This is an amazingly polite, respectful and helpful forum, and lets hope everyone always follows Jeff (and Chuck's) example to keep it that way. But that doesn't mean that everyone has to agree with each other. So here is a little topic I have been thinking about lately...

Is the Rolex disease infecting Heuer collecting too much?

Let me just start by being honest... I am not a big Rolex fan at all, and yes I sometimes ask why Heuer collectors are "going to the dark side" or call them "Rolodexes". But I have learned from a number of Heuer collectors to appreciate that there are some amazing Rolexes that would be cool to own. Mr. Devos is a big culprit here, force feeding me photos of his various amazing Daytonas over the years. And I even learned the term Freccione (or something like that) from him, which is another cool Rolex. A Rolex even makes my top "I don't think I'll ever buy one but it's high on my wish list" watch - the CERN Milgauss -very cool. So having proved I am not too prejudiced, here is the point:

Don't you ever think the Rolex guy are overly obsessed with their stupid dial variations? As far as I understand, a double red sea dweller is worth 10 times (is it 10? 50? 100?) the non-double red. Then I've seen Hoodinkee posting about how a Bart Simpson Rolex crown is so much better than the non-Bart Simpson. I could go on and on, but luckily I am too ignorant about Rolexes to do so.

At times it does seem ridiculous, and I believe the obsession is driven by one thing: Rolexes are boring and common. Ubiquitous. Pedestrian. Mainstream. Humdrum. Unexceptional. OK, that's enough from the thesaurus, you get my point. Yes they are well built, but go into any office in a major city in the world and 40%-80% of the people will be wearing a Rolex. So to feel like the 1665 you are wearing is interesting, you have to find an irrelevant detail which makes it unusual. Then the collectors all overexaggerate the importance of the trivial feature to create rarity out of ordinariness.

Contrast this with the rarity of vintage Heuers. In 20 years of professional working life I only saw two guys wearing a vintage Heuer. Or another example - I was in Marche de Puce in Paris, last month, one of the biggest flea markets in the world. I saw lots of vintage Rolexes for sale, a few Omegas. But no Heuers. Finally I saw a shop decorated with huge images of Mcqueen in Le Mans, Heuer logo everywhere..."great I thought, now for some Heuers". I walked in. They had 20 or 30 Rolexes. 3 Omegas. A couple of Breitlings. No Heuers. Same if you try 99% of the vintage watch dealers in London.

So in my mind, all the vintage Heuers are special. Yes it's great to chase the rare variations, but all Heuers are rare so a barrel case Carrera or a 11630 Skipper or a steel Verona or a Calculator are all cool and rare, not just the Autavia with a funny font. Let go of the Rolex tyranny!

That's it for the rant. Let the (relatively polite) flaming begin.

Shaun