Vintage market getting silly - flavor of the month or a real shift?

I have enough old watches to last me a while but I still add to the hoard (I'm picky as to what I buy, but quantity is a bit of an issue... :^) ).

One thing I noticed is that there has been a lot more content on YouTube and elsewhere regarding vintage and, for wristwatches, below 40mm (vintage friendly) is once again acceptable.

I'm not buying wristwatches at the moment. However, I am still buying pocket watches and I'm seeing something odd. Pieces on eBay that I wouldn't consider projects (I assume anything on eBay is a project) but merely a parts source are starting to hit numbers that would have been approaching retail, outside eBay, a year ago.

What's stranger is retailers of vintage pocket watches, particularly high end American (railroad grade or equivalent) pocket watches are asking, and apparently getting, silly money. I've seen several internet retailers listing high end American railroad watches (in nice original, but gold filled cases) for more than half the price of a Patek Phillippe with box and papers (in solid 18k). This means if you remove the melt value of the gold of the Patek's price, the American railroad watches are bringing more than the Pateks!?! While I am a fan of railroad watches, I'm finding this a bit silly.

Is anyone else watching the vintage market, either pocket or wrist? If so, are you seeing a significant swing upwards or have I misinterpreted what I'm seeing?

Regards,

Art S.

 

Fair point on all counts.

I don't think I'd want a watch which I wasn't confident in it's water resistance (or didn't have any) in a hot and humid climate either.

Agreed on real auctions, but I haven't been spending too much time there lately - I'll need to take a deeper look (my main reference was a couple of YouTube channels that were posting high end auction experiences, I didn't double check). I have more fun in the swamps of eBay mostly because I have narrow bands of interest, with reasonable knowledge, and have the patience to wait for what I need to show up at a reasonable price. That lack of knowledge you referenced may (must?) be what's driving prices - a shiny turd or an ad with the right words and pretty pictures are bringing silly money.

When I looked at retail listings, everything genuinely nice was marked sold and the asking prices were impressive (considering nothing is unsold, I'm guessing they are getting reasonably close to ask - but as you pointed out, it's not provable). It was a retail guy (not on eBay) that had the Patek and the railroad watches that drove me to start the thread. I'll need to find his site again and post a link.

Regards,

Art S.