I just checked my records, and this same "Big Subs" Autavia that went unsold earlier today sold for a final price of $8,424 at Bonhams Auction of the Haslinger Collection, in December 2010.

This was the beginning of the breakout for vintage Autavias from the 1960s, that saw a couple of these watches break the $100,000 mark at the peak of the 2016 / 2017 Autavia "bubble".

So seeing it bid to $75,590 today looked like a decent performance to me. I was surprised that this bid was not enough to win the watch.

Jeff

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: I haven't analyzed the results in detail, but my impression
: watching the auction live was that the vintage Heuers performed
: pretty well. Most of the vintage Heuers sold above prevailing
: "eBay prices", which can't always be taken for
: granted.

: It's a shame that the top lot among the Heuers didn't sell, but it
: was encouraging to see that "Big Subs" Autavia bid to
: $75,590 (final price on bid of 48,000 GBP, plus the 27% buyers
: premium, converted to US Dollars). [To put that into
: perspective, I believe that this same Autavia sold in the $8,000
: range, back in December 2010, at Bonhams Auction of the
: Haslinger Collection.]

: The vintage Carreras did not seem to perform well, but interesting
: to see some strong performances by other models -- Silverstone
: (Fume) at $9,448; Autavia 3646 "Andretti" at $14,173;
: and Carrera 7753 "Reverse Panda" at $12,598. All in
: all, it seemed to confirm that people are willing to pay good
: money for the vintage Heuer chronographs that are in excellent
: condition.

: We also have to keep in mind that there will be disincentives
: affecting this sale of watches in London. As I understand it,
: buyers in Europe would be facing some high duties; not sure
: about the economics for US purchasers, but Bonhams does not seem
: to have a strong following here. They seem to offer so many
: lousy Heuers in their auctions that people might not have looked
: closely at these nice ones.

: Jeff