Great article by Jeff Stein here: http://www.onthedash.com/chasing-the-grails/ (Personal note: Grailium has nothing to do with Unobtainium)
Good read. I understand his explanation for not discussing pricing for each model (not enough data points or too much fluctuation based on condition) but I would have appreciated some more detail on each model: “The most this model has sold for at auction is X, a dealer recently offered one in good condition for Y, and the range one can expect to pay is between A-B.”
I thought about this a lot, and there are a few reasons that I didn't say anything at all about prices. In addition to the reason stated in the posting (very thin market), there is the reality that I don't really follow prices too closely. So doing the research on recent prices for all these different watches would have been time consuming (and not really worth it, in the end). Also, writing in May 2020, even if we had solid data on sales in 2018-2019, I'm not sure where the current market stands, in the midst of this pandemic.
Hi Jeff, great to meet you here on OF. I am big fan of you and OTD. I have bought this one from Paolo B. from Parma some years ago (IMO you know him well). The watch is allready shown in details on OTD. It is the ref. 2447 with the black dial and radium lume, casenumber 66788. So I can refer to your site for the friends who are interested in that earlier Heuer Chronos. Best Hajo
Thanks for the response Jeff, I’m a big fan of OTD and all the work you do, and appreciate that you took the time to explain your rationale. I would assume that for “grails,” even in the midst of this pandemic great examples could fetch top dollar. It seems to me as though less collectable references and watches in mediocre condition are struggling in this environment, but great pieces are still finding buyers.
As others have said it’s a really great article and a nice read. Sadly no grails to show off (yet), but I’ll happily settle for my “next best thing”.