My response:

Hi TomVox,

Your speculations spoken as fact are, at least involving me, completely false. It might be hard for you to believe that my writing the What’s Selling Where / Bring A Loupe column was out of my passion for watches and not for financial gain. The columns were a hobby while I had full-time employment outside of the watch world. In fact, I did not receive any “finder’s fees” or other compensation for featuring watches from dealers. I featured watches that I found after spending countless hours (you can ask my wife) scouring eBay and the web for watches that interested me and that I thought were of appropriate quality from the perspective of someone who has collected and studied watches for years. My writing was driven by my passion, tastes, and knowledge. As you know, becoming an expert in vintage watches, with their infinite details and nuances, is not an overnight task. For me, my columns were never about creating hype and increasing watch prices. In fact, you can see many of the vintage watches I highlighted were below $500 because I am passionate about great watches at all price points.

There is no question that the explosion in value of the “Nina Rindt” Compax has been an amazing thing to watch. It is a watch I have loved for many years and never owned. I remember back in 2011 almost buying an unpolished original one on eBay that sold in an auction for about $2,310, but it was slightly more than I was willing to pay at the time. In fact, I just dug out the link to the eBay listing, although the photos no longer survive online:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/170669687500

I almost went after an exotic one for $2,550 shortly thereafter, but passed:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNIVERSAL-GENEVE-Compax-Chrono-Valj-72-Super-Cool-Dial-/220827964332

The growth in interest for the “Nina Rindt” Compax was no “inside job” or watch conspiracy at all. Instead, it is just a beautiful watch and thanks to the power of influential and credible voices, interest grew. The same happens with art, fashion, and other collectibles over time. Certain things can go up in value rapidly thanks to experts and tastemakers educating and influencing the market.

Again, you are speaking about your personal speculations as if they are a fact. Example: “But either way there is some business relationship happening there that leads to the watches being featured.” Sorry, that is absolutely wrong, at least for me and to my knowledge. I wrote out of passion and a desire to help people buy good watches rather than bad watches, while also calling out bad watches with “bidder beware” notices that I started.

If only I had made money on all the watches that I helped people sell through the What’s Selling Where / Bring A Loupe columns that I wrote! I had to say that as someone being written about in the article I laughed many times. It comes off as the delusional ranting of someone upset that values have increased significantly for certain timepieces. And last time I checked, there are still “actual ads” on HODINKEE.com and there have been for many years. You may have an adblocker so they do not appear.

I think it can be easy to imagine cabals and conspiracies at play shaping markets and the world, but at least in this case involving me you are as accurate as those who think 9/11 was an inside job and mankind never made it to the Moon.

I would like to close by saying I do agree with something you said and it is something I said many places including in the HODINKEE guide to buying watches on eBay. Ultimately, people should “buy what they like”. The future of collectible watches, like the future of any market, is not clear, but I believe that with proper education of the market and scholarship, collectible watches have a very strong future.

All the best,
Eric Wind
ericwind@gmail.com