I believe its something made inhouse by the AD based on the information they have got from Omega. Not officially coming from Omega. Might have some merit to it.

 

Anyway, I've heard from several sources about an imminent price increase on February 1st.

 

Well damn.. glad I went on my watch buying spree last year then.

 

For what it’s worth I received this email from this British Jewellers this evening

 

For what it’s worth, Rolex also just silently increased prices across the board.

For example, the Sub Date 126610LN went from $9.15K to $10.1K… retail.

The watch market is on fire now, and lots of people are parking cash in these assets.

 

First we hear about Rolex price increases and now Omega, does anyone happen to know if price increases like this have any impact on the same brand’s vintage pieces?

 

Just left a voicemail to my AD (central Florida), will post what he says tomorrow.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if miraculously, inventory ( Rolex, Omega) suddenly shows up at AD's now that the prices have been increased.

 

People do seem to be shuffling money away from "riskier" assets like crypto and tech stocks so far this year. Maybe the watch bubble will finally pop.

 

Not necessarily, back in 1987 when the DOW dropped 22.1% in one day I visited a vintage dealer in Zurich a few weeks later and asked if his business was hurting. It was not, money was coming out of the market and going into hard assets....gold, silver, watches. You never can predict what will happen.

 

The last price increase was in Nov’21, where only the prices for SMP 300P were increased. So now is the turn for the rest of the collection. I won’t be surprised though if they increase the price for SMP 300P again as it’s doing very well.

 

Hope you are right as far as 321 SS is concerned. Rest of Omega is readily available already.

 

Yes, definitely, Snoopy 50th readily available.

 

I presume everyone should be aware Snoopy is being treated in a special way and it does not matter whether price will increase or not, it will keep on being unobtainable.

 

Yup, Rolex prices up by 2.5 - 3% generally - unless you’re after the unobtainable (steel sports) models, which are up by 10% on average. I wonder if the same approach applies to Omega watches

 

obviously the NEW321 and Snoopy are unaffected by all this, except to wonder if people with previously” full” deposits will now owe a true up payment

 

Not really for vintage… usually the last few years model goes up by private sellers trying to ride the latest model price update.
ie: a 2021 that was $10k new and $9k second hand will become a 2022 that is $9.5 k second hand because new is $10.5 now. If the 2021 and 2022 are the same model the 2021 becomes $9.5 also ( just trying to show what I have seen over the years )

 

Update: I was just at my AD looking at some Grand Seikos… I passed by the Omega section and realized the price hike was in place.

They increased prices in mid December 2021, and was told another price increase is imminent.

It’s real.

 

Prices have not yet been raised on Omega website so officially there is no increase yet, if AD is already raising prices he is doing it on his own. There was no general price increase in Nov/Dec 2021, just on a couple of models. Across the board increase seems to be set for Feb 1.

 

Not sure how these will be rolled out across the line but in Canada we saw a smaller increase in December on some models (SMP300 Diver on the rubber went from 6600.00 6900 .00) and the AT is poised to become an 8k watch here, according to my AD. I managed to get under the wire with my AT but having paid just over 5k for my SMP 3 years ago, these are moving into out-of-reach territory for many, I’d imagine, especially since Omega has raised (according to my AD) wholesale prices so that’s margins are leaner and margins for discount substantially reduced — again, according to my AD.