Indeed it is, as suggested by the price and all pre sale reviews, a non original bezel.
There is still a strong demand for 2915's at the right level, even with an incorrect bezel, but as I said at the right price - which I think it around $25,000 to $30,000. I am not talking about watches bought by knowledgeable collectors, who will still pay a lot of money for an attractive correct example, I am talking about first time buyers with balls, who buy a 2915 with some issues, such as corrosion, damaged dial, lacking a bezel. (No judgement - many of us bought our first 2915 deeply flawed, but it taught me a lot). This is the third time AQ has offered this exact watch since 2013. I say exact, each time it has a small change in specification.
The brown 2998 was exactly the quality of watch that I had expected will be hard to sell, in that you need to make a lot of excuses for it, unless the first thing you say about it is that it is cheap. I wonder if there was more than one bidder for it.
The dial is damaged, the bezel is faded - it has the look and feel from the photos of a prepared, or trade watch. The chrono hand is very clean (so replaced or re painted) , the subdial hands are slightly different colour. The bezel is something I would want to check closely - do you see any edge damage? At all? Combined with what may be bleaching, could this be a counterfeit bezel? Something to check or remove from the valuation.
When all is said and done on this 2998 it is attractive, but damaged, and I would enjoy owning it but at a low price. I cannot help but wonder if this watch was bought by a naive buyer, or a first time brown purchaser. Ifeel the flaws on this watch will become more obvious in ownership, and may lead to regret on the price.
The other speedmasters all sold, and this was quite an interesting thing to see - that there are still buyers. In fact the AQ results looked and felt to be on par with previous AQ auctions. They always did have a lot of low estimate sales and passed lots, and so I wonder what we can draw from this. I think they had a much better sale than I imagined they might have, given the situation.
Watches of Knightsbridge are going ahead with their sale and frankly I like the watches and prices in it much more than AQ. Going by the success, (and it was a success make no mistake) of AQ I wonder how it will go for WOK.
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