"Original mint" is an interesting choice of words Jeff. For me, it is "original" that sells the watch to me more than "mint" - I would rather have the watch as it came from the factory, with all the scratches and dings of the intervening years, than one that has been restored to mint.

I think classic cars is a slightly different matter - any 50s Ferrari will now have a significantly better paint job than that it left the factory with, and that is expected and (generally) accepted. There may well be a wider variety of outlooks amongst watches - to a certain extent, I prize originality over condition but respect the views of someone who has the reverse priority. In one way, that's a good thing - we're not all chasing exactly the same watch.