Simply going off recent ebay sales, the price for 321 Speedmasters seems to have shifted.

Poor and average examples appear to have increased a touch, but slightly above average and good examples seem to have experienced a significant step up in price. Looking through my watch list, it's full of Speedmasters that have sold in the last couple of months for $1k more than I would expect. Parts, such as bezels have experienced the same.

What seems interesting is that photos appear to make a huge difference. Items that are well described, with numerous high quality photos are fetching the highest price, while occasionally, examples have sold for closer to what I would expect, with a poorer description and fewer, low res photos (although the actual watch is often as nice as those sold for a higher price with a better listing).

Is this a result of a swell in the number of people looking a vintage Speedmasters (and hence their inexperience leads them to pay more for examples with a good description and pics)?

Is it a result of the economy picking up?

Is it Rolex collectors switching to Omega?

Is it simply watch season?

 

Perhaps all the above. Pretty much expected I think.

 

I think there are a few factors:
-The Swiss Franc is abandoning the Euro cap, so the Franc in relation to almost all other currencies is going up. Almost all Swiss products in the near future will be more expensive
-Parts for 321s are notoriously hard to source, and oftentimes must come from Omega themselves. Thus, with prices going up, the 321's that don't need servicing become more valuable while the ones that do need service stay about the same since the future service costs will be very expensive.
-Omega also just had a strategic price bump for their Speedmaster Professionals, $750 per each in the original, handwound series. Usually when there is a price bump for the retail price there are bumps for the entire line, with the highest bump reserved for the rarest examples.

Then again, maybe everyone just went CRAZY and there's no rational reason for the bump.

 

The increase in the price of new Speedmasters is a good point. A few years ago when I first decided I wanted one, I automatically assumed vintage models would either be too rare, too expensive or unsuitable for daily use. I came extremely close to buying a new one.

Then I started doing some research and realised decent vintage examples could be had for less than new, rather than twice the price.

 

I think it is a self fulfilling prophecy that could well be stemming directly from OF.

A couple of years ago the Constellation was the hot item here with many threads covering them and much analysis of all the minutiae to be found regarding them.The prices soon headed north and have subsequently remained there. So it is here that in the last 12 months the flavour of the month has been the Speedmaster and we are now `harvesting` the sown seeds of all this interest and information.

Great for those holding nice specimens, but challenging times for those looking to acquire one.

 

I would greatly prefer that the prices on all of the watches that I find interesting or desirable remain at modest levels but, alas, the market relies on its own logic.

 

Chicken and the egg though.

Are people wandering around the Internet in the knowledge that they want a vintage watch, but unsure about which one. They then stumble across OF and after reading thread after thread about the Speedmaster, decide that's the one for them?

Or is OF acting as an educational tool for those who know they want a vintage Speedmaster but don't have the knowledge or confidence to know what to look for. After hanging around here for a while they go forth and bid strongly on a correct example. Hence good or correct ones sell very strongly but poor ones with incorrect parts stay within their price band?

 

Is it that OF is leading..or is it following a trend? Omega has placed a huge investment on promoting and expanding the speedmaster llines with new old and now new vintage models. the effect of the DSOM and GSOM and as commercial modern watches has also brought attention to the entire line. People, (like me) got an echo of all the marketing of the Omega speedmaster and then followed the lead. to many (like me) that lead me to education and knowledge landing me on the knowledge of the vintage collector and historic value. A year ago none of this was on my radar. I was into IWC (still am) Baume & Mercier, Cartier etc. This forum did give me a great start on that education, but I landed here already looking for info. As they say, the best trick the devil ever played was to make people believe he doesn't exist. The same goes for Great marketing. It makes you think it is totally your idea to shave your head and grow a beard and then color it purple. Or buy a speedy...or an smo300 (notice the CRAZY interest on the watch after the Bond connection). Everyone is posting they BELIEVE the smp300 should be on NATO, but I do not recall a single posting before the pics of Bond on Nato came out of an SMP300 on Nato. I'm not criticizing, I am as much of an easy target as any, but I do remember when some specific couple of people (won't say if here or another forum) made fun of my NATO collections and the fact that I kept using NATO and now are spending $170 a strap because it is absolutely the right thing to do. If marketing and PR didn't work they would not spend millions on it. By the way, look up the trailer of the new TRANSPORTER movie. nice Speedmaster pro placement there in action. We're all like Pinocchio; Puppets on a string.

DAVID, just read your post, I was typing so sorry for echoing your own post

 

I think the vintage and modern markets are completely different, although I do recognise that the prices of the modern watches will exert some influence on a same name model in the vintage market, especially if that modern iteration is deemed ìn`, `hip` or `cool` at the time.

However I think probably the guy dropping 7500 euros on Ebay for a vintage straight lug is not necessarily the same kind of person who walks into an AD and buys a brand new DSOTM off the shelf. It is this that makes me more inclined to believe in the power of a successful forum and the powerful information database it contains within to drive the vintage market more than in the modern marketing machine of Omega.

Being, I´m sure as many here, almost exclusively into vintage watches, the latest marketing hype has never influenced my buying decisions, more likely to turn me off wearing my watch on a NATO than on to the idea.

That is probably a personality trait that has morphed into my general dislike of advertising as I have never enjoyed being told what I should be doing or what I should be liking

 

I can't speak from a position of experience having only been here a short time, but I would say that the common advice given to newbs is to buy the best condition example you can find and afford... these very pages offer reams of examples of what to buy and what not to buy. I think the MWO book has also made it far easier to know what to look for and to cross reference potential buys... obviously speedmaster101 is also an unbeatable resource and available at all times in your pocket.

There might also be a flurry of activity with the looming end of parts availability.. people may be wanting good examples, but also buying up future parts watches before they go up more.

$0.02 CAD

 

Not with logic or reason, but also the Watch Snob seems to recommend a Speedy to every second bod that pings him with an horological dilemma...

 

I would be surprised if a whole market is driven by a Forum, even one as great as this one. He is not the same guy, but may be a guy like me that is driven by marketing into an interest in a brand/style/model and upon digging and getting information in forums such as this and a multitude of articles in the web finds out an appreciation for a particular model. I am impatient so I got a modern Speedy pro hesalite...only a few months later I know I should have waited for a 321 or a pre moon on great condition. Same as the SMP300. maybe I would have gone for it a year ago...now I much rather buy a good vintage specimen that actually earned those markings. I am nor saying forums and collectors don't have an influence, but you already have to have an interest in order to sit and sort though hours/days/months or years of information contained in this forum and other sources like it. I agree that "after the fact" it is the legitimate information and knowledge base that will make them decide that is the way to go but what drives them into it to begin with?

 

While I agree with most of your point, I think Omega is in a very distinct position when it comes to modern and vintage Speedmaster Pros. Because there's such mystique to the Moonwatch people want to know its history, thus driving interest and prices of all historical predecessors.

And you well may have noticed, in the last ten years of so the buzzwords of Analog, Vintage and Mechanical have all been co-opted by the great big marketing machine in the sky.

 

I fell for the Mark II re-issue, but bought a vintage one after doing some research... watches like the mark ii and the FOIS may be gateway watches to the real (vintage) deal...

Edit: and as Sergio mentions, the SMP300

 

exactly. and Yinzerniner is right int that there is also the added quest to find out about the whole moon connection, then the astronauts in space wearing it on spacewalks...then it's in the movies about the space race...then you start seeing it everywhere; then you're caught forever. That's how it happened to me and although I am no expert, nor am I a millionaire dropping money on vintage watches I do consider myself a very legit Hobbyist.

 

Someone will see the new Apollo Snoopy LE and wonder about the 14 second legend, and research it, and learn that 14 seconds measured with a Speedy where fundamental on one of the most amazing accomplishments of survival, daring and sheer balls in modern history; and all in space...and wait, what exactly where they wearing? I have to get me one of those. and once the 57 hits the shelves wait for it, because getting an actual 57 is going to be an orgy of dollars only possible in Arabia Saudi...or Mexico.

 

adding spices to the (already) hot air........
I heard several well known big traders in vintage watch community spice up Speedmaster 321 prices toward 2019, when BIG celebration of moon landing will be held.
I heard they systematically jack up early 321 prices (2915, 2998 & 105) systematically by sucking up all good ones, keep the best and play out the averages in the market. The band wagon effect follow quickly. They have successfully jack up vintage Rolexes price, now they want to do it for Speedmaster..... for good reason. The vintage Rolex collectors are their primary target since they accustomed to high price already.
Again this is only hearsay from my fellow vintage Rolex collector.

 

Best reply I've seen on the forum for some time.

 

Isn't that what "Spectre" is really about?