What I love the most about this poll is that it shows that roughly 50% of the members casting their votes would go dress for their next PP watch.
Some folks here on TRF insist on declaring the “death of dress watches”, which imho is an absurd perception. The slow down of prices in the secondary market does not at all mean that people are any less likely to buy new and keep. I would reckon that the main forces in the watch market are not the ‘flippers’, but rather the enthusiasts who would not rush to resell their watches only a couple of months (sometimes, weeks) after allegedly finding the ‘watch of their lives’, just because of a minor slip in prices on Chrono24. Speaking for myself and ALL the collectors who I know in person, yes, we may end up selling a watch here and there after years of ownership and enjoyment, but the core of our collections is made of keepers.
Even if one considers value retention as the key decisive factor for buying (or parting with) a watch, there are just some references which really do great on this front: Nautis, Acquas, SS Rolexes (esp, Daytonas and GMTs), 15202ST and the FPJ CB. That's it. The situation is far from ‘most sports do well, most dress do bad’. Any standard ROO, for instance, would lose as much in the secondary market as a 5905, 5930, 5170, just to name some (in percentage terms, of course). In sum, despite the slow down in prices of pre-owned dress watches, there is nothing even remotely suggesting the "death of dress watches".