The question with these kinds of auctions is whether the prices will stick, longterm.

Unfortunately, however, my experience with other frothy markets like these is that it's seen as being in everyone's interests to keep prices high. I've seen a lot of this in the guitar market. In particular, I can cite one hilarious episode when a friend and I invented a rare Gibson guitar, for the April issue of our magazine. One year later, a second version of that non-existent guitar had been made, apparently authenticated by a major auction house and sold for circa $200k. These kinds of occurrences aren't rare!

There is a kind of irrationality to collecting watches, when you can only wear one at a time. So I guess it shouldn't surprise us that some buyers go beyond irrationality into self-delusion!