This looked like a very nice collection, with some special watches, and the results looked strong to me. I agree with Shaun's assessment, which comes as no surprise.

The auction house did make a couple of mistakes that could have resulted in some money being left on the table -- a nice looking Autavia Ref 1163 MH was listed as the far-more-common Viceroy. Also, the auction catalog did not include the serial number for the Black Monaco . . . and the missing serial number can often be a telltale for a refinished case. In fact, there was a serial number on the case, even if the condition of the black coating did not look great.

In general, we saw strong results for many of the watches. It is silly to try to compare results with what we saw in 2016 or 2017 (or any other year), as we are comparing watches in which slight difference in condition can result in major differences in values. And it is impossible to get a real read on the condition, based only on photos from the auction house. But looking at the Orange Boy, the White Orange Boy, the Exotic Autavia and many others, the prices were where we would expect them to be.

Seems to me that in this type of auction, the estimates are absolutely meaningless. It's a no reserve auction and the auction house has relatively little experience with the vintage Heuers, so whether the estimate is $2,000 to $3,000 or $20,000 to $30,000, the bidders will be deciding the selling price of the watch. Maybe the estimate is useful to the novice browsing the catalog, but whether the sales prices were above / below / dead-center of the estimates makes no difference in assessing the strength or weakness of the results.

So in summary -- happy to see these results. Strong and stable is what we need to see . . . when people ask about the vintage Heuer market, I always tell them that the watches have always been great, it's just the market that got screwed up, back in 2016 / 2017 / 2018.

Jeff

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: Some debate on Instagram about prices at Monaco Legends Auction. It
: was an interesting auction as there were 24 Heuers for sale so a
: decent selection and also some really nice watches and rare
: models, not just a collection of rubbish quality which sometimes
: happens.

: My view is that the results were pretty strong and solid, with just
: two watches that were really surprisingly cheap or maybe even
: mispriced.

: Let’s start by saying lets forget the mania when speculators
: tried to play on the Heuer market. Those prices were silly and
: we should definitely not use them as a reference. So the black
: PVD Autavia 11063 which sold for just under EUR9k yesterday was
: a decent price, but looks low if you compare to craziness of the
: one that sold for $85k (I seem to remember) at the height of the
: speculation bubble. But it’s stupid to have a sensational
: headline that “Autavia prices fall 80%”. That’s just
: misinformation.

: Then looking at low prices (In EUR) the ones that surprised me
: were:
: - the 1163 with ridged markers (“Derek Bell”) sold for 3.4k was
: just ridiculous unless there are some issues on the watch (I
: didn’t look in detail). This is the one which had the most
: comment - rightly - on Instagram. Pretty stupid that ML listed
: it as a Viceroy, but usually dealers/collectors would not be put
: off by that, so maybe there were other problems.
: - I though the PVD Monaco at just over 20k was very low as the dial
: looked great. However the case maybe looked a bit “off” in
: the photos so maybe that deterred buyers who could not examine
: in person. Good luck to the buyer, as it looks a nice bargain.

: Otherwise there were some decent prices
: - The 1158CHN for 29k was strong (though I find the 1158CH a little
: undervalued at 16k, IMO)
: - the Orange Boys hit decent prices (13k for classic OB, 22k White
: OB)
: - manual compression case Skipper a decent 16k
: - 73663 “bund” Autavia just over 10k
: - decent 15k levels for the early Siffert and 1163GMT

: I would ignore whether the watches were at their low or high
: estimate - that’s sort of arbitrary especially with an auction
: house who may not be a Heuer expert. For example - there is a
: beat-up, redialed 2444 A&F on eBay for $154,000; if it sells for
: a 30% discount (just $100k!) I would not exactly call it a
: “bargain”.

: Talking 2444s, I did find the 6k for the Beyer double signed dial
: 2444 as a very solid price - maybe the “double signed dial”
: premium is starting to rise in the Heuer world? Or just people
: realise these are cool watches.

: Then you have all the Heuer models that are outside the high
: profile models (for example, Montreal, Jarama, Cortina, Daytona)
: which were at realistic, but decent levels (2.5-3.5k). It makes
: much more sense that these are sold at no reserve than with
: stupid expectations and then remaining unsold. And it also is
: nice that people can buy really cool, historic and relatively
: rare Heuers in good condition at “reasonable” levels and
: cheaper than new watches from TH / Omega / Beitling etc. I
: certainly know what I would prefer!

: One other aspect worth mentioning - most prices are at, or above,
: the levels in Richard’s Vintage Heuer price guide. So some
: sanity in the market or self confirmation / herding behaviour as
: Nate Silver might describe it...

: What do others think?