Britain's government-run official (biased) news and entertainment provider, the BBC, on watch collecting.
Some pearls of wisdom:
Eric Fleming, a residential real estate broker in New York City,
got turned on to watch-collecting six years ago when a client gave him
some timeless advice. The client, who worked for jeweler Harry Winston, told Fleming he would
never be able to sell a $4m apartment wearing a cheap watch.
Fleming, who was wearing a $400 Tissot sports
watch back then, listened — and then some. The 37-year-old has since amassed a collection of 11 watches, ranging from a $250
Luminox sports watch to an $11,000 Rolex Yacht-Master Platinum.
On the history of watch collecting
Vintage watch-collecting — which began in earnest in the 1980’s in Italy and Germany — is now a global phenomenon,
I have a feeling that it started much earlier than that.
This is more or less true:
You don’t have to be a jet-setter to buy a watch worth collecting. Watch
enthusiasts can go to a neighborhood flea market or local dealer to
scoop up an early Swatch that is now highly collectible, such as
limited-edition models designed by artists like Keith Haring, which can
go for as much as $1,000 at auction. Other reasonably-priced models to
look for are mechanical Omega and Heuer watches from the 1960s and
1970s. They could be purchased for as little as $200 only five years
ago, and now go for $2,000 on eBay.
Yes, prices have gone up across the board.
So called “complicated” watches, or those that display more than hours
and minutes, are among the most collectible. That is because collectors,
who are predominantly male and often in their mid-20s to 40s, are drawn
to the watch’s mechanism. “It’s similar to car collecting, there’s a
strong technical appeal, with over 400 parts put into something the size
of a postage stamp,” said Joe Thompson, editor-in-chief of WatchTime, a
US-based watch enthusiasts’ magazine. “Guys find it fascinating to know
what’s going on under the hood.”
Business tips
For those who simply want to invest in the trend, there is a watch fund,
Precious Time, which buys the best vintage watches, in the rarest
configurations, from top brands such as Patek Philippe, Rolex, Audemars
Piguet, Cartier and Breguet. The fund — started by a Milan-based
collector, Alfredo Paramico, who has amassed what some experts consider
one of the finest collections in the world — holds the watches, then
sells them at an appropriate time to collectors for a profit.
Then it goes into some really expensive (and overpriced) stuff.
