, when does "vintage" end and "modern" begin?
- Thread starter TobyC
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The Micromatic may have been the first "modern" razor.
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I believe you can call a razor vintage after it is 25 years old, I could be wrong, it's been known to happen before! 
Paul.
Paul.
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It's annoying when you search on ebay for vintage razors and see loads of modern razors described as vintage because they use double edge blades.
I guess vintage is in the eye of the beholder. I would go with Blade monkey's suggestion.
I guess vintage is in the eye of the beholder. I would go with Blade monkey's suggestion.
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I like to think there's "retro" somewhere in the middle, but again ... definition?
You might say vintage is when that era of product was no longer produced, but define the "era of product". Cartridge razors are most certainly modern and still current ... but, the type of cartridge might well put the Gillette Sensor type as retro (even if still commercially available today), the Trac-II I would call retro and perhaps even vintage.
I suppose there's also the age of the person applying the description.
I reached shaving age in the mid-1980s and so my example of the Gillette Sensor was something I encountered as a new retail offering. I'd call it retro now that it has ostensibly "been and gone" but someone reaching shaving age in the 2000s might well call it vintage. Similarly, I'd call (even the very last of) the Gillette Tech vintage, but if I was born 10 years before I was I might well regard those spiral handled Techs as merely retro.
I've been into traditional shaving for long enough now to have seen a number of trends come and go, products, too ... remember when choice of synthetic was Muhle STF or Kent Silvertex? Then came PurTech ... but how many of us use PurTech knots today. Well, yes, I do have one or two PurTechs that get used with reasonable frequency. Is PurTech now retro? Certainly, it's a "been and gone" product ... and by a few years.
You might say vintage is when that era of product was no longer produced, but define the "era of product". Cartridge razors are most certainly modern and still current ... but, the type of cartridge might well put the Gillette Sensor type as retro (even if still commercially available today), the Trac-II I would call retro and perhaps even vintage.
I suppose there's also the age of the person applying the description.
I reached shaving age in the mid-1980s and so my example of the Gillette Sensor was something I encountered as a new retail offering. I'd call it retro now that it has ostensibly "been and gone" but someone reaching shaving age in the 2000s might well call it vintage. Similarly, I'd call (even the very last of) the Gillette Tech vintage, but if I was born 10 years before I was I might well regard those spiral handled Techs as merely retro.
I've been into traditional shaving for long enough now to have seen a number of trends come and go, products, too ... remember when choice of synthetic was Muhle STF or Kent Silvertex? Then came PurTech ... but how many of us use PurTech knots today. Well, yes, I do have one or two PurTechs that get used with reasonable frequency. Is PurTech now retro? Certainly, it's a "been and gone" product ... and by a few years.
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Certainly, it was the first rethink of ASR's designs and a shift from flip-top head to TTO. But then, the shift from wedge to flat blade in the early 1900s might put the "1907" (first released 1904, was it?) as their first modern razor. Over at Gillette, the 1904 was indeed a modern razor as it was a seismic shift from wedge holders and straights ... and think on ... compaible blades still exist today and will still fit that 1904 model.
... are are pre-1904 (ish) antiques?
Contemporary
Modern
Retro
Vintage
Antique
Paleo?