I will make a couple of recommendations, in no particular order. First up will be Plaza Jewelry Exchange: 145 West 57th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues; near Carnagie Hall; Russian Tea Room; Central Park South)

This is the most unusual watch destination of all . . . a relatively small store, in the "high rent district", that is absolutely jammed full of vintage watches, as well as coins, stamps, albums, posters, baseball cards, magazines, silver, jewelry and other junk, all of it piled from floor to ceiling. You must be in a certain mood to even walk in the door, as I will try to capture below.

First, the vintage watches: dozens of trays of watches, primarily arranged by brands, ranging from the rarest Rolexes to junk brands that you have likely never heard of. Let's take the Heuers, as an example. On a given day Plaza will have 20 or 30, Heuers (and TAG-Heuers), ranging from the worst Formula Ones to some decent looking Caliber 12 chronographs. These will be stored in a couple of trays; for a brand like Omage, you might see 150 t0 250 watches, in six or eight trays.

Condition of the watches will be all over the board . . . from some really nice ones, to some put together from all the wrong pieces. The prices of the watches will not be all over the board, but rather they are all marked with sky high prices. Let's take a Heuer Daytona, that should be selling for something like $1,500. The price tag is likely to say $4,500, and if you want to try to buy it, that's how the discussion might start. You offer $1,200 / Lee (who seems to be in charge of the store) counters at $3,800, and the conversation continues from there. At some point in the negotiation, Lee is likely to take a break, as he begins the negotiation on buying a stack of comic books (or maybe some old coins) . . . you will have narrowed the spread on the Daytona, to something like $2,200 ask / $1,400 bid, and Lee will start up on the comic books, which open with him offering $15 [that's right, fifteen dollars], and the owner wanting $35. As you ponder the Daytona, and try to resume the conversation with Lee, a third from may open, as a tourist (from Eastern Europe) walks in and wants to see a brand new IWC chronograph, in the box with all the papers, etc. On this IWC, the bid and ask might be $8,500 / $11,000.

So there you have it -- you are trying to buy a vintage Heuer, another customer is trying to get $25 for his comic books, a confused tourist is piling hundred dollar bills onto the counter trying to buy the IWC. You stand among stacks of albums, magazines, and boxes of silverware, trying to continue the negotiation with Lee. While this is happening, Lee is instructing his clerks to do other unrelated things -- like arranging to pick up some rings on 47th Street or call the phone company to dispute some charges on the monthly bill . . . it is nothing short of bedlam. Lee is abusive to his staff; distant from his customers; he seems to know little about the vintage watches, but there is stands, among hundreds or thousands of them . . . weird, very weird.

Return one year later, and the Daytona is still there, with the same price tag. It's absolutely maddening . . . impossible to figure out what is really happening in the store . . . what is going on in this crazy man's brain? where did these thousands of watches come from? Where are they going? How can you ever be successful in buying one?

Here's what they wrote over on Watch-U-Seek -- http://forums.watchuseek.com/f65/plaza-jewelry-exchange-145-west-57th-street-nyc-264528.html

Went in there today. They have tons of stuff, but the staff is clueless; the showroom rat packed and chaotic. Owner seems knowledgeable, but hurried, curt and rude.

: Hi friends,

: I will have the pleasure to spend Xmas in NY this year, visiting my
: sister.
: Who can give me the top 3 of vintage watch shops there?

: THX!

: Ron