[motoikkyu]

I do not have any "inside information" but my personal experience with one of the more famous auction houses leads me to believe that there is a lot more to the vintage auction game than meets the eye. I won't mention the name of the house, but they have widely publicized auctions in New York, Milan, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.

They had a number of auctions featuring vintage Heuer chronographs, where they received staggering prices for these. I was invited to show mine to their house expert, who pronounced them both worthy and desirable (I have some that are NOS). I tried for three cycles to get even one of my pieces included in one of the auctions: I did not attempt to negotiate terms, I did not state a preference as to venue, I simply asked if they could bring themselves to auction one of the eight pieces of mine they had certified as worthy. Not a chance! I've watched examples that are in many ways inferior to pieces in my safe-deposit box command high prices at this house's auctions, sometimes even two or three examples in one auction. But not mine.

I suspect that there is a certain cadre of investors or speculators that they are servicing. Quite possibly the initial rise in prices was influenced in some way by the house itself. You have to be in that club to sell your pieces at those high values. There's something not quite right about what's going on with even very well-known and reputable houses: I no longer have much faith in auction prices having any significant relevance whatsoever to the actual market prices as regards vintage Swiss watches. Rolex prices are much more reliable since there is so much scrutiny in so many markets, including the auction houses.