Been busy with loads of things so my vintage omega watch surfing and certainly purchasing has slowed down considerably but have seen very few nice original examples that have been attractive to me. Am I missing a lot or have others noticed this also - at least in 2017.
I for one am happy to hear that MSNWatch haven't had much luck sourcing nice watches this year and I hope the trend continues
I would say it's the same as 2016, which for me anyway means sporadic. Just like buses, nothing for a good while and then a couple of likely targets pop up in a day or two. Whether or not I'm prepaid to pay 2017 prices is another question of course! And just like the rest I'm also secretly kind of a little pleased to hear of your struggles
I have to agree that 2016 and 2017 have been lean for quality Connies. Not due to want of looking but I want sharp lugs and no patina dials. I bought something like 9 watches in the prior 12 months and 1 in the past 18 months. -and the prices have definitely been rising over that period regardless of condition it seems.
Got me a few nice pieces, although i admit I overpaid for every darn one. We'll see If there were any sensible decisions in a year or two... My main focus has been buying parts and completing projects. The second kind of scarcity.
Interesting observation - one that I echoed in the Universal Geneve sub-forum a few months back. I concur with this. As a result, I've found that I'm becoming increasingly comfortable with "projects" that are bought exceedingly cheap but require a lot of work to resurrect. Other than projects, I've paid essentially full freight for any other recent pick-ups.
Follow up on this - 2017 is the first year I haven't purchased a new watch since I got into the vintage omega hobby in 2008. I had far less time to search due to many things I had to attend to but the times I did have not located many pieces that seemed interesting. Love to hear if others have had the same experience.
I broadened my horizon in 2017 and found the best condition watches I own at the best prices I've ever managed to get any watches at. I am happy to know that most of my collection will survive a crash in the market without trouble. However, I find that particularly with Omega, there are longer periods in between the good stuff. One only has to consider most of the eBay offerings coming from Italy, the birthplace of vintage watch collecting, to know that quality is dropping at an alarming rate. I would hazard a guess that a lot of serious collectors are keeping their prizes (the top 1-2% of a given specimen) in their collection, while letting go of subpar watches. A lot of dealer/collectors selling off misrepresented or frankened pieces, cashing in on the growth (buying power and number of buyers) in the market.
I feel the same, what kills me is when a newbie finds a nice watch with nothing horribly wrong with it, most here say its too much and to keep looking.. That to me seems like bad advice since good ones seem far and few between.
