Keep Calm and Keep Bidding – The Auction Autumn Season 2022

The other main character in this story is vintage. Seen as many as a safe port in a storm, what is certain is that it has been a lot less volatile than the modern watch market. In fact, classic vintage pieces have been seeing a steady increase in value. In comparison to modern, however, it has looked less impressive. And here is the crux of the matter and a point that I don’t need to state really, but I will anyway: It depends where you got into the watch. Let’s take the steel Daytona, as it’s the “popular” (see, I didn’t use “hype”) watch that I am most familiar with. Rolex unveiled its in-house caliber steel Daytona in 2000, the reference 116520. For many years, from around 2012, these watches languished unloved in dealers’ inventory and did well to make $5k. If you bought a nice one of these at that price, now you can sell that watch for $25k. These watches have never been more than $25k, unless an early white dial example with colour change cream dial, so I guess losing money up until now on this would be hard. In 2016, Rolex unveiled reference 116500, a steel Daytona with ceramic bezel. Everyone went nuts and a watch that cost $11k (now closer to $13k) had a decade long waiting list and the market value soared to its high of $50k in 2021. They now seemed to have settled at closer to $25k. So, is the sky falling in? Well, if you bought at retail, then you are still well up on your money. If you paid $50k…well, I’m sorry to hear that! It’s a point that Wristcheck’s founder and fixture of the international watch scene, Austen Chu, is very clear about. Says Chu, “In my experience, across the board, prices fell about 50 percent from the peak for all three big brands – Rolex, Patek and AP. Regular Patek Nautilus 5711s were $200k+ at peak, now they’re at 100k. Steel Daytona was $50k, now its $25k. But even after falling 50%, a lot of them are still selling well above retail, not that that should be the only factor when buying a watch of course!”