Post-war United States boasted unique market conditions that allowed for diamond-set men’s watches from a variety of brands to thrive. Martin Green takes us on a journey to discover how and why diamond-set watches for men became part of the American Dream.
Now, it seems fairly evident that we are on the down slope of either a cyclical correction in prices or, if one takes a less optimistic view, a permanent loss of watch value as the mechanical timepiece industry faces a variety of challenges and potential disruptions. So what’s a collector to do? And what lessons can we draw, both from watch auction results and the history of other luxury categories, to guide us?
The “unobtanium” phenomenon isn’t limited to watches from the past, there are a variety of references for which supply seems to lag demand. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the current market for select steel sports watches. Here GaryG highlights some interesting dynamics caused by that imbalance, led by a loud chorus of complaints from prospective buyers.
This year, 2020, marks the tenth anniversary of the death of one of the greats of the modern watch industry, Peter Baumberger. Dr. Helmut Crott, his longtime friend and founder of the Dr. Crott auction house in Germany, recently sent me a tribute he had written for the occasion. But first I’d like to first take the opportunity to share an anecdote of my own regarding “Peter, the utter bastard,” as I will always (fondly) think of him.
Resonance. No, it is not a Tesla-themed Evanescence cover band. Resonance is a physics principle that, to be honest, most people will never need to know to go about their daily lives. So what is all the hubbub about resonance these days? It’s a word that is, even in the watch world, so mysterious and rare that it is heard only once or twice a decade. In this article Joshua Munchow explains how resonance works and why it matters.
Limited editions used to be a rarity, but they started to become more popular in late 1980s and early 1990s, almost like a snowball rolling down a hill that gets bigger and bigger. Martin Green wonders if we can still take LEs seriously at all.
Standing before his eyes was the most perfect of God’s creatures, a wonderful mix of Audrey Hepburn and Penelope Cruz. What Makes Me Tick thought his heart had skipped a beat, and he heard the chimes of every single minute repeater Patek Philippe had ever created – all chiming at exactly the same time! Six months later the gentle creature and he were married. This extraordinary story reflects the marvelous world of vintage watches: finding the rare bird, linking it to a story, and never letting it go.
“What, another watch?” she almost screamed in disbelief no sooner than WMMT had opened the front door to his little love nest. Rewind to last week. He had been looking for a Roger Smith Series 1 for some time now, and Jones, his watch dealer, happened to finally locate one. WMMT thought that he had played it pretty safe, so he really don’t know how she could have noticed. But what happened next changed the rest of his satirical life.
Although the morphing meanings of words is not a new phenomenon, it is one that has continued to irritate Elizabeth Doerr over the years and decades as the abuse and misuse of the words “novelty,” “limited edition,” and “iconic” continues. Here she rants why.
A discussion with fellow collectors that is bound to elicit interesting responses is two-tone watches. People tend to either love them or hate them. The lovers consider them the perfect mix between a sporty looking watch and a dress watch. People who don’t care for them may think of them as a weak compromise at best. What do you think?