zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

:
: From what I have seen (which is mainly vintage Heuers), the market
: has held up very well, as least for the really good watches.
: Compared with the declines in most other classes of assets (real
: estate, stocks, commodities, etc.), the vintage watch market has
: held up very well. I mean, if everything else is down by
: something like 30% / 40% / 50%, we cannot expect the vintage
: watches to maintain their pre-crash values.

: Still, we have seen some really nice Heuers sell at some really
: strong prices (including the highest price in history for a Cal
: 11 Chronomatic Autavia, at over $10K. Maybe the people buying
: the premium pieces have been less effected by the economic
: crisis. On the other hand, the common / commodity pieces seem to
: be showing some softness. I watched a Cal 14 Hamilton GMT sell
: for around $600 a few days ago; two or three years ago, I chased
: a few of these in the $1,000 to $1,200 range. So I would say
: that the weaker pieces are suffering a bigger percentage declien
: than the stronger, rarer pieces. If the dead-on, mint, all
: original Monaco would have fetched $10,000 before the crash,
: there may still be a buyer for that one (in the $9K to $10K
: range). But the idea of Viceroy Autavias changing hands at over
: $2,000 is just not happening.

: All in all, the market for vintage Heuers has held up better than I
: would have expected. The primo piece still gets a primo price.

: Jeff

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I agree with Jeff on this. The car market has behaved in a simlar way and although is seeing a used car bounce at present in the UK, that is from a historic RV low. The prices for rareified clasics has been stable but there is no doubt that watches and cars that are around in numbers and are not "special" in some way have been lowered significantly in value and will be for several years in my opinion. For instance the price of Seamaster bond or Monza, Monacos that are less than 10 years old are easily now picked up 30-40% less than a year ago.

In the past week i have sourced a mint 41mm Seamaster auto and a Tag Monza (white face) in similar condtion for £700. There is no doubt about it that we are now in a buyers market generally.