The condition of the economy has caused some softening on vintage watch values and this to some degree has affected production vintage Monacos as well. Since early 2009 values have drifted back and again since I first published my guide approx 3 months ago values have softened perhaps 5-10%. 1133b have probably seen a 5-10% reduction, in the past quarter. Good 1133G with sound dials remain harder to come by and have not been affected as much. 73633 variants have eased perhaps 5% although 1533B and G variants with mint dials have perhaps remained static or gone up slightly, certainly the 1533G is in demand.

However in the scheme of things this reduction in values qualifies for good resistance, as I'm aware some vintage watch brands have suffered more than this and I believe vintage Heuers and Monacos in particular remain a good way of investing spare cash. Going forward I am predicting a static first 6 months of 2010, with maybe some uplift towards the second half of the year with several important Heuer only sales. These sales are considerably more important than the recent Patrizzi one and the quality is likely to be exceptional. This in turn may focus more attention on the brand and with levels of availability only marginally up, any extra demand seems likely to lead at some point to an increase in values.

As always I recommend buyers to seek out quality, especially so in the condition of the dial. Whilst hands and cases are important for collectability and values, they are not as important as the dial condition. It may be tempting to buy one with issues to get a better price and enter the market sooner than might otherwise be possible but in my experience in the past 12 months, its normally a case of "buy cheap, buy twice"...