Rather than provide my usual analysis of auction trends I am going to do two things.
First, I am going to highlight how one auction house set the example that all others should follow. Secondly, I would like to share something personal that I did at the auctions.
And I am a better collector in my view for having done it.
Christies has a new policy that all should follow
For some time now I have been concerned about top trophy watches (sometimes worth millions) being opened and viewed by curious and often non collectors just wanting to pose on Instagram with these priceless and well preserved timepieces. Many of the collectors had neither the knowledge, let alone the budget, to acquire such watches. Well Christies finally put an end to this practice. For the first time that I can recall, collectors could only view special watches with a member of senior staff at hand. In some cases even, watches could not be viewed at all, but rather collectors could look at detailed photographs and videos that were made on an iPad – of the specific watch in question.
I think this is correct and the right way going forward. Now, I am fully aware that my stance is not without controversy.
Let me state clearly: I do believe that aspiring collectors should get a chance to view important watches as part of the educational process. But the curiosity rather than any real interest by collectors drove this misuse of handing important watches. Extremely important watches were being passed around like a piece of candy, without any supervision at viewing.
Just like you can’t sit in a 250 GTO Ferrari and want to test drive it – each time this car gets sold – watches above a certain value or important watches now can only be viewed with a member of staff close by. It is only fair towards the future new owner of the watch and also ensures that the watch will be handled in the respectful way it deserves.
It was high time this happened, and it was a pleasure to finally see this instituted at Christies.
Buying for the sake of sheer pleasure rather than buying as a science
I am normally am quite a disciplined buyer at auctions. Not necessarily in terms of bidding (if I want something I tend to buy it irrespective of price), but rather in terms of doing my homework.
There are strategies you can apply to be successful at auctions like I wrote about here. Doing your home work and being disciplined is all the more important especially as the values of vintage Rolex are climbing ever higher and higher and the stakes to lose are becoming too large to be careless.
However, I think that the watch community is overdoing it. Not in terms of the price they pay but rather in the way they go about buying watches.
Collectors are abandoning watches if they find out that even a single screw is not correct or the hands or crown are later replacements or have been restored. This especially applies to Rolex. But also other brands. Why is it acceptable in other collecting areas to restore something and not in watches? For example, in cars we can restore a car that involves redoing the complete interior and often changing engine components and replacing them with period correct or correct aftermarket parts. This is totally acceptable.
In regards to Ferrari – you can restore a car and have a period correct engine (meaning a correct type engine from the time but not the original one) and Ferrari will officially approve your car and give you a certificate that basically gives you the thumbs up from them. Can you imagine doing this in watches? If a buyer finds out that a dial has been replaced or altered even if it is correct for the time period; the watch immediately gets punished by collectors. Watch collectors have become such an obsessive bunch in that they don’t tolerate anything that is not completely original.
I think collectors should remember that vintage watches are old and if used and worn, don’t look like new anymore. And finding completely original and untouched watches is becoming more difficult as time passes by. Phillips watches (the worlds auction leader in high end vintage watches) even argued in a piece written in April that it ok to restore watches as long as it is properly disclosed as such.
Which brings me to the heart of what I want to tell you. For once this auction season, I actually bought more with my heart than I did with my mind.
Plain and simple – I bought a watch that is shows its age. Of course I did my homework. I made sure that the dial is indeed original, at least according to the best of my knowledge. That the case was acceptable. But reading through the condition report – I knew this was not a safe queen – meaning a watch that spent its entire life in a safe. The radium left heavy traces on the dial. Yes it also probably has been polished before. And a watchmaker at one point decided to fix the stars on the dial rather carelessly (which no doubt I will reverse and have it restored).
I knew this watch was not going to win any prize for condition and preservation. But I needed to have it. I fell in love with it. I bought it for the sheer pleasure of owning it and wearing it without worry about its condition other than it being original. I bought this watch because it was playful and made me dream. In my opinion it is this dreaming aspect that has been lost in the vintage watch world to some degree.
Collectors today want to over rationalize their watch purchases – especially vintage Rolex. It has become a science of checklists and processes – often because of the large values at stake. I totally understand that. If your spending large sums of money on a vintage watch you want to make sure you do your homework and get your facts right. But sometimes it is nice to buy a watch just because it makes you happy.
And that is exactly what I did this time. Perhaps I could only do that now because I have the self confidence as a collector that maybe I was lacking before. I was too focused on getting everything right. I now retuned to the origins of what made my collect to start with. To buy because it makes me dream.
And that is what luxury should be all about in my view. To purchase dreams.
