Pricing / Production Cost of Watches

Hello everybody,

I stumbled upon something that I'd love your view on, simply out of curiosity:

I've been looking for a watch by the German watchmaker Stowa, the Antea 390, for quite a while. I don't want to buy one new but I thought if I could pick up a decent used exemplar I might go for it - have a Verus from them already and I really enjoy it.

Now, the Antea 390 comes with an ETA 2824-2 automatic movement. It's a solid, well-known movement and the only movement the watch is offered with. The regular price would be 1030€.

A couple of weeks ago I found one on eBay that didn't have the see-through case back but an engraving for 10 years of service in a company. Other than that, the watch was brand new, unworn, and came with the guarantee card and original box. I contacted the seller and she was very helpful, but on one of the pictures she send me personally, I noticed it said "Quarz" on the back... That killed the deal for me but I roughly explained to the seller, who has no interests in watches whatsoever, about the difference between an automatic and a quartz movement and why the value will be completely different. We stayed in touch, she contacted Stowa to get more information for selling it eventually and found out that, apparently, it was 400€ new.

The price gap of 630€ - a cut of >60%! - did surprise me. ETA 2824-2s can be bought new for ~200€, according to a quick search on eBay, and I'm sure that's not the price an established company like Stowa pays for them. So where does the price difference come from? Even if I add 400€ for the quartz Antea plus a generous 200€ for the movement, that leaves another 430€ for a regular case back instead of one with a glass - that can't be the reason, surely. So I wondered what else would have to be done in production that explains the price gap, regulating of the movement maybe?

I probably overlook something, so maybe one you might want to hazard an educated guess. Just being curious here.

Thanks for your replies. I‘m aware of those points but didn’t mention them since most them (shipping, building maintenance, design etc) are true for both the ETA and the quartz movement in the watch. The finished product looks identical, except for the case back.

Wages for example might be different thing. When you receive the automatic movement in one, is the assembly of the watch that much more complicated than the fitting of a quartz movement?

(sorry for the double post, didn’t see Dans reply in time)

I wonder in what numbers the quartz ones are actually produced. They are not available officially and in about a year or regularly checking the common market places for watches it’s the first one I could find.

Thanks! I was aware of the dynamic, not of the term. Interesting read.

Or the closely related Snob effect:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snob_effect

We pay more for the word “Automatic” on the dial because we perceive it is “better” than a quartz movement, and more exclusive. It has nothing to do with the actual cost difference. In fact, one could argue that some watches with high-quality quartz movements in them are substantially better than the same watches with a pedestrian automatic movements (e.g., they are more accurate, which is really the most important aspect of a watch).