Vintech values up 15% year-on-year on Catawiki, driven by nostalgia for durable classics
From Game Boy to G-Shock, Catawiki highlights the indestructible icons of the 2000s
A chance to bag the brick: Catawiki’s Nokia auction offers collectors a chance to pocket a true 90s legend, from 29 August to 7 September
Amsterdam, 1 September 2025 — They’ve been dropped, dented, stepped on, accidentally knocked off desks, and forgotten in drawers for decades. Somehow, they still work. To mark the 25th anniversary of the legendary Nokia 3310, at a time when interest in vintage technology continues to grow, Catawiki, the leading online marketplace for special objects, is celebrating these icons from the past that simply refused to break with a dedicated Nokia auction.
Vintech values on the rise: 15% growth in 2025
While the world around us moved on to delicate devices and short-lived designs, these relics have earned cult status for one reason: they just won’t quit. And the appetite is clear: in 2025, the average value of Vintech items sold on Catawiki is up 15% compared to the same period in 2024.
"What draws people back to retro technology isn’t just nostalgia, it’s the craving for something tangible in a world that feels increasingly weightless and digital”, says Toby Wickwire, Catawiki’s expert in toys and high tech at Catawiki.
Leading the list of indestructible gadgets is, of course, the Nokia 3310. This phone became a cultural icon not through slick features or flashy campaigns, but through sheer, utilitarian no-nonsense durability. Released on 1 September 2000, the 3310 was never meant to be fashionable, yet it ended up defining an era. With its week-long battery, snap-on covers and Snake II obsession, it became shorthand for the early digital age. More than 126 million units were produced worldwide until it was phased out in 2005, and in 2017, the revamped Nokia 3310 design was launched with a month-long battery, the essentials of calls and texts, and a no-frills two-megapixel camera.
The 3310 wasn’t alone in its toughness. It shared the decade with a cohort of equally durable classics:
Casio G-Shock: made for soldiers and skaters alike, it is basically the cockroach of wristwear: bomb it, drown it, drop it off a half-pipe, it’ll still be ticking.
IBM ThinkPad T42: the laptop equivalent of a Croc–not cool, not sleek, but impossible to wear down. Astronauts trusted it in space, accountants trusted it with Excel. Both still got their money’s worth.
Game Boy (Original): powered by AA batteries and pure stubbornness. One of them has survived a Gulf War bombing and still plays Tetris.
Canon AE-1 / Nikon F series: built like little metal tanks–tough bodies, simple mechanics and no fragile screens to smash–they kept clicking through sand, snow and humidity. These were raw analogue power.
“These weren’t just well-made,” says Wickwire. “Take the Nokia 3310. You charged it once and it lasted all week. Drop it on the floor and it still worked. That combination of stamina and strength is exactly why it became an icon. The nostalgia isn’t just about the tech, it’s also about the trust we had in it.” The 3310 might be the most memed of the bunch, immortalised on Reddit, TikTok and in countless drop tests on YouTube, but every object on the list speaks to a different kind of era. Now, 25 years later, we have a gateway to a moment in time when a scratched aluminium shell meant adventure, not obsolescence. And when “battery anxiety” was an unknown concept. As Wickwire puts it: “The 3310 didn’t need a screen protector. It was one.”
The auction is running from 29 August to 7 September, exclusively on Catawiki.
