I have given this some thought over the past day and to me TH's new products are the area where the market sees a deficiency v's Rolex. Rolex's new product has a massive demand, this is not the case with TH. Things may well be improving, but TH cannot match Rolex for new product sales. You only need to look at the new Silverstone, not far away from design to the orignal (although not as nice for me) but they are not flying off the internet or physical shelves at prices around £2500-3000 - which is a massive discount from RRP. Perhaps pricing it at £4500 was a mistake i'm not sure, but as the sale of new product is reasonably closely tied into the future purchase of vintage it would seem this is one area where Rolex really is in a different league. Of course the supply of Heuers is massively lower than Rolex on vintage, which will always help but i suspect TH really needs to address new product design to hit the "home run" so to speak.

Rich

: Arno [and others, of course]:

: Great discussion, so far.

: Here is my question: The collectors in our community are generally
: very knowledgeable, and we also tend to be careful / tight with
: our funds. We analyze the $3,000 Carrera 2447 or the $8,000
: McQueen Monaco, and deals are done or not done, for the sake of
: a few dollars. Perhaps some of this is explained by the fact
: that we buy watches so regularly, that we cannot afford to throw
: away an extra few hundred dollars on ecah one.

: I have been to several high-end car auctions, but have never been
: to a live watch auction. I hope that Arno and others can speak
: to the mood / atmosphere in which we see the guys with the
: $500,000 cars (or the $2 million cars) easily drop $10,000 or
: $12,000 for a watch that we might see as an $8,000 watch. In my
: own limited experience of selling a few vintage watches, the car
: guys are the best customers . . . they are happy to pay up for
: the good watches. This is a nice little accessory to go with the
: restored Porsche Carrera or Chevrolet Camaro.

: Perhaps you can tell us more about how a company like Bonhams
: brings the car guys into the watch world, with their pockets
: bulging with cash? If the live watch auctions are like the live
: car auctions, there is also a good amount of testosterone in the
: room, and the thrill of winning.

: I have probably raised these questions previously; they seem
: particularly relevant as we stand on the verge of seeing your
: amazing collection going into the live auction market. What is
: the mood of the room, in which 80 to 100 NOS and mint watches
: will change hands [literally]?

: Jeff

: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: