Quote:
Originally Posted by rpryan55
They are expensive in part because they routinely bid on their own offerings at Antiquarium and other auction houses to artificially jack up the prices of their vintage pieces. Don't get me wrong, I own a couple of PPs, but no watch that just tells the time and date is worth 30K+. Some of their beautifully crafted grand complications are a thing of artistry to wonder at, but in general their prices are way out of line. Just my $0.02.
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I can't agree...
1* imo they are not expensive. A breguet, VC, Lange, is priced at the same level. A 3 hands Calatrava is yours for more or less 13-15 K EURO, similar Breguets and VC's are also more or less 13-15 K
And a Richard Lange is a lot more expensive. So is the Journe Chronomètre Souverain which isn't better finished
2* The Antiquorum auction thing is bullshit. YEARS ago Patek bought some watches via Antiquorum, that's correct. BUT they did it not to pump up prices but they wanted those pieces to put them in the PP museum.
All the special chronographs like 1518-2499-3970-5970-5070-5004-... are bought by collectors. Patek might have a few examples but thousands of them belong to private collections. Besides, Mr Stern said they only wanted some special pieces to make the collection complete AND he also said he did not buy watches for the moment because they were too pricey. He bought a lot of pocket watches when nobody was intrested in pocketwatches. AFAIK Patek was always a top notch brand and it was always very expensive. rare pieces always fetched good prices.
When you're looking for a brand who 'abused' Antiquorum, look at Omega. 2 years ago they announced a big auction (Omegamania) and they were bidding against their clients just to pump up the price. Suddenly Omega wanted a museum too ... and if I remember correct, 30% or more was bought by Omega.