Well Mark points out a very interesting issue here. We all know in times of crisis the goldprice is likely to raise. The price of "ordinary" metals like steel and others will go down during economical crisis due to lower production overall, too much stock except for the precious metal. Not that there is more production but investors find their way back to this commodity.

The precious metal is seen as a safe heaven during hard economical times. This was the fact in the past, still today but I really don't know what will happen to gold prices in the future. I have my personal thoughts about this but this would be very boring on this forum...so back to our vintage Heuers!

As Mark already pointed out there was a hefty price-change when you compare the prices of an 18 karat golden Heuer Carrera Ref.1158CH in October 1970 and in October 1976. Here is a quick list with some goldrates during the seventies and begin eighties. Prices are ofcourse in US Dollar/Oz.

1970: 37.52
1971: 42.50
1972: 64.86
1973: 101.25
1974: 155.00
1975: 142.75
1976: 115.70
1977: 160.20
1978: 227.75
1979: 402.90
1980: 678.00

So we can see why the prices of gold watches fluctuated so much. These goldrates are the approximates from every month October for each year...if someone would ask.

I hope this answers some possible questions.

Regards from Belgium,
Abel.

: Very apt Arno.

: Just been talking about what we found with the price of the 1158 in
: the price lists.

: In 1970, an 1158 would cost you twice the price of the next most
: expensive Heuer chrono. But by 1976, it was up to four times as
: much.

: Ok, in between those two dates we had had an oil crisis and a stock
: market crash, so money probably went into gold as a
: "safe" investment but it's still a significant change.
: At the time, I was probably more interested in the price of ice
: cream though :)

: To drive the point home, though, we can compare the price of a
: steel 1153 to the gold 1158 in 1976.

: For the price of one 1158 on a strap, you could have 5 1153s
: and enough change to buy rather a lot of ice cream. If the 1158
: was on a bracelet, well that would buy you 17
: 1153s and some stock in Walls/Langnese/an ice cream company of
: your choice!! Blimey.