OMEGAMANIA Auction - Which lot is your favorite?

Hey OF! Was digging around the web for info on one of the lots that sold at the Antiquorum OMEGAMANIA auction back in April 2007 and ended up finding the digital catalog that listed all of the 300 lots. So I thought it could be fun to start a thread where members could post a favorite lot from the auction. I'll start and here's a link to the auction lots for your viewing enjoyment:
https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/auctions/geneva-mandarin-oriental-hotel-du-rhone-2007-04-15/lots

Absolute favorite:
Lot 118 - Seamaster White Gold BC 168.0023



Another favorite (because why not post two):
Lot 208 - Speedmaster Alaska III
Wonder if any "Special Agents" showed up to confiscate the sale of this lovely piece of NASA history?

Heads up if you try and just save the photo and repost that it may be too large of a file for OF, so you may need to save down the image.

So many nice stuff it's hard to choose one, or two, of five.

As you may already have guessed, my first pick would be lot #118 for the white gold 168.023. Second pick lot #173 for the white gold 168.009. Third pick I'll go crazy with #78 for the cal 33.3.

There was a lot of shill bidding in the AQ auction and rumors say that Omega themselves have masively helped the prices to climb.
The interest behind was to bring Omega back to memory and into press/media through crazy prices in order to create reputation and demand.
Prices of this auction should not be taken for any comparison or reference - most of them are just unrealistic.
BTW there were wrong descriptions, re-dials without mention, the serial number chart with 2 major errors, etc.

Appreciate the context @mac_omega, I had a feeling there was something circumspect with the realized prices. I kept having to remind myself the auction took place in 2007, as some of the final bid amounts looked like some of the wild 2021 prices.

It’s not an Alaska III

just a dial in a case. A true Franken

no FBI agents needed on this one

Interesting but absurd…



And here is one I wished I owned, very rare…very expensive, but the bracelet is very hard to find



And here is one I think anyone who knows will buy at $7000 if offered, so rare. But at 14k it’s pricey today




Finally a super special skeleton that I will never own unless I find one in a pawn shop - absolutely spectacular example of warchmaking.

Everything too expensive and almost certainly shilled

I should have looked closer at the bezel (Insert palm to face emoji here). A good lesson in looking more closely, thank you for pointing out that it was an imposter.

Agreed on the bid results. I should have stated in my original post that the results looked beyond bloated and that posting about the auction was more a gut reaction to the aesthetics of some of the watches rather than auction result research.

Back in 1989 Antiquorum had their "The Art of Patek Philippe" auction, one of the first themed auctions and a massive success, it really pushed Patek Philippe into the public consciousness. After that there was "The Art of Breguet", " Vacheron Constantin", "Cartier" and eventually Omegamania, all trying to capture the 'lightning in a bottle' phenomenon. All of them had questionable lots and were largely seen by the insiders as marketing collaborations between Antiquorum and the various Houses. Tmes were different back then and they got away with a lot of stuff that would be flagged today. The collector public is wiser and better educated now.

I think you have to be careful how you apply the lens of hindsight.

Every brand had this treatment at some point, and there is no question of Omega's participation, it was a joint-venture. I'm leafing through my catalogue from this auction now. It starts with a letter from the Omega CEO saying that "every watch in the sale" has been "carefully restored by our watchmakers" "using original parts wherever possible".... There were no extracts then. Watches came with a two-year Omega guarantee, clearly designed to attract new vintage buyers to the brand. How often do you go to auction and get an actual guarantee that you can come back on!!?

Most of the prices were reasonable if you consider that the DOW had just reached another all time high (a year later it would drop by 40% with the crash). And don't forget that state-driven capital controls in Hong Kong and Russia were trending up! 😉 Many prices are very reasonable now as different watches go in and out of fashion. That white gold moonphase for 14k, and the Skeleton, and the Alaska III! There are definitely some questionable pieces there, of course, (the orange handed decimal.WTF?).

On the general question of prices, I'm not sure I agree that prices were that bloated. But I would say if you're looking at this from a perspective of investment, you'd have been better off on most pieces to buy the DOW or GOOG or just put it in a equities fund. But then you can't wear that on your wrist or post endless gorgeously artistic photos of it on instagram!!

Times were indeed different. But there are always new 'collectors'. 😁