Fake 6240 Solo sold in Monaco last night

[pereztroika]

Accademia Fine Arts, a Monégasque auction house specialized in art gave their debut in vintage watches last night. Among other things, they also offered a number of vintage Rolex Daytonas. One particular Daytona attracted my attention from the very beginning. The watch in question is a Rolex Daytona 6240 with Solo dial.

The auction house used pictures of another Solo to present the watch in their catalogues on and offline. This alone was strange to say the least but after careful examination, the actual watch turned out to be completely fake. The auction house was informed prior to the auction and agreed to withdraw the watch. For some reason, however, the proven counterfeit remained listed and was auctioned for EUR 78,000.

https://perezcope.com/2019/07/16/vin...dal-in-monaco/


Cheers

Jose

[GradyPhilpott]

Interesting write-up and an eye-opener.

[FloridaSam]

Oof. Someone paid a lot for a Vietnamese franken.

[watchtung]

interesting read. Thats interesting they made a claim that the other watch is not authentic.

[roh123]

This is just sad.

[HarryLime]

Wow, great research!

[Andad]

Nice work but disappointing outcome.

[BisonHead]

What a great write up. Thank you for sharing.

[996marty]

Fascinating reading you would expect a watch in a top auction to be a legitimate one shameful it wasn’t withdrawn.

[CPRWATCH]

Great read & thanks for sharing , I think the phrase, Due Diligence was coined for such a Watch.

[Toronto Soup King]

What a cautionary tale for someone with deep pockets and new to the hobby. Thank you for this, OP

[GoingPlaces]

Makes me wonder how many others have been scammed in the vintage frenzy.


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[1665fan]

One main reason I stick with zeniths and stay away from 4 digits

[ctzn]

Thanks for sharing the detailed breakdown. Scary times out there for vintage collectors.

[kwcsports]

Crazy that this could happen but money is a big motivation.

[stevedssd]

Incredible knowledge............and deeply concerning

[swish77]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, these auction houses are nothing more than fancy eBays. All of them.

I work with auction houses in the art world, and I'm always shocked by what goes on. They are not immune to mistakes and dishonesty.

Anybody looking to buy an expensive vintage watch at an auction house needs to approach it like any other sale and do a ton of their own homework.

[2001jesper]

What an insight that guy have - really impressive! The resident watch expert at the auction house was probably too proud to re-call it despite the shortcomings

[1665fan]

A lot of the auction houses think they are know all in the vintage watch world but are more flippers rather than true educated vintage connoisseurs

[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.

[TheDude]

You know... I watched an episode of “American Greed” in which a fellow who ran one of the most respected sports memorabilia auction houses turned out to be doing some very shady things. Very interesting to see how they perpetrated the different frauds.

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...ns-saga-hobby/

Could easily occur in any niche segment.



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[interestedwatcher]

I want this guy to look at any watch I buy.

[REFZ]

This again shows that the vintage market is a real minefield.

[TimeLord2]

Originally Posted by CPRWATCH

Great read & thanks for sharing , I think the phrase, Due Diligence was coined for such a Watch.

I think the phrase is caveat emptor.