I think broadly most agree already, its the retailers who unsurprisingly may come from a slightly different slant which is i think what the original poster was getting at...

I am somewhere in between.

: If the parts the make up the NOS parts watch are all 100% original
: Heuer, from the correct era (eg: not later made service hands),
: and the case and movement are also from the correct era, so
: everything is correct, I can't really understand why this is
: something which is considered as not desirable and to be sneered
: at. We are not talking about an old master painting, we are
: talking about a factory produced item, where all the parts
: (movement, dials, cases) were made at different mass market
: factories across Switzerland, only to be assembled by Heuer. So
: a Heuer factory worker or a Heuer qualified watchmaker made the
: watch. I am not sure I see much difference. It's the same watch
: in both cases, with exactly the same factory parts, that is the
: reality.

: However, then comes emotion. If you value the fact that the watch
: was made 40 years ago and has sat in it's unused state for 40
: years in the basement of a jeweller in some little German town,
: untouched, a little piece of history, then yes, maybe that is
: worth something. I can more easily understand the value of
: watches that have some history, let's say that they have been
: worn by a racing driver (even an unknown one) obviously makes a
: big difference in value. And Buzz Aldrin's watch worn on the
: moon might be a little more expensive (by $1m?...not
: exaggerating) than some perfect NOS pre-moon Speedie (exact same
: model) kept in the safe of a dealer in Bahrain. I certainly
: can't argue with that difference in valuation!

: If we look at cold facts, the NOS and the assembled watch are
: identical so should have identical values. On emotional terms
: you want something that was made in a certain era and has some
: history associated with it so that affects the value massively.
: I guess between these two extremes everyone sets their view of
: the correct price....