Ha yeah I see your point.
My rant was more the ignorance of a supposed expert saying with a straight face that Rolex, Rolex, Rolex were the most important words in vintage watches. For a brief minute I thought he was going to say “condition, condition, condition”!
Ahh the roadshhow. A British institution. Used to watch it as a kid with my grandparents and still watch it now despite the fact it's ridiculously white and middle class. You hardly ever see a person of colour on it with the exception of dealer Ronnie Archer and the toffs who go on it with their heirlooms are usually so loaded that they rarely crack a smile when told old auntie Doris's tiara is worth 18k. Still, always good for the odd watch spot. Usually Omega and Rolex.
Just got back from Nassau, Bahamas. Large Rolex store was empty, I mean empty. They had two used items and zero new. Not even display models. One of the used was a small ladies model. The other a used submariner they wanted 14k for. The two staffers there couldn't care less that I came in or left.
Then went to Breitling store. Fully loaded. Longines. Fully Loaded. In fact all the rest I saw were fully loaded.
“in vintage watches you need to remember 3 words; Rolex, Rolex, Rolex”.
Hardly ridiculous and may more have something to do with the fact that the vast majority of the 'people of colour' in the cold Northern Hemisphere of the UK came there as poor immigrants without the luxury of earned or inherited wealth.
It's certainly not the fault of the antique owners who bring their treasures to Antiques Roadshow that they are mainly white and middle class as they have had generations of time to have built up some family wealth and possessions, some of which may be both interesting and valuable.
I dislike this kind of inversed racism and think we should stick to the topic of watches
Times change. I remember being in Chicago in 2011, and being in a Rolex Boutique where the sales lady kept pushing watches at me the whole time I was there, like they were desperate to sell them to me - cases full of pretty much every model you could think of. In Maui in 2016, had a sales lady pushing a platinum Daytona at me - insisted I try it on even though I told her I wasn't interested and was just killing time while my wife was in another shop. In Honolulu, they were pushing the Zebra DJ at me...
The current situation will pass, and they will go back to having to work for a ale again, of that I am sure.
Ha yeah I see your point.
My rant was more the ignorance of a supposed expert saying with a straight face that Rolex, Rolex, Rolex were the most important words in vintage watches. For a brief minute I thought he was going to say “condition, condition, condition”!
Okay. Not white and middle class. Let's say smug and self satisfied.
