https://www.express.co.uk/life-styl...x-omega-tudor-cartier-baselworld-wristwatches

 

With quotes from our own Chris Mann?

 

Guilty I'm afraid.

Apologies if everything I said was nonsense... an hour on the phone, has produced some interesting soundbites.

 

Not at all . Congrats on the publicity.

 

Well, I guess now is better than later... With every passing year watches, especially good vintage ones, are more expensive...

 

Great comments Chris, providing some balance in the article to the vintage investment frenzy and also focusing on the emotional value of your Speedy as a key aspect for you as a collector. Thrilled to see Time4Apint getting this level of exposure. Congratulations mate.

 

Thanks buddy.

The journalist was really going for the "investment" angle, and I spent an hour dragging him away from that.

I think that's the piece the paper had commissioned though - I've had two or three journo requests for "advice on investing in watches", to which I've tended to respond "Don't. Unless you know what you're doing. And even then... don't".

Seems watches are the new Beanie Babies for the tabloid press...

 

It's like investing in children. You've got to be prepared to have your heart broken. The initial purchase price can be overwhelmed by the upkeep and the eventual worth is highly uncertain; but the love is priceless...

 

Chris, I think you’re a bit too conservative with your advice.
Don’t #1, absolutely correct that a novice should not invest in vintage watches until they know what they are doing.
Don’t #2, Why??

It is a fact that many vintage watch collectors have profited from their knowledge. Warn newcomers, but don’t scare.

Vintage watches are a far cry from Beanie Babies.

 

On number 2, I’m being a little facetious.

In the context of the interview requests, the journalists I’ve spoken to seem to think that buying watches will make you Rich immediately, and contains zero risk... and wanted me to give quotes to that effect.

I don’t collect watches with the primary goal of making money, so don’t really think it would be right to advise people to do that.

 

Late 60’s to early 70’s Seiko

Do research buy the best, little downside. Even if the market tanks they are not going to fall. Plus they are poised to go up.

 

All the journos with the exception of this one, wanted to know which Rolex to buy...

 

I need my wife to read this article, she doesn’t understand I am smartly investing in our future.

 

Yeah yeah your part of the corporate greed machine now... accept your fate

Side note I was fully aware that no journalist you would tell that too would write it as it doesn't make a good story that non watch people would believe. Who would think that possibly the safest investment is in "low end" watches.

 

Spot on!


He asked what watches I owned, I mentioned that I had a couple of cool 1960s Seikos that we’re around £100... no interest.

 

People want to read about big numbers I think. Your Seiko could see a 200-300% increase over the next few years (or months), but this won’t grab the attention.

I wonder how many articles about investments are biased this way. I bet most are.

 

Shhhhhh! It's hard enough now to buy them under the radar.

 

Those photos... wow. If someone came on here posting about his grandfather's watch with photos like that, I'd send him back to take some more.

Then there's selling the idea of collecting watches using a couple of high-priced examples. A bit like selling people on collecting art by pointing out that a lucky investor could have bought Van Gogh's entire output from him for a good meal, during his lifetime. Sure, but there's no way to know in advance which artist's works will increase like that, or which watches.

I wish people would stick to buying watches that they appreciate, instead of watches that they think might appreciate.

 

I'd imagine every vintage watch collector with enough knowledge to avoid buying a franken has profited over the last few years, just as every stock market investor with enough knowledge to avoid a boiler room pump-and-dump operation has profited over the past few years. The test will come when we have a downturn and the froth comes off the market. Then the important knowledge will not be the ability to tell an original watch from a bitsa, but knowing which watch will hold its value -- if any -- and which won't. We all have opinions on that, but I don't think anyone has knowledge.

Watches aren't like beanie babies, but they share some common characteristics, like they are both entirely unnecessary purchases and have little intrinsic practical value. Those tend to be the type of investments that get hammered hardest when the economy hits the buffers.

 

The types of investments that get hammered the hardest are those with the most leverage. High leverage work both ways and when times turn bad, leverage reduces “staying power” and forces a run for a shrinking exit door.

I believe that most vintage watch owners own their collection free of debt.