Jomashop has raised its price again on the Speedmaster Professional Hesalite by another $100 to $4,595 with immediate in stock availability. It wasn't much more than a year ago when the price was more like $3,400. Hard to say how much of this is supply vs. demand, currency fluctuation, speculation that the 1861 will be discontinued, etc., but without a doubt grey market prices for the classic moonwatch have risen much faster than Omega's price increases for this model during the same period of time.

 

GM prices in general have risen for most popular models across a lot of brands like FPJ, AP, Omega, ALS, and Patek. The Rolex scarcity is pushing people to other brands increasing prices on everything.

 

Nice to hear, thanks for reporting that

 

You can buy BNIB Hesalite with full Omega warranty off vendor on OF for $4450, no need to go Jomashop with their warranty at a higher price.. But prices are definitely rising for these models.

 

Agreed. I'm simply reporting the grey market price and Joma is generally a good gauge for that.

 

Agreed.

Rising tide raises all boats. Hell, even the Vacheron Overseas prices have gone up.

 

I bought my Speedmaster FOIS 3 years ago for $3500 off of a seller from rolexforum. Now it's going for $4000 from that seller.

 

Yes the prices are rising but there are still some good offers - on our OF sales corner you can buy brand new for $3890.

 

Yes, and you can reduce your outlay even further if you keep the watch, the manual and the cards, and sell the big box and the accessories on eBay or another auction platform. Love the watch, hate the packaging.

 

@orlis @gbesq Funnily enough you both bought from me this exact model. Thanks again for the smooth deal and I hope you wear it often !

 

I do indeed and you were GREAT to deal with!

 

same here, had it on the wrist yesterday

 

Jeez. I remember peripherally looked at one 2 years ago and 3200-3400 was floated around. To be honest I think that that was a bit low for this quality of a watch, which I don’t get why floated under msrp in the first place. No regrets in passing but I sure do feel bad for folks who were waiting to accumulate funds then have to watch this rising tide.

 

This quote nicely sums up the situation...

"What does all of this mean for watch collectors?
In my view, we can expect increasingly high prices for the top end of the vintage watch market. These increases will be driven in part by the blowing up the prices of a particular vintage watch model at auction, which the leading Swiss watch manufacturers will continue to exploit in their marketing strategies for their new lines.
And contrary to what many people think, it is not the collectors who are the big beneficiaries of this valuation, but rather the manufacturers and their brands; in my opinion, the watch companies are responsible for the increase in prices for top vintage watches, and not the market itself."

It was a good article also discussing the impact of the internet and social media on the value of watches. Hell, I still kick myself when I think back to what I could have been picking up pre-moon Speedmasters for back in the late 1980s... I did buy some Rolex sports models so I can pat myself on the back a little... but the ones I let go.

 

but the discussion is not about vintage, not sure where that quote fits in here. I agree that the high demand for Rolex has helped buoy other brands, especially Omega. I myself seem to enter these things at the wrong time. After 3 years of the Apple Watch gen 1 I decided I would like my first fine Swiss watch...entered Rolex and made some decent choices I feel avoiding the super-hyped pieces and recently felt I am done with Rolex and got my first Omega...now I face the prospect of being on a list again!

 

My brother picked up a Hulk right before the shortage started. We both got AP RO 15400 in early 2017 right after the Rolex shortage started but before it spread to AP. We both lucked out with great timing.

 

Unlikely that you will be on a long waiting list for any Omega model other than the renewed caliber 321 version of the Speedmaster Professional.

 

I thought I had copied the link to the article, I forgot. Here is the link:

https://danhenrywatches.com/blogs/journal/who-is-causing-the-price-explosion-for-high-end-watches

The article explained how the increase in vintage watches increases the price of the modern version and the production of homage versions too, and these increases would also be reflected in the grey or secondary market, as the grey dealers will take advantage of the higher prices being offered by the brands too.

"Watch manufacturers: learning a useful lesson from vintage sales
In my view, taking advantage of the sale of high-profile watches is one of the most effective ways that manufacturers can promote a particular model or brand; it is easy and cheap to get attention for new watches by exploiting high prices paid at auctions."

I only offered as a possible explanation of why we see prices today increasing not only for vintage watches but also more contemporary versions of the watch too, i.e. the Speedmaster. If I am wrong, I'm wrong.

 

So interesting what the watch market has done during the financial world devastation of Covid to most people.

 

Yep. I was in a large local AD yesterday for their annual sale and one of the sales reps said that they sold about 80% of their high-priced stuff in the first hour of the online sale -- close to 500k's worth of merch. So someone's buying.

The sought-after Omega and IWC stuff, including the Seamaster, Seamaster AT and Speedmaster lines, notably, were excluded from the sale.