I can relate to your comments.
A couple of months ago I was in a vintage shop (70% rolex) when I mentioned that what I really wanted was a 2446C the store owner said that Rolex were of better quality. It wasn't until I had left that I had a vague recollection that in the past Rolex and Heuer have used the same movements. It was too late to go back and point this out to him!

: Hi all,

: today I have been in Parma (Italy) for the annual fair
: "Mercante in fiera", a famous Italian fair dedicated
: to art - of all kinds - and vintage collector items, so also
: vintage watches.

: The exhibitors are local sellers coming mainly from Northern Italy,
: I have seen Rolex, Rolex and Rolex again (too many green boxes
: in those windows IMHO), but also some other beautiful brands
: like Omega, Movado, AP, and few Heuer.

: Someone had also some beautiful Heuer pieces - like a good 741603
: GMT or a NOS Carrera 1553N with GF bracelet - but generally at
: high prices, as usual.

: I also found some fake or incorrect Heuer - yes, a manual 3
: register blue Monaco with a fake dial, an Autavia 11630 with a
: fake dial too, a cal.15 Monza with incorrect small hands, and so
: on, but exhibitors didn't seem to take care of this as they put
: the watch in the window again after I told them my
: impressions...

: The thing that hurted me and made me write this post is that, even
: if many exhibitors had at least one Heuer and I have seen 1133B
: Monacos sold at prices between 10k and 12kEuro (and also an
: honest 1533G sold at 10kEuro only because the seller told me
: that was published in an unspecified catalogue, bah), the
: general perception I had is that Heuer isn't seen yet like a
: valuable and collectible brand and hasn't the dignity of other
: vintage brands, I even heard a couple of collectors - probably
: Rolex ones - talking each other about an Heuer that I was
: looking at and saying: "Heuer? Who the hell would buy them?
: forget it!".

: Provided that I would never buy a Rolex - too many people wear a
: Rolex, sometimes I think that is more like a status-symbol
: rather than a cool watch, but is only my poor man thinking -
: sometimes I feel like a man that has been encouraged by his
: banker to buy bank bonds of a small and unknown bank and when he
: is trying to resell them he understand that the reference market
: is very small and his investment isn't so liquid as he would
: have bought bonds of well-known and bigger banks...

: I also hate when, during my Heuer-catch trips, I enter in a vintage
: watch shop and ask about Heuer watches, and sometimes happens
: that seller look at me like I was looking for something too
: cheap for his shop and says: "I'm sorry, I have Rolex, AP,
: and bla bla bla, but I don't treat Heuer" and laugh a
: bit...

: Probably I'm wrong, probably Italians collectors - or at least many
: of them - aren't open minded like European or USA ones, for sure
: I will go on collecting and enjoying Heuer watches, but I'm
: curious to know your perceptions about this fact.

: Thanks for your opinion.

: Cheers.

: Gianluca