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Just Back From The Uxbridge Watch Fair...

  1. Mothra Apr 14, 2013

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    And I thought I'd describe the experience in case anyone was thinking of going....

    The Watch Fair takes place in a sports hall, with stalls laid out around the edges and in rows in the middle. The hall is jammed - there are around a hundred stalls, roughly split in have between clocks and watches. The watch sellers are further split, with probably 10 being pocket watch focuses and 15 being 'junk' - watches for £5-£20. The remaining 15 stands probably have stuff that would interest the majority here - a couple of military specialists, a couple of relatively high quality, modern Rolex and Omega specialists and then a whole bunch of mixed vintage stalls. Dablitzer's lady watch selling friend was in her usual space (gold constellation still unsold), the grumpy old man who knows exactly what his watches would fetch on ebay but can't be bothered with fees had a couple of nice (and well priced) IWCs and Longines. The flamboyant European (scarf is omnipresent, but the goatee was new) seems to be stocking up on JLCs - he had three reversos and 5 memovoxes amongst others. His solid gold black dialled pie pan is still there (might have something to do with the fact it's redialled and he wants £1800 for it). Even the father and son team who sold a Seamaster Great White for what I considered to be well under market value last time had returned, but sharpened their act, wanting £3100 for a nice Explorer II. I hadn't noticed the guy with a variety of leather swatches (lizard, croc, etc) who was offering hand made custom straps (www.thevintagewatchstrapcompany.co.uk) before - I had a brief but interesting chat with him. I had a chat with the tool specialists looking for pliers designed to compress a spring bar and lock it into place - they were all happy to chat but no one had any.

    To give a feel for what was there, I noticed 3 flightmasters (one was expensive, and one came with the optional mirror finish case), three Speedmaster Mk IIs (I didn't notice any other of the Mk line this time) countless seamasters and geneves. I only noticed four or five constellations in total - normally it's 3 times that. There was a genuine vintage Heuer Monaco, three or four Rolex Daytonas (a couple looked real, the other not so much) maybe half a dozen Universal Geneve and probably eight to ten zeniths.

    The day would have been a bust for me - I'd brought watches to trade if I came across something I desperately needed, but didn't get really excited by anything - the guy I buy a constellation from every time I go just wasn't there, so I'd picked up a copy of the 'Watches of Knightsbridge' March Auction catalogue along with the hammer prices (some interesting correlation to do there) for £3 - but for the fact I was able to meet Dablitzer there. We had a great chat over tea, showed off the watches we had brought with us, and discussed potential future purchases (or in Alex's case the next few already in transit) . Alex is a really lovely guy -. To drive this home, despite it being his first trip here he knew more of the dealers than I did and was warmly greeted by all of them.

    I wandered home to happily browse my catalogue and wonder if Dablitzer found anything... A worthwhile spend of a morning :)
     
  2. SpikiSpikester @ ΩF Staff Member Apr 14, 2013

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    Sorry I missed you both. We had to take the kids for a day out for a school project. Maybe next time...

    By the way, the guy with the JLC's is bit too full of himself for me to ever want to pursue anything with him ;)
     
  3. Dablitzer Apr 14, 2013

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    Great to meet you too Stuart! :) It was great to chat properly and have a good condensed analysis of which sellers were worth checking out which weren't! I did manage to pick up some things, an Omega strap & buckle for £25, and a connie (not a pie pan) which I will post on here when I have chance to clean it up!

    Elaborating....There was quite a bit of arrogance with the sellers, in particular the guy with the fancy scarf. He had a number of JLC's which were redialled and wanted way too much for them! There was very little movement either, which makes me wonder how they actually ever sell anything at all, guess it was all about strength in numbers...? One of the main things I noticed was the prices/dial case condition. Cases and dials are often ruined by overpolishing "sprucing" which for me ruins their beautiful lines, and dials seemed to suffer much moisure damage, which again makes me worry about the condition of the movements.. Many of the sellers couldn't tell me when the last time their watches were serviced...Which, if you are going to be a serious dealer, I think, is mandatory...

    Anyway, shame we didn't see you Warren, maybe next time?? Stuart, it was a real pleasure and hope to talk shop again soon! ;)
     
  4. Mothra Apr 14, 2013

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    Warren, i don't think there was anything there that will crush you for missing it. Hope the kids had a good day! Mine was running riot at legoland. He'd been misbehaving slightly last weekend - Jo then told him if he didn't improve 'Daddy would be taking him to the watchfair instead'. Despite me not seeing it as much of a threat, suddenly his behaviour was perfect all week...:)