I've always wondered how much they cost brand new back then, does anyone know?

Plus, given inflation how much would they be now?

Would it be similar to the price of connies/globemasters of today?

Very curious!

 

Well this is interesting. I have two pie pan 168.004 connies. The first one was in 1962 375 CHF. The second one 880 CHF. That's around EUR 752. According to the International Institute of Social History EUR 752 from 1962 would be EUR 4.693 in 2016. Is a 14k connie in 2017 worth eur 4.693? Sadly no. Damn...

 

A seamaster 300 2913 however was a better investment... damn... I dont own one...

 

if your grandfather had invested the 750 CHF in the snp500 index in the 60ties (it stood at 250) he would now have 7500 CHF (it stands at 2500) and you could buy about 5 solid gold connies.

 

A couple of years ago somebody offered me bitcoins for eur 1500.. In december they were worth more then a million...

 

yes, but an index funds is a mirror of the growth of the economy in general (or on average) over a very long time period. so if we compare watches against the economy its better to use something that has been around for decades than something "fresh"

 

The inverse is true too: @gatorcpa would be more than happy to show you advertisements of Bulova watches in the 50s and 60s and the price they go for now on eBay is often cheaper than their initial selling price.

Quality and retail price then, quality and vintage bargain price now.

That doesn't stop people from riding the surge in price for vintage, particularly for those with complications, history, movements, rarity - I could say I own a couple of relatively "rare" watches. For more seasoned collectors though my watches are quite "common" and they're chasing even more elusive models.

An easy one to demonstrate is the W.W.W "Dirty Dozen" watches. The Record and Omega were produced in good quantities (25000 each) so they are relatively easy to obtain and price is consistent. The Grana, which is basically a Certina, only had about 1000-5000 produced so the price on them is just insane, compared to the more favoured IWC/Longines/JLC models.

 

Mine is Ref 168.034 was $140 USD new in Aug 1973