i saw some allusions to it going well on IG but can't actually find the results. . . would be a good barometer of where the world is and what people think of watches vis a vis cash i think. . .
Do a google search with ”Invaluable Antiquorum” and i found the sales prices listed. Or log in to Antiquorums own site also. Many sold for the low estimate, passed items and some small surprises also. But nothing exciting for me.
Related, but does anyone know what we should expect to pay in shipping and insurance fees to ship watches from Switzerland to the United States with these smaller auction houses? The terms are pretty vague, with some instructing the buyer to sort it out on his own with a third party.
They usually suggest one or two shipping companies. You send an email, get an estimate from both and they go get the watch from the auction house and ship it to you. Fast courier and insured too. Price usually depends of the lot and the final price (insurance). It is not cheap though
Thanks. So for a hammer price of around 10,000 are we likely talking about 300-500 for shipping? Or am I way off?
Yes you are quite close, not too far off. You can find of course someone else to do it, you don't have to follow their suggestion. If you already have a shipping company you trust and have done business with, but you can always search for other companies in the country of the auction house and get shipping quotes. Doing so, you have leverage to negotiate the price between them
One would think they would actually do something very minor for their double commission on the sale (on 10k that’s approximately 3k)...like organize the shipping for their customers
One would indeed think so... reminds me of a number of “5 stars” hotels where you pay through the nose... and then, they still nickel and dime you for parking, WiFi, minibar, etc. Ridiculous.
I was up so I watched a bit of the auction live. The Reverso (lot 54) that I was interested in had a few others interested as well and quickly went past my self-imposed budget. C'est la vie. I didn't stick around to watch the Speedmasters.
What am I missing about why this SM300 only went for 4,500 CHF? https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/omega-seamaster-300-ref-165-024-145-c-f1b4f2b9db with the buyer’s premium that comes out to 5,850 CHF, which seems well below market. The bezel has some discoloration and light cracking it looks like, but nice patina on the markers and hands.
Plus you need to add on the VAT for you country, here in Finland 24%, so it gets expensive very fast. And that SM300 wasn’t really the nicest on the block...
As of today, the AQ site has not released results. https://www.antiquorum.swiss/ the invaluable site is giving conflicting results. Lot 150 for example shows as selling for CHF10,000 but in the details page for the lot, it shows passed. I wonder if AQ is doing a (after-sale) sales drive behind the scenes to boost results
As I was watching live, I noticed that a lot of lots seemed to be being recorded as passed when there appeared to be a floor bid at the opening bid price. To me that suggest either the opening bid didn't meet a set reserve price or, as suggested, a glitch in the software.
Seemed to be a lot of muddied watches in the sale and overall had mixed results. Very strong result for an AP Royal Oak and strong results elsewhere. I don’t think it’s a great indicator of the current state of the watch market because of the inconsistent selection of watches, but that’s just my two cents.
Hard to generalize, but I found the results stronger than expected given what's happened in the global economy in the past week? Was thinking (hoping) that bidders may drop out but the lots I was looking at, the royal oaks, had strong results as @wbfondren said
Most people would expect the vintage market to have some collapse through a downturn but that historically has never been the case. I think in this instance we’ve seen such a dramatic decline that the bottom end of the market will temporarily drop out of the market as they wait for things to improve. But in general, those who are liquid in excess will not slow down. So we might see a brief drop in prices for some models (and certainly a drop with the unrealistic market for the recent ‘hype’ watches), the vintage market as a whole will remain strong. *In my opinion*